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Question of the Week: What are the Responsibilities of Designers Today?

Design Tips
Posted by DT
Aug 04, 2008
(2 comments)

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Thanks for visiting and please keep in touch? ~ D.T.

Kenny, a clever chap who is also a chair of his local IDSA student chapter, asked my quite simply “What do you think are the responsibilities of designers today?”

I was just about to rattle off the usual expected blurbs, sustainable design, user friendly design, ergonomics etc. But I stopped my self there.

Designers have the power to convince and communicate if they know how. So why not do much more?

Why can’t designers focus on high level product strategies that encourages consumers to reduce consumption? Why must a new product be launched every 6-8 months? Why even have the need for an “Apple Tax“? Why can’t designers work on product ideas that reduce, reuse and recycle? Why can’t designers focus on making products that fit the needs of users so well that none other can better it or consumers don’t see the need to change or upgrade? Why can’t these products be so well designed that it lasts for years? Why can’t designers focus on using unusual and innovative materials that have low carbon footprints? Why cant we just slow down design?

It’s not so much about the best recycling, cradle to cradle strategies etc. we can find, these strategies are getting its day in the sun through great, abet slow, government legislations.

No, at the end of the day it comes back to the consumer, something we can draw similarities to the poaching of endangered animals. Even if the consumer uses exclusively recycled products but does not reduce his/her consumption, the carbon footprint could be far worst that a consumer that has very Zen like habits.

I’m not a dreamer, but a pragmatic dreamer. The business or economics of product development and selling pretty much cancels out a lot of initiatives and efforts by designers looking to make a difference. Fortunately I believe it can be very profitable if only the business leaders knew how or are willing to rethink their strategies, which unfortunately could be worst than moving mountains.

I really look forward to the day we get a Designer as a CEO. I believe it will happen, as it is only a matter of time. Hey, if no body wants the job I don’t mind doing it!

If you are further interested in my thoughts on Sustainable Behaviors, do check out this interview.




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Comments

JIm Rait
Aug 06, 08 – 6:30 pm

Some provocations that have stimulated me to think ’sustainably’
Vision Needs a Design
Every idea, every vision can only
Be experienced when it is expressed
In form, picture, object, colour, sound,
Word and more.
Design is the coordination of this all
Design is communication in itself
Design is orientation in an increasingly complex world
Design is part of the power to change the world
Design needs a vision
From another perspective
Design is part of the power to change the world
Change gets faster, Design too
Is fast design wasteful
Our fast world desperately needs a vision of what design can do.
Jorg Zintzmeyer.
St Moritz Design Summit
Dec, 2001
and Gerhard Heufler’s thoughts in his book ‘Design Basics’
“The role of design is to respond to peoples’ changing needs with the requisite sensitivity, intelligence and imagination to enable the integration of those needs into the cultural, economic and ecological environment. By fulfilling this role, design can improve the quality of life.”
This means we are not doing ’stuff’ because we can but because there is a real need for it. At a trivial level our waste collectors now spot windowed envelopes in the waste paper and return them to our bin… so we have to cut them out with scissors each time they arrive in the post. It is easier for the sender (no envelope labelling/printing) but annoys the addressee.. we either stuff the whole thing in the ordinary rubbish or waste time cutting and sorting. If design thinking had taken place we would not have the problem. So we need to filter our design ideas and concepts through a sieve that sorts on the basis of Designing for the consumer, sustainability, production and competitiveness..Designing4Excellence without compromise?

DT
Aug 06, 08 – 9:23 pm

Hi Jim,
Thanks for sharing, great thoughts as usual. Please keep in touch!


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