How to Design Something Nobody Asked For

A short guide to spotting how decisions are made for the public — without asking us.

Every Olympic cycle, countries unveil opening ceremony outfits meant to represent who they are.

Sometimes they work. Sometimes they become iconic. People recognise themselves in them — or at least expect to.

Sometimes, they trigger a very different reaction — not because of fashion, but because something feels off. The design looks less like a country expressing itself and more like a small group expressing their idea of what the country ought to be.

That's when the debate stops being about clothes.

For many Canadians, the reaction to Canada's Olympic outfits isn't about fabric, colour, or style. It's about a familiar pattern — one that has spread far beyond Olympic ceremonies and into the way institutions increasingly make decisions. The uniforms just made the pattern visible.

Canada is simply the latest example. Plenty of countries have been following the same trend.

Step by step, the pattern reveals itself — and the public barely notices. Here are some of the moves they make.

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Step 1: Decide What Society Should Look Like

Not what it looks like. Or what it would like to look like. But what a small group believes it should look like.

Start with a small circle of decision-makers who are absolutely certain they understand the cultural moment. Select an aesthetic that for them signals modernity, progress, and moral correctness.

If large numbers of ordinary people find it odd, unflattering, or vaguely alienating, that's not failure. Apparently, this is what being ahead of the curve looks like.

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Step 2: Ignore Previous Feedback

Criticism is easily solved through redefinition.

Negative reactions become "engagement". Engagement becomes success. Success justifies doing it again.

Learning from mistakes risks admitting they were mistakes.

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Step 3: Make Decisions Quietly

In theory, national contracts are competitive. In practice, familiarity is comfortable. Relationships persist. Processes become opaque. Outcomes become predictable.

Nobody can quite explain how decisions get made anymore. Everyone involved assures us the decisions were made properly — and in our best interest.

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Step 4: Celebrate National Identity, Manufactured Globally — Values Optional

Wrap the whole thing in the language of national pride. Ensure production happens wherever it's cheapest or most convenient.

The nation becomes a brand, not a place.

Globalisation is unavoidable, of course. Or so we're told. But the symbolism lands perfectly: what's meant to represent us is made abroad, shipped in bulk, unencumbered by the labour standards, environmental rules, or ethics we advertise as part of who we are.

Values are for exports. Production standards abroad? Not our problem.

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Step 5: Exclude the Public from Profiting

The official uniform becomes something citizens are invited to feel proud of — but not necessarily wear. Made abroad, sold at home, priced just out of reach for so many. It’s a symbol they can admire but rarely access.

Profit is a good thing, of course. Taxes too — collected at home, not abroad.

Pride is largely what the decision-makers imagine we'll gain from their choices. In practice, the public gains very little.

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Step 6: Manage the Story

When public reaction doesn't match expectations, the final ingredient is narrative adjustment. The issue isn't that people dislike it. It's that they don't understand it — or so they're told.

Controversy becomes marketing. Disagreement becomes resistance to progress. The conversation moves away from the decision itself and toward the attitudes of those reacting to it.

And just like that, the feedback loop closes.

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The outfits themselves don't matter. They'll be forgotten in a week.

What matters is the pattern — because the same one now shows up everywhere. Policies, institutions, public messaging. Decisions made far from the people they affect — ignoring their opinions, then explained afterward instead of shaped by public priorities beforehand.

The Olympic opening ceremony made it briefly impossible to ignore; representation only works when people see themselves reflected in it.

The uniforms will be gone in a week. The pattern? It will linger… until we get bored of it.