How Colonialism Has Shaped the Design World And how we should talk about it now. Alice Morgan/Getty Images Design has long been a dialogue of visual ideas, on a scale as small as between two individuals—say, colleagues who have a brainstorming session—or as large as between two cultures through trade and conquest. From today’s perspective, one of the most influential factors on design in the modern era is undoubtedly colonialism, namely that of European nations whose imperialistic rule spread throughout the rest of the world from the 16th to the 19th centuries. “The English mode of ...