I don’t think, that graphic design necessarily only exists within a capitalist system. There’s one graphic designer in South Korea, for example, who only focuses on designing school textbooks, improving usability to enhance learning. And our signage system for Chinatown in Bangkok is meant to improve daily (social) life.
I don’t, however, have any problems with capitalism. In fact, here in Thailand sometimes you can rely on commercial companies more than governmental institutions.
Maybe we should put it this way: Graphic design needs a certain prosperity in society. Without this fundament, people care more about earning money for the next meal or a minimum level of education. They don’t have energy left for the nuances of art or design. This is a problem we are still struggling with in Thailand. Vorathit (Tap) Kruavanichkit

The question, whether graphic design can change society, is in itself problematic, because it implies that graphic design is not a part of society. The question doesn’t acknowledge that graphic design is already a part of society, and any changes within graphic design could be a change in society too. If you think of social change only as ecological or political awareness campaigns, you are missing the point. Small changes in newspaper typeface, for example, can reflect social dynamics—this is social interaction. Min Choi

I don’t think graphic designers can change society, but they can change the design of society. Tetsuya Goto

Transparency and change are important notions for my work. As graphic designers, we have the responsibility to be truthful. Sometimes clients come to us with a heroic picture of themselves that they want us wrap a design around. We always try to analyze what is behind that desire and what a client’s real qualities are. We discuss these issues openly with our clients, because we believe that only transparency is viable in the long run.
Change is important to me because visual communication needs to be developed in Thailand. We have to enhance our visual tradition and communicative mindset by applying experiences and knowledge from the U.S. and Europe. Therefore, we always try to push boundaries in our work—we don’t go for the common, safe solution. Vorathit (Tap) Kruavanichkit

Claiming, that graphic design can change society, is too extreme. I do think that graphic design can be a part of social change. It can contribute to better understanding for one. Just think of the devastating flood here in Thailand a couple of years ago. No one really knew what was going on or what had caused this catastrophe. Then a group of designers came up with infographics that creatively illustrated the water levels and the flood paths in the city and how efforts were being taken to handle the situation. This really helped to prevent panic. Some of our designers joined the project too. Vorathit (Tap) Kruavanichkit

I’d like to postulate the possibility to change the society as a broader concept. These days “change” means not as much transformation as before, but as stated earlier, graphic design helps the younger generation to develop a voice in society. Kwangchul Kim

We sometimes state: Clarifying is our business and obscuring is our pleasure. With any given project, you have a mixture of clarity and obscurity—the clarity of principles as opposed to the obscurity of meaning, or the other way around. And we always try to find a risky and inspiring balance, because with this tension you create attention to the content. Min Choi

Generally speaking, collectivism—as the opposite of individualism—is relatively dominant in Korea, which surely comes from historical experiences. It is such a small land with lots of people, so its overpopulation also causes “over-socialization”, a typical Korean mentality. What is clear is that people here care too much about what others think and tend not to go against others’ expectations. The Korean War, a tragedy of the Cold War, also still affects the people. Korean society is still not quite flexible ideologically. Kwangchul Kim

Compromises are an integral part of graphic design, but I wouldn’t use the term “compromise”. Mutual involvement or participation are better descriptions for what I mean. As I said earlier, I don’t see myself as an artist. I’m not so interested in imposing my ideas on things or situations, but in bringing things, ideas, and people together. I don’t want to handcuff anyone. Nevertheless, I want to be taken seriously as a designer and mediator. Tetsuya Goto

I’m very interested in how the concept of design—a phenomenon of western culture and history—could be translated into our culture. What most people in Japan call design is craft or art. The more abstract approach to form artifacts, which is a characteristic of design, is rather new in Japan and other Asian countries.
[…] We have no “western” sense of efficiency. After working some time in Europe, I realized that western people are often driven by logical thinking. They tend to plan the whole (design) working process. And when they reach the planned endpoint, for them, work is completed.
In Japan, we don’t set our goals before we start. Our “briefing culture” is very vague. I would put it this way: We are making things while thinking. We don’t come up with the thought first. We start following a promising path towards a rather vague idea, curious about where it takes us. Along the way, we might already go pass the point that we need to go, but we don’t even realize it. That’s what might look extreme to western people. Japanese people are taught to work thoroughly, deeply. Stopping halfway is not a good thing in our culture. But I have to admit, this makes us not very efficient.
[…] Craftsmanship and detail are important notions in design, architecture, and art. A lot of people would probably also say concept, but in my opinion that’s a self-delusion. I really think that Japanese design is more about composition and refinement. Maybe one could even state that there’s a lack of concept in Japan. I think this has to do with the structure of Japanese society.  
Japan is a highly contextual and hermetic society. Only 2 percent of our population is non-Japanese. Although we have some ethnic particularities, like for example the Ainu in Hokkaido, we basically all look the same and are brought up within the same environment, cherishing the same codes of collectiveness. In daily life we don’t really need to explain ourselves. Mutual context creates easy understanding. It may sound funny to you, but almost everything can be communicated without a smart concept—because within a concept, you don’t need a concept.
But, as I said earlier, Japanese graphic designers are getting more and more curious about the concept of concept. Tetsuya Goto 

Craftsmanship and detail are important notions in design, architecture, and art. A lot of people would probably also say concept, but in my opinion that’s a self-delusion. I really think that Japanese design is more about composition and refinement. Maybe one could even state that there’s a lack of concept in Japan. I think this has to do with the structure of Japanese society.  
Japan is a highly contextual and hermetic society. Only 2 percent of our population is non-Japanese. Although we have some ethnic particularities, like for example the Ainu in Hokkaido, we basically all look the same and are brought up within the same environment, cherishing the same codes of collectiveness. In daily life we don’t really need to explain ourselves. Mutual context creates easy understanding. It may sound funny to you, but almost everything can be communicated without a smart concept—because within a concept, you don’t need a concept.
But, as I said earlier, Japanese graphic designers are getting more and more curious about the concept of concept. Tetsuya Goto

First, I have to say that I have serious doubts about the notion of “creation” in this context. Art and applied art is about mixing and connecting things based on predecessors’ work. Kiyonori Muroga

We like to believe that we have a kind of heritage to cherish—we probably need this idea of tradition for the sake of cultural identity. But honestly, most of the things we know, feel, do, and enjoy are modern inventions. […] For me, the lack of a truly cherishable heritage is not a problem. It’s the obsession with the idea of authenticity that becomes problematic. It can become unhealthy when people start to mythologize our culture and identity. Many Korean designers from the 70’s and 80’s tried this with images, namely with cloud and crane motifs, and by the 90’s, Korean typography was linked with a notion of “the true expression of our language”. In my opinion these are not good approaches to the challenges of modern Korean society, which, in essence, are not so different from those in any other societies, Western or Asian. Min Choi

[…] All those things were destroyed overnight. It is a whole generation’s tragedy. For more than ten years, people were living under pressure. Our parents’ generation lived in times of strong political pressure. They tried to survive or to leave. They had no culture or enjoyment in their daily life.  Su Fei

Maybe it is not appropriate to make this example, but I feel like the period of the Cultural Revolution in China was similar to the Nazi period in Germany. At this time, all traditional Chinese culture and all foreign cultures were banned. Not limited to art, the Cultural Revolution had a huge impact on everyone. Everything was devastating, painful, and void. Prof. Jingren Lu