PROJECT
THE FREE MARKET
TOOLS USED
Adobe Creative Suite
Physical Prototyping
ROLE
DESIGNER // RESEARCHER
The Free Market: A Game That Is Definitely Not Rigged is a satirical sliding puzzle board game that exposes the illusion of fairness in capitalist systems. Players race against the clock to solve a 15-tile image puzzle, but a spinner ("the invisible hand") determines whether they wear red or blue glasses. Most people have to wear the red glasses with the way the spinner is designed, putting most at a disadvantaged position despite the free market being widely seen as a fair playing field. The game critiques the narrative that success comes from hard work alone, revealing how systemic advantages are hidden behind the myth of fairness and equal opportunity. Players can keep restarting the game and hope to land on blue in order to have better chances of solving the puzzle, but eventually solving the puzzle will lead them to a question that provokes reflection: was that worth it?
Read the case study below!
The Case Study of The Free Market
DISCOVER
Brainstorm
This project began in response to a prompt to design an “instrument” — something that takes in data and outputs a transformed version of it. I was interested in using this format to engage with systemic issues, specifically the ways capitalism shapes perception and value.
Literature Review
To inform the conceptual foundation of this project, I reviewed literature across three key areas: the structure and logic of capitalism, the nature of ideological change and perception, and the role of speculative design in challenging dominant systems. Together, these readings offered insight into how economic myths are sustained, how belief systems can be reshaped, and how design can function as a critical tool for provoking reflection and reframing what is considered normal.
Reading about capitalism’s foundations helped me understand how many of our current economic beliefs are built on myths. Concepts like the “free market” and the “invisible hand” are often presented as natural or neutral forces, when in reality they are ideological constructs that justify inequality and obscure systemic manipulation. These texts exposed the disconnect between how capitalism is sold to the public and how it actually functions, setting the stage for me to think more critically about the gap between perception and reality.
In exploring The Divine Right of Capital, Rebels Against the Future, and An Immense World, I began thinking more deeply about how ideologies shift over time and how perception is shaped not just by ideas, but by history, resistance, and even biology. These works underscored that systems of thought are not fixed — they are taught, reinforced, and occasionally dismantled. Whether it’s the framing of shareholder primacy, the resistance of Luddites to early industrialization, or the limits of human perception, each reading emphasized how what we accept as truth is often constructed and can be reoriented under the right conditions.
Speculative Everything reinforced the idea that design can challenge assumptions and disrupt dominant narratives. The book validated my interest in using design as a tool for ideological critique and affirmed the value of creating experiences that provoke reflection rather than provide immediate answers. It aligned with my approach to this project by emphasizing that design can be impactful when it encourages people to question what they’ve been taught to accept as normal.
Comp Research
The historical impact of Common Sense by Thomas Paine made me reflect on how even low-technology mediums can become powerful instruments of change. As a pamphlet, it was pivotal in catalyzing the American Revolution by spreading anti-monarchy sentiment in an accessible and persuasive way. This raised questions for me about the effectiveness of written instruments today, especially in our modern-day era of information overload and declining attention spans. This made me wonder whether there are more powerful ways to design instruments of change that don’t rely solely on reading.
The Anti-Monopoly board game made me think about how games could function as powerful instruments of change, and more specifically, how a gamified experience could serve as a fun and immersive way to critique capitalism (or in this case, monopolies). As a board game enthusiast, it resonated with me on a personal level and ultimately sparked the direction I wanted to take for this project.
In parallel with my research, I began exploring 3D anaglyph optical illusions as a way to experiment with perception and sensory distortion. I was inspired by the idea of using visual play to reveal hidden layers of reality — the way something can appear chaotic or unreadable until viewed through the right lens. This tied back to my interest in how beliefs are shaped not just intellectually, but experientially, and led me to start thinking more intentionally about the features and functions my instrument could include. I became increasingly drawn to the idea of changing people’s perceptions through their senses as a way to expose the unseen forces that shape our understanding of the world.
DEFINE
Key Findings
Capitalism Relies on Myth
Through research into foundational and critical economic texts, I learned that dominant concepts like the “free market” and “invisible hand” are not objective truths, but ideological narratives designed to justify inequality and obscure systemic manipulation.
Perception Is Shaped and Can Be Reshaped
Exploring how ideologies have changed across history and how perception is influenced by biological and cultural factors helped me realize that belief systems are not fixed — they are constructed, reinforced, and capable of being dismantled or reframed under the right conditions.
Design Has the Power to Disrupt and Reveal
By studying speculative and critical design, games, and sensory illusions, I saw how design can function as an instrument of ideological critique. Design that engages the senses or invites playful interaction can be especially effective in challenging dominant narratives and revealing hidden realities.
Problem
How might we design an instrument that effectively transforms people's preconceived notions of capitalism?
Goals
1) Create an experience that helps people perceive and question the false ideologies embedded in capitalism
2) Go beyond traditional or text-heavy methods of communication by using innovative, creative, and sensory-driven design
3) Deliver critique through a medium that is engaging, accessible, and thought-provoking without being overly serious or on-the-nose
Scope
Timeline
Semester-long project beginning with intensive research and concept development, followed by prototyping and refinement leading up to Show Day
Budget
Self-funded using accessible, low-cost materials and personal resources
DEVELOP
Prototype
For the first prototype, I created a low-fidelity version of a sliding puzzle using foam core and printed paper tiles. This early build was meant to quickly test two core mechanics: the functionality of the sliding puzzle itself and the effectiveness of the anaglyph illusion when viewed through red glasses.
When putting the red glasses on, the red line on the tiles is very hard to distinguish from the blue lines. With such limited perception, it is much more difficult to solve the sliding puzzle. The idea for this prototype came from combining the mechanics of a sliding puzzle with the visual distortion of anaglyph imagery as part of a larger board game concept. I was interested in using these elements not just for playability, but as metaphors for perception and false realities.
Changes
The Glasses and the Anaglyph
I had found some red sunglasses lying around, which I thought would be perfect to test the visibility of the red circle. I found that the red was not concentrated enough and I ended up having to layer on some red transparent plastic on top to get a better effect. This made me realize that, for my next prototype, I had to acquire some actual anaglyph glasses.
The Sliding Puzzle
While I did my best to make the puzzle tiles exact, the low-fidelity prototype was too imperfect and people had trouble with the sliding mechanic. For the next prototype, I decided that I needed it to be very high quality to avoid problems like this — with the added benefit that a refined high-quality product would deliver the official board game aspect of the project much more effectively.
The Concept
I had the general mechanisms of the game down, but I still needed to build out the rest of the board game. Using these core mechanics of a sliding puzzle and perception-shifting glasses, I needed to build the narrative and concept of the board game in order to properly and effectively showcase my critique of capitalism.
DELIVER
Latest Prototype
With these changes in mind, I finalized the prototype that I would be showing for the final presentation: The Free Market. The finalized board game concept would be a game in which players would try to solve the sliding puzzle before the timer runs out. The difficulty of the puzzle would depend on "The Invisible Hand" — a spinner that determines the color glasses the player would wear.
Show Day
On show day, I had several people try out The Free Market board game, and overall, they were able to follow the instructions and understand the basic mechanics with little guidance. No one landed on the blue sliver of the spinner, meaning everyone played with the red glasses. As expected, no one was able to solve the puzzle before running out of time. This helped reinforce the core message of the game, highlighting how systems can feel fair while being quietly rigged. Some feedback I received suggested refining the metaphor of the “invisible hand,” and moving beyond randomness by designing the game to deliberately benefit specific players. This opened up new ideas for deepening the critique, such as building in structural advantages rather than relying on chance, to more sharply reflect how real-world systems privilege some while disadvantaging others.
Reflection
Reflecting on this project, I found that The Free Market successfully opened up space for conversation about fairness, perception, and the structures we often take for granted. Designing a physical, playful object to critique something as complex as capitalism challenged me to balance clarity with nuance, and humor with meaning. Seeing people engage with the game and struggle to solve the puzzle under unequal conditions affirmed the potential of sensory and interactive design as a tool for ideological critique. Moving forward, I’m interested in refining the game’s mechanics to make the systemic imbalance even more intentional, shifting from randomized unfairness to embedded structural bias.
REFERENCES
Anti-Monopoly. Created by Ralph Anspach, Anti-Monopoly Inc., 1973. (Board game.).
Chang, Ha-Joon. 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism. Bloomsbury Press, 2010.
Dunne, Anthony, and Fiona Raby. Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. MIT Press, 2013.
Kelly, Marjorie. The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2001.
Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. 1776. Edited by Isaac Kramnick, Penguin Classics, 1986.
Sale, Kirkpatrick. Rebels Against the Future: The Luddites and Their War on the Industrial Revolution: Lessons for the Computer Age. Basic Books, 1995.
Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Edited by Edwin Cannan, Modern Library, 1994.
Yong, Ed. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. Random House, 2022.