Design is in crisis: Or, at the very least, in massive transition, exploring and rediscovering its potential during deeply problematic times. The Papanek Symposium 2019, under the theme Real World: Design, Politics, Future, investigates design’s inherent tensions in the context of rising global far-right populism and the asphyxiating manipulation of information in a post-truth era. What potential is there for envisaging alternative political futures, and what role might design, and its politics, have in contributing to those futures? Strands of contemporary design practice proffer a critical, and often apocalyptic and dystopic vision of the future, while others happily conform to a financial system that demands a new consumable product for each and every multifarious context. The stakes for design have never been higher, as its interventions are dispersed across all aspects of the informational, virtual, and material strata that shape our real worlds.