Design must lead
In his first column, DIA president elect Gavin Campbell reminds us of the importance of good design in a time of great change.
In December 1976, the much-admired German designer Dieter Rams gave a speech in New York. “I am convinced,” he told the crowd, “that a well thought out design is decisive to the quality of a product. A poorly designed product is not only uglier than a well designed one but it is of less value and use. Worst of all, it might be intrusive.”
Rams was consumed by the question of what makes a good design. In his effort to create some structural scaffolding around the creative process, he came up with his now famous ten commandments. Among other things, good design must be innovative, useful, long-lasting and environmentally friendly, and as little design as possible.
Fifty years later – in a world totally unimaginable to anyone living through the seventies – Rams’ ten commandments are more relevant than ever. In fact, in an era of environmental, cultural and social responsibility, many of today’s leading designers say they feel considerably more pressure to adhere to the principles of good design.
Today’s designers face a new set of challenges. They must understand how materials are sourced and how much waste society now creates. They need to design with longevity in mind. Products can, and must, last longer. They should be reusable and recyclable. A designer must now feel the weight of their responsibility towards the environment. The future of design depends on respect for resources.
But to evaluate good design, we should better understand what constitutes bad design. The British design critic and writer Alice Rawsthorn, during her 2019 Design Indaba presentation, outlined seven pillars of bad design to quantify the success or failure of a design. “I’ve always found it odd that design is typically discussed in terms of good design when, in reality, most design projects are deeply mediocre. Many are downright bad. Bad design has just as much, if not more, of an impact on our lives than the good variety, and repairing the damage it causes can be incredibly costly in terms of money, time, energy, reputation, and other resources,” she said.
Rawsthorn listed the worst offenders as useless design, pointless design, irresponsible design, unreliable design, dangerous design, and the worst gong of all – what were they thinking? She suggests that trying to pinpoint and understand what makes bad design is an excellent tool for learning. It not only helps designers work harder and smarter, but just as importantly, encourages consumers to reject the kinds of designs that are deviant, useless, annoying or downright dangerous.
Rawsthorn’s pillars have also given us a new system of measurement – ironically, a negative perspective – which, when applied to design, can add a vital and necessary layer of considered process and quality control to design development.
The Austrian designer and educator Victor Papanek promoted a socially and ecologically oriented approach to design. His 1971 book Design for the Real World is still one of the most widely read design books today. “Much recent design has satisfied only evanescent wants and desires, while the genuine needs of man have often been neglected by the designer.
By creating a whole new species of permanent garbage to clutter up the landscape, and by choosing materials and processes that pollute the air we breathe, designers have become a dangerous breed,” he wrote. His incisive commentary was made well before the issues we face today became so urgent.
In 1994, Ray Anderson, the founder and chairman of Interface Inc., one of the world’s largest manufacturers of modular carpet, realized that his company’s business action was harming the environment. He vowed, through the redesign of processes and products, to eliminate any negative impact his company might have on the environment by the year 2020. He pioneered new technologies and committed to increased efforts to reduce or eliminate waste and harmful emissions. “Do you see,” he said in 2005, “it is all a design problem? For designers, here’s the crux of my message: It is very important to the future of human-kind that any of you in design form a very clear understanding of ‘ethical design’ – design for sustainability and commit to it for a lifetime.”
We have all been taught good design. We have honed and refined our design skills and tools over time. Today’s designers like to think they know good design from bad. While there is a creative and aesthetic element to design, we must understand the cultural, ethical, social, economic and ecological impacts of our profession. Designers have the power to influence society both positively and negatively.
As a global community, the issues we face are not new. They have been debated for decades. Our responsibility as designers is to lead. To innovate, question and advocate. To push back and not accept the status quo. To be daring.
We must deal with our surroundings more consciously and more responsibly and exercise more care about where and how we live, because the twenty-first century brings with it an even more certain guarantee: change.