Why design is important

It is easy to imagine that the value of design is simply as part of the process of generating value through brands and user experiences for consumers.
It seems that the very idea of consuming is becoming something to be reconsidered in the context of, well, …survival really. Not just survival or marmosets of cute, fluffy dolphins. The survival of humans.

Green issues have become centre party political staples, rather than being marginal, slightly loony, end is nigh, sorts of things. Which could be either good news for the greens or a death knell as they become indistinguishable from other parties.

With the shift in attitudes it means that the role of designers is going to be dramatically changed and more important. The spectrum will range from choosing sustainable materials, inventing new solutions (including manufacturing) that consume fewer resources and create less waste. Designers will, in many cases lead the debate: is a project worth embarking upon? Questions of ethics will replace questionable ethics.

I''d like you to read an interesting blog on the subject from the UK. It is important - and worth it.

Comments

Addict-o-matic

A cool resource for you to try. Aggregates search topics from a number of sources. Thanks to Brand DNA (again) for the heads-up.

Johnny Bunko competiton

The Great Johnny Bunko Challenge from DHP on Vimeo . There's a young chap in Indiana, one Alec Quig , who has written to me about creating a career based on a polymathic degree, from which he has recently graduated. He's an interesting young man and his concerns about going forward in life are the anxieties we all face at crossroads in our lives when we are forced to make choices. Dan Pink's latest book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need might help: "From a New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Washington Post bestselling author comes a first-of-its- kind career guide for a new generation of job seekers.There's never been a career guide like it.the fully illustrated story (ingeniously told in Manga form) of a young Everyman just out of college who lands his first job. Johnny Bunko is new to parachute company Boggs Corp., and he stumbles through his early days as a working stiff until a crisis prompts him to find a new job. St

Sexist Advertising and stereotypes

Advertising lives in the short-form world. Because mass media is so expensive the 30 second commercial is conventional and because there is so much clutter simplified signals are essential to 'cut through'. One form of communication short-hand used as a default is the stereotype - "A stereotype can be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image, based on the assumption that there are attributes that members of the "other group" have in common. Stereotypes are sometimes formed by a previous illusory correlation, a false association between two variables that are loosely correlated if correlated at all. Though generally viewed as negative perceptions, stereotypes may be either positive or negative in tone." In the 1950's and 60's when men dominated advertising stereotypical impressions of women as inferior or subservient were not only commonplace but usual. It was normal to show women as housekeepers, largely because most wer

ThoughtSpurs

Search This Blog