Design on a Full Stomach

If you're out there making/designing stuff, here are some articles (with excerpts) you might want to read which discuss the excesses of design.

Beware the Backlash: A rising tide of disaffection towards design by Kevin McCullagh (Core 77):

"This rising tide of disaffection [towards design] tends to share two themes: a distaste for the superficiality of design's media-celebrity nexus; and a growing discomfort with design's role in generating 'useless stuff'. These two complementary critiques could be abbreviated as Anti-fluff and Anti-stuff."

"...design, which used to be unknown as a profession, has become a major source of pollution. Encouraged by glossy lifestyle magazines, and marketing departments, it's become a competition to make things as noticeable as possible by means of colour, shape and surprise."

"Chair Wars" by Stephen Bayley (The Observer Magazine):

"Now, too many designers are involved in feckless neophilia, a restless quest for novelty cynically separated from purpose or need."

"No longer is the designer helping to edit dross from the boggling universe of choice, he is contributing to excess."

"How Ikea sold us a Puup" by Deyan Sudjic (The Observer Magazine):

"The argument about the nature of design should not be polarised between style and substance. We need both."

"Van den Puup [designer celebrity character created by Ikea] is a projection of the self-loathing secretly felt by many designers, who half-believe that design is ultimately frivolous, neither a real art nor a genuine science. Design was once called a commercial art, to differentiate it from the genuine article. This built-in inferiority complex may have done something to trigger an overcompensating determination among designers to present themselves as being as worthy as possible."

Philippe Starck by Justin McGuirk (Icon Magazine):

All the above articles talk about Philippe Starck whose contradiction and arrogance makes him such an easy target. My favorite quote is Starck's response to the question of which designers had influenced him: "“I’m sorry? Influenced? Me?”--There must have been someone … in the early days? “Nobodeee! Nobodeee!” Too Funneee.

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Well...in the sphere of indie design, the same oversaturation applies. It's easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of new pillows, chairs, or surface design patterns--and sadly, it's sometimes difficult to discern one designer from the next.

As I'm trying to put together a new line of products (to be released in May), I recognize that I need to be conscious of the issues mentioned in these articles. Perhaps we as crafters and designers need to think more about what we're introducing into the marketplace and not be driven by the urgency to beat another designer to the punch. We need to simply ask ourselves: Are we making a unique contribution to the design world? And do our designs stem from ample personal exploration or solve any problems?

Comments

[Ashley]

What I don't understand about these articles is why they're solitarily aimed at designers? This isn't a problem that originates in design fields- its a nation wide epidemic. America as a nation is guilty of the excess. As designers, you design for the client or customer. It is well known in the profession that your design is only as good as the client. Considering the American people as the clientele, designers have their work cut out for them.