Oliver Vodeb

Dr Oliver Vodeb is an internationally respected academic recognized for his work in design for social justice, decolonising knowledge and the public sphere. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Ljubljana. Known for his inter/extradisciplinary approach, Vodeb integrates design, sociology, and communication to foster social change. His research is inter/extra-disciplinary and praxis based.

Dr Vodeb has beein invited to lecture and lead design workshops at universities around the world. He has been appointed as a visiting research professor at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (2024/25).

Dr Vodeb has published extensively in academic journals and book publications is the author of several well-regarded books, including Socially Responsive Communication, Food Democracy, Radical Intimacies, and What is Post-Branding? As the founder of Memefest, a global network, platform and festival for radical design, he has advanced global dialogues on socially transformative design practices since 2002.

Vodeb’s research and practice challenge traditional design frameworks, advocating for ethical, collaborative methodologies that promote equitable and sustainable futures. His work extends beyond academia through public campaigns and interventions, which he implemented in various parts of the world. His integrated approach to research, teaching, and engagement promotes a collaborative response to key design challenges, supporting social equity, planetary civics, and responsible practice. Dr Vodeb actively engages with social movements, including Indigenous and Black communities, as well as with innovative design and communication professionals and academics, to develop projects that create real-world impact and inclusive sustainable futures through inter/extradisciplinary design practice.

Vodeb has together with Memefest colleagues colleagues, developed a unique extradisciplinary method positioning design as a radical research practice operating at the nextus between university, progressive profesionals and social movements. Vodeb led extradisciplinary Memefest workshops, and public interventions in Ljubljana, Nijmegen, Brisbane, Belgrade, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Sao Paulo, Havana, Manizales, Dubai, Baltimore and Saigon.

His work has gained high international recognition from academics, critics, leading professionals and community leaders: 

Colombian design anthropologist and author of Designs for the Pluriverse states: "I do not hesitate to describe Dr. Vodeb as one of a handful of pioneering and avant-garde researchers giving birth to a systemic reconceptualization of both dominant theoretical frameworks and concrete socially engaged design practices of transformation in the face of the planetary crisis and the crisis of liberal humanism." 

Design critic Rick Poynor states about his book What is Postbranding? (Grant, Vodeb 2023): "An uncompromising handbook of theory and action … This visually inventive pocketbook is a vital manual of resistance to the manipulative fundamentalism of the contemporary marketplace. Every graphic designer with a conscience should read it, weigh up its findings, heed its call to rethink, and find ways to apply its life-affirming insights."

Servant director of Black Yield Institute, Baltimore: "Oliver Vodeb is a leader who understands what is needed for the investment in the next generation of scholars, activists, and justice workers."

Mike Townsley, Communications Director, Greenpeace International states: "As we grapple with the concepts and tools of 21st century communications, What is Post-Branding? arrives as a key to the crisis of imagination in which it seems easier to imagine the end of nature than the fundamental system and technological changes needed to shift onto a path of real sustainability. It invites a bright future of infinite potential built on collaborative communcations as an antidote to corporate competition’s bleak zero sum branding game."