Books
Cover from Treehugger.com
As it turns out, not every designer thinks sustainability is the biggest issue facing the profession today. The collection of essays in Designers, Visionaries + Other Stories, edited and with introductions by Jonathan Chapman and Nick Gant (Earthscan, London: 2007), drives this issue home. Each writer of these essays tries to address that in order to bring sustainability to the forefront of the design process, designers need to change the perception of sustainability and “sustainable product design” as it is understood today. Why are we responsible for this change in public discourse and action? The editors put it succinctly in the conclusion that because a designer already has the creative ability to “view and understand problems and situations from a particular perspective” the designer is thus “well suited to the emergent context of sustainable design (137)”.
A product designer might be put off by the idea of changing the way the business works, especially in a sustainability context, because it may mean less money and an almost obsolete profession in Industrial Design. What comes as a pleasant surprise in a few of these essays is not just the call for less consumption (which is a key argument in any discussion on the sustainability of design), but a change in the practice and manufacturing of designed goods - without ridding the world of designed goods as a whole. In the essay on sustainability in fashion, Kate Fletcher doesn’t tell readers that fashion is evil and the fashion industry needs to be terminated, but rather that fashion and the need to express our individuality is essential to human nature and should continue. What she does stress is that the industry can lead by example by giving more sustainable options to consumers.
In “The Scenario of a Multi-Local Society”, Enzio Manzini discusses the need for a change in the way we manufacture goods in relation to multi-local societies within a global context. I appreciate this essay the most of the bundle because of the realization that the world is in a globalized market where almost any service and product can be bought and sold at any hour of the day from anywhere in the world, and that because of this globalization, there is a shift within ourselves and a need within our communities to live in localized societies. We are people still living in these local societies and there is a need to foster a sense of community where there is continually less of one. As we outsource ideas and services, we need to keep certain economies local. For example, buying food that is grown locally is more sustainable for our immediate environment and for the local economy in which we live.
Some other essays touch on previously designed “green goods” and the problems inherent in these types of products. Alastair Fuad-Luke’s essay on “Redefining the Purpose of (Sustainable) Design” provides a small history of products that have been previously offered as “alternatives” and how to change the perception of the greening of society as only a passing trend. Probably the least relevant of the articles was Stuart Walker’s “Design Redux” which mainly focuses on repurposed objects as art. He began his essay in a good direction when discussing the need to reduce and reuse before resorting to recycling, but the essay took a turn when he started describing his art objects and why he chose certain frames for certain repurposed pieces.
A quick read, Designers, is a good start and an informative introduction for any designer not familiar with anything other than “green” products for trend and profit. It includes a bit of history and a bit of dreaming for the future. Thankfully, the dreaming is never lofty nor the goals unattainable. The essays are generally refreshing: optimistic with feet planted firmly on the ground.
Design Disasters: Book cover from Amazon.com
A newcomer to the design field might be misled by the title Design Disasters: Great Designers, Fabulous Failures, and Lessons Learned. The scale of the words “disaster,” and “fabulous” may lead one to believe that the failures outlined in the book are notorious enough to be included in the dictionary entry for “failure.” Within the first few pages however, the reader is reminded of something he or she should already know; that failure is highly personal, and that perception of its magnitude changes over time.
From this perspective, the book offers much guidance and inspiration for young designers, including an imperative from Debbie Millman, who describes her failure as settling for “commercial security over artistic freedom” and pushes us to “Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities, don’t compromise, and don’t waste time. Start now.” Although such candid self-assessments and advice are sometimes intimidating, the tone of many essays is upbeat and encouraging, and at times quite funny.
Contributors include a variety of designers, writers, artists, and musicians, who write about “design and failure (and failure by design and failure with design and design failures (made by) designers.)” Readers may recognize the names of some contributors, such as Debbie Millman, Richard Saul Wurman, Stefan Sagmeister, and Marian Bantjes.
Descriptions of failures occurring in childhood, during schooling, in business, and after much recognition and accomplishment all express the same feelings of horror, shame, and the necessity of getting up and trying again. Steven Heller, editor of Core77 writes, “It takes intestinal fortitude not to be devastated by failure and then to do real soul-searching and find the proverbial silver lining.” More than one author describes looking back on their worst failures to find they were actually quite decent and that their best work was not as stellar as they once thought.
The collection of essays, some of which have appeared previously in other publications, alternately give lessons in design and life in general. Design fundamentals such as the notion of iterations, the importance of the model to show failures before they become costly, what to expect when working with clients and deadlines, and the importance of a good design education are covered. Of life in general, the reader is reminded that failure’s sting comes from recognizing yourself in your failures, how getting serious about failure is a way to plan for a career and the future, and how failure makes you grow as a person.
Several authors describe historical failures and put them in a greater context, including the initial failed designs for Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome and the widespread use of synthetic estrogen among pregnant women in the 1950’s, which may or may not have given male baby boomers more feminine traits, influencing the peace and social justice movements and creative explosion of the 1960’s.
The varying authors, tones and topics make for a bumpy ride, especially when reading several essays together. Some pieces are intensely earnest and discuss severely personal matters and tragic outcomes. Other essays are comically anecdotal, give a lighthearted treatment of famous people and failures, or admissions such as “Man, what a piece of crap I just made.” Yet a book of just one of these types would never work, and the essays mesh to address the difficulty of failure, give hope, and a little something to help us laugh at ourselves and carry on.
The reader is left with an understanding that because design is fundamentally about human beings, and designers themselves are human, the profession is set up for failure. In the face of so much ambiguity of what is success and failure, more than one author raises the question of “Why do work at all?” The answer: in the end that is all we can do. What we learn from this collection is that the effort to attempt to make something better, and to keep trying, is inherently decent and worthwhile. That we are just trying to make something of ourselves and may never be satisfied with our work is made a little easier by reading that even a notable, “successful” designer admits that to produce something he must “…bang my head against the wall every which way until something begins to ooze out of the nothingness and surprises me. If one day I ever do finish something that I’m 95 percent or 99 percent satisfied with, I might just throw in the towel and retire to Belize. That would surely kill me. Thankfully, I am still unsettled and happily dissatisfied.”
Written by Graham Pullin and published by MIT press, Design for Disability methodically challenges the conventional role of design (or lack thereof) within the established medical assistive device industry. His outlook for collaboration between the two is positive and perhaps best summarized by his exploration of eyeglasses from a purely assistive device to a modern day fashion accessory.
