CAN

DESIGN

CHANGE

THE

WORLD?

DESIGN

FOR

CHANGE

By Harita Kapur

"There are professions more harmful than design", wrote the godfather of sustainable design, Victor Papanek in 1972,

"but only a few".

Designers create much of what the world sees, wants, buys, uses and experiences.

He accused designers of creating useless, unnecessary and unsafe products; of wastefully propagating product obsolescence; of creating “stuff-lust” that promoted

materialistic lifestyles.

Designers create much of what the world sees, wants, buys, uses and experiences.

At this time of unprecedented environmental, social and economic

crises, should we be creating the deceptions that encourage continuous

consumption or figuring out a way to help counter it?

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) estimates that 75% of UK consumers' carbon emissions come

from the use of products and services.

Also 80% of the environmental impacts of those products and services are determined in the early stages of design.

Though design may be guilty of past malpractice, there's a growing sense that in the new wave focused on

creativity, entrepreneurship, innovation and practical solutions design skills will feature heavily in our toolkit.

Californian design professor and Papanek contemporary, Nathan Shedroff, captured this well when he said: “Design is the problem as well as the solution”.

If environmentalism’s success was in spotlighting sustainability problems to the world, the success of

design will be in helping deliver solutions.

‘Designers have enormous power to influence how we see our world, and how we live our lives,’

David Berman

THE NEW GENERATION OF DESIGNERS HAVE A SIGNIFICANT ROLE TO PLAY BY RETHINKING CYCLES OF PRODUCTION

AND CONSUMPTION

Why, you may also ask, should you turn to a designer, rather than a supply chain manager, factory manager, communications/ad agency or technologist?

Great design makes the heart beat faster, solves tricky problems creatively,

makes weird, new stuff seem normal, makes things cool,

can make lives better and make businesses richer.

Steve Jobs understood this intuitively in stating that “design is the fundamental soul of the human-made creation”,

and great design helped Apple become the wealthiest company there is.

AS DESIGNERS WE ARE ARMED WITH A UNIQUE WAY OF THINKING: INHERENTLY GENERATIVE,

PROACTIVE AND FOCUSED ON CREATING NEW POSSIBILITES FOR THE FUTURE....

OUR PROFESSION PROMISES HOPEWE ARE SKILLED IN THE ABILITY TO CONSTRUCT

AND TO CREATE

THERE IS A GROWING RESPECT WORLDWIDE FOR DESIGN THINKING THAT SUPPORTS

SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

GOOD DESIGN TAKES THE FOLLOWING INTO ACCOUNT

WHAT ARE WE TELLING THE CONSUMER ?

WHAT IS OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT ?

IS IT ENVIORMENTALLY AS GOOD AS IT CAN BE ?

HAVE WE ACHIEVED THE REQUIRED COMMERCIAL OBJECTIVES ?

....AND COMES UP WITH THE OPTIMAL BALANCE OF THESE ELEMENTS

Tanning leather is a toxic endeavor and also quite fatalfor animals, but a new alternative bio-based leather promises

to be more environmentally friendly. Richard Wool, a professor of chemical and biomolecular

engineering at the University of Delaware has been working on aneco-leather alternative made from natural fibers and oils

Floreia’s beautiful line of jewelry and accessories are made from

“Mother earth’s natural scrap materials”- like fallen bark, dead shrubs, and found twigs from the

forest floor, as well as recycled materials

“From Somewhere” designer Orsola de Castro, deigns reusing unwanted stuff and turning the massive amount of waste generated in the fashion industry (essentially, off-cuts) and using that ‘pre-industrial’ material to

create something extraordinary

Designers have the ability to address all the environmental and social challenges that face them

Designer Chiu Chih has transformed the disgusting reality of high pollution levels with this stylish breathing apparatus

Vermont Woods Studios‘s colorful Polywood all-weather outdoor furniture is made from plastic milk jugs and

water bottles

Rachel Santos upcycled bucket purse was crafted from discarded mountain- and road-bike inner tubes,

repurposed D-rings, and cotton for its lining

Scientists have discovered a better way to obtain colored silk from silkworms. By feeding silkworm larvae a modified diet of spray-dyed

mulberry leaves, researchers were able to obtain “intrinsically colored” cocoons without the vast amounts of

water and chemicals associated with the traditional dyeing process.

Textile dyeing is one of the most polluting aspects of the garment industry, demanding mammoth quantities of water for bleaching, washing, and rinsing

DESIGN IS EVERYTHING WE DOIT IS THE PROCESS OF GETTING HAPPY

VISUALLY AND FUNCTIONALLY

Plumen 001 is the world’s first designer energy-saving bulb and all-purpose alternative to the 60W incandescent bulb.

DESIGN TODAY HAS EVOLVED FROM BEING ABOUT THE PRODUCT,

TO BEING MORE ABOUT THE BRAND

IT IS EXPERIENTIAL

Brady WilcoxDesign Director, ducducNYC

So design really does matter, not only in how we shape and order our world, but also in determining our impact on it.

THANK YOU