ThoughtSpurs

One of the issues facing designers is the ethical consideration of sustainability. The choice of materials, the costs and effects of manufacturing processes and the quality of experience by the user are all significant. What ends up in the landfill begins on the drawing board. I was reading an article recently about Ray and Charles Eames, the brilliant American husband and wife design duo that brought us the iconic innovations in furniture, fabrics, multimedia design, domestic architecture and thinking about the role of design itself. Their incredible success with large corporate clients like the IBM, Westinghouse, Boeing and Polaroid, as well as large-scale commissions for the US Government was propelled by the growth of consumerism after WW2. I was struck by a quote from Charles Eames from 1971 “The scary fact is that many of our dreams have come true. We wanted more efficient technology and we got pesticides in our soil. We wanted more cars and television sets and appliances and eac

Robert MacGregor 1937 - 2006 My father died after a short illness on Tuesday. I guess I owe my One & Only philosophy of authentic, eccentric, iconoclasm to him. He was a Scottish migrant to New Zealand but never lost the tensile Glaswegian character that alternated between harshness and sentimentality. I am indebted to him for many things, an independent spirit, an inquiring mind and a willingness to work and give things a go. Not least of all the gift of life itself. I'll miss the cantankerous old bugger.