Carlos Simpson is the founder of Politics Design and the creative force behind a wider body of work spanning design, publishing, mentoring, education, art and music.
About Carlos Simpson
Founder of Politics Design
Designer, author, artist, mentor and multidisciplinary founder working across politics, visual culture, human development and public meaning.
Carlos Simpson is a multidisciplinary British designer, author, artist, mentor and creative entrepreneur based in London, United Kingdom. He is the founder of Politics Design, a long-running independent project examining the relationship between design, power, political communication and public symbolism.
His work sits across graphic design, visual culture, education, mentoring, publishing, music and social impact. Across these fields, a consistent concern runs through the work: how creativity can be used to interpret systems, challenge assumptions, communicate meaning and support human development.
Politics Design
The project at the centre of the wider practice
Politics Design was created as a space to investigate how design operates within politics, culture and public life. Through books, visual artefacts, commentary, archive material and political stamp works, Carlos Simpson uses the project to explore how graphic communication can shape authority, identity, persuasion and collective memory.
The project treats design not as decoration but as a political instrument. It asks how typography, image-making, symbolic objects, public messaging and visual systems influence the way societies understand leadership, truth, nationhood and ideological change. In that sense, Politics Design functions as both a publishing platform and a wider design enquiry into the visual language of power.
This focus on political communication sits within a broader concern with visual culture: how public symbols are produced, how authority is staged, how media artefacts circulate, and how design can frame civic meaning. Politics Design therefore acts as both a specific body of work and a lens through which Carlos Simpson’s wider practice can be understood.
Politics Design as method
Politics Design combines research, visual experimentation, publication and commentary. It is both a design project and a way of examining how political meaning is constructed through images, symbols, narrative framing and public communication.
Design beyond aesthetics
The project is grounded in the view that design is not only aesthetic or commercial. It is also cultural, behavioural and political, shaping what people notice, trust, remember and understand about public life.
Archive, book and artefacts
Politics Design exists across multiple forms: the book, the archive website, political stamp works, posters and related editorial material. Together, these elements preserve a broader enquiry into power, identity and political symbolism.
Practice
A practice rooted in design, ethics and public meaning
Carlos Simpson’s broader practice is grounded in the belief that design is not only aesthetic or commercial. It is also cultural, behavioural and political. Design influences what people notice, how they interpret information, what they trust and how institutions present themselves to the public.
That perspective informs Politics Design, but it also extends across his wider work in branding, mentoring, education and authorship. Whether working through a publication, a design system, a mentoring framework or a cultural initiative, his focus remains consistent: to use creative and reflective practice to clarify meaning, strengthen judgement and open up more thoughtful ways of engaging with the world.
Related ventures
BE(YOU)FULL and Sol Solo
Politics Design sits inside a wider ecosystem of independent ventures developed by Carlos Simpson across education, identity, branding, mentoring and public-interest work.
BE(YOU)FULL
Carlos is also the founder of BE(YOU)FULL, an educational and human development initiative later established as BE(YOU)FULL CIC, centred on identity, agency, confidence, decision-making and reflective growth. Through BE(YOU)FULL, he has developed work focused on youth empowerment, education, mentoring, creativity and social responsibility.
The initiative reflects his long-standing interest in how individuals develop self-awareness, judgement and the capacity to act meaningfully in the world. It also extends his commitment to education, emotional intelligence, civic reflection and more human-centred responses to contemporary technological and social pressures.
Sol Solo
Through Sol Solo, Carlos Simpson has explored personal branding as a strategic and reflective practice rather than a purely promotional one. The work focuses on helping individuals and organisations articulate who they are, what they stand for and how they communicate with consistency and integrity.
Sol Solo sits naturally alongside his wider design and mentoring practice, bringing together identity development, narrative clarity, strategic communication and visual positioning.
Leadership and design
Executive mentor, coach, designer and creative director
Executive mentor and coach
Alongside his creative practice, Carlos Simpson works as an executive mentor and coach. He has supported leaders and professionals through mentoring, coaching and reflective development work, with particular interests in leadership, confidence, decision-making, communication, ethics and human-centred growth.
His mentoring work has included professional engagement with organisations and networks such as EMCC UK and the NHS Leadership Academy, and reflects a commitment to reflective practice, ethical standards and professional development within coaching and mentoring.
This part of his work is closely connected to the rest of his practice. Politics, design, leadership and human development are not treated as separate domains, but as interrelated questions about how people think, decide, communicate and exercise responsibility.
Designer and creative director
Carlos Simpson is the founder of Carlos Simpson™ Design Studio, a multidisciplinary design practice through which he has developed branding, visual communication and strategic design work across a range of sectors and clients. His approach combines graphic design, storytelling, systems thinking and cultural analysis, often using design as a way to translate complex ideas into accessible public-facing forms.
This design background is fundamental to Politics Design. The project emerges not from abstract political commentary alone, but from a designer’s way of looking at systems, symbols, media and public communication.
Creative practice
Music, art and authorship
Carlos Simpson’s work also extends into music, visual art and publishing. Through Carlos Simpson™ Music Production, he has released a body of music that explores identity, philosophy, memory, emotion and transformation through sound, songwriting and production.
As a visual artist and author, he has produced work across books, image-based series and interdisciplinary projects, including themes of identity, selfhood, perception, power and the social role of creativity. These parallel practices matter because they reinforce the wider intellectual structure behind Politics Design: an interest in how people make meaning, how symbols operate, and how culture shapes the way reality is understood.
Independent practice
Entrepreneurship and connected ventures
Across Politics Design, BE(YOU)FULL, Sol Solo, the design studio, mentoring work and music production, Carlos Simpson’s practice is defined by an entrepreneurial approach that combines creativity, authorship, strategy, education and social purpose.
Politics Design
A project exploring politics, public symbolism, postage stamp imagery, political communication and the visual language of power through books, archive material and design artefacts.
BE(YOU)FULL
BE(YOU)FULL is a human development and educational initiative, later established as BE(YOU)FULL CIC, focused on identity, agency, youth empowerment, reflective growth, creativity and social change.
Sol Solo
Sol Solo is a personal branding and strategic communication practice helping individuals and organisations develop clarity, narrative coherence and a more intentional public identity.
Carlos Simpson™ Design Studio
Carlos Simpson™ Design Studio is a multidisciplinary design studio bringing together branding, visual communication, strategy, editorial thinking and socio-cultural insight.
Mentoring and leadership work
Mentoring Coaching Solutions is Carlos Simpson’s professional mentoring and coaching practice, centred on leadership development, communication, confidence, ethical practice and reflective decision-making. Through this work, he supports professionals, leaders and developing practitioners through mentoring, coaching and structured reflective practice.
Music and authorship
Through CARLOS SIMPSON Music Production, an independent music label and creative production platform, Carlos Simpson has developed a parallel body of work across music, books, art and interdisciplinary projects concerned with identity, meaning, transformation and human experience.
Contribution
Professional and voluntary contribution
Beyond his commercial and creative work, Carlos has also contributed to mentoring, coaching and wider social initiatives through both professional service and volunteering. His involvement with EMCC-related communities reflects a commitment to ethical mentoring practice, reflective learning, supervision and professional standards within the coaching and mentoring field.
He has also supported organisations and initiatives including Oxfam and the Metropolitan Police, reinforcing a broader commitment to civic contribution, education and public service.
Philosophy
Creativity, responsibility and public meaning
“Design is not just how things look. It is one of the ways we shape how people understand the world.”— Carlos Simpson
Across Politics Design and his wider body of work, Carlos Simpson continues to connect design, authorship, mentoring, education and cultural production through a common purpose: to use creativity with intent, and to treat ideas, symbols and systems as things that can be questioned, redesigned and made more meaningful.
Politics Design FAQ
Questions about the project, the archive, the book and the role of design in politics
Politics Design exists as a book, archive, political stamp series and wider design enquiry into power, identity, public symbolism and political communication. The questions below clarify how the project is structured, why it focuses on postage stamps, and how design can shape the way politics is represented, remembered and understood.
What is Politics Design?
Politics Design is a multidisciplinary project by Carlos Simpson that explores the relationship between politics, graphic design, public symbolism and cultural memory. It operates across several connected forms: a book, a website archive, a political stamp series and a body of visual commentary and design artefacts.
At its core, the project examines how design can frame authority, identity, persuasion and collective perception. Rather than treating design as surface decoration, Politics Design approaches it as a public language through which power, ideology and political change are communicated.
Is Politics Design a book, an archive or a political design project?
It is all three. Politics Design began as a design-led political enquiry and now exists as a wider project that includes the book, the archive and project context, selected political stamp works and related editorial material.
The website therefore does more than promote a publication. It preserves the wider conceptual and visual framework around the work, showing how the book, the archive and the political stamp series connect to one another.
Why does Politics Design focus on postage stamps?
Postage stamps are state-issued public artefacts. They are small in scale, but politically significant because they can condense leadership, ideology, historical memory, national identity and visual authority into a highly controlled public format. They circulate widely, carry symbolic weight and often reflect how a state wants to represent itself.
Politics Design uses the stamp as a lens through which to examine how power is designed, packaged and communicated. In that sense, the stamp becomes more than a collectible object; it becomes a compact site of political storytelling, visual governance and public symbolism.
What political themes and historical moments does Politics Design explore?
The project engages with contemporary political events and broader questions of public communication, including themes connected to Brexit, Europe, the United States, the emergence of Donald Trump, media pressure, propaganda, information overload and the role of visual symbols in political life.
More broadly, Politics Design is interested in how political change is represented through design: how leaders are visualised, how national narratives are staged, how public messages are framed and how symbolic objects such as stamps, posters and graphic interventions participate in wider political culture.
How does design influence politics and public communication?
Design influences politics by shaping how power is seen, how messages are structured and how public meaning is organised. Typography, colour, image hierarchy, symbols, layout and visual framing all affect how political information is received, remembered and emotionally processed.
Politics Design approaches graphic design as an instrument of communication rather than a decorative afterthought. It considers how design can influence trust, frame legitimacy, reinforce identity, guide attention and turn complex political ideas into public-facing symbolic forms.
Who created Politics Design?
Politics Design was created by Carlos Simpson, a London-based multidisciplinary designer, author, artist, mentor and founder whose wider work spans design, education, publishing, mentoring, music and cultural production.
The project reflects his long-standing interest in how design, power, identity and public communication intersect. It also sits alongside other ventures and initiatives across branding, mentoring, human development and creative practice.
Where can I buy the Politics Design book or explore the archive?
The Politics Design book can be accessed through its book and retail listings, while the wider Politics Design project archive offers additional project context, editorial material and supporting references.
Depending on the format or edition you are looking for, the book may also be available through platforms such as Google Play Books, Goodreads and selected third-party retailers linked across the site.
What is the relationship between the book, the website and the political stamp series?
The book presents the central editorial and visual argument of Politics Design. The website functions as the wider archive and project platform, preserving supporting material, contextual framing, selected works and pathways into the broader body of research and design thinking behind the project.
The political stamp series and related design artefacts extend that work into visual practice. Together, the book, the archive and the artefacts form a connected project concerned with political imagery, public symbolism, design authorship and the role of visual communication in contemporary political culture.
Politics Design continues to operate as a book, archive and political design project exploring how public symbols, graphic communication and visual culture shape the way politics is seen, remembered and understood.
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