My Design Manifesto
“It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wings can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world”- Chaos Theory. Just like this the decisions we make when designing can have detrimental effects on the earth as well as its population. It is time to design with a conscious and take every step of design into consideration, in other words we need to stop producing rubbish, it’s as simple as that. The world does not need wasteful design, design which has no purpose but to full our already overloaded landfills. Our purpose as designers is to improve the living of all organisms, be it improving living conditions or the way things work, our job is to improve not destroy. As designers we have the obligation to create a better world for the people who come after us and the ones after them, and this has to start now! It is time to design with a conscious…
Conscious design is not thinking in a solitary state of mind, only being conscious about the use of harmful materials which will ultimately cause havoc onto our environment, but rather it is taking every step of its design into consideration in order to design in a state of sustainability. The entire products life cycle needs to be considered from the way it is designed, all the way to the implicating of it. Built in obsolesces needs to become a thing of the past, objects need to be built to last and be timeless in such. A good designer will never run out of new innovations to create the next big thing, and so designers should not be worried about consumers losing interest in their work.
Many companies which claim to be green or ecologically conscious, aren’t. Well not through their whole process. Companies I will not name, who have campaigns against animal cruelty and have packaging so pure they claim they are “almost pure enough to eat” (Magazine, 2017) is great, but this isn’t enough. As their products contain harmful preservatives, including parabens and perfumes which are definitely not found that way in nature.
When taking human centred design into consideration and the three phases which follow inspiration, ideation and implementation, (Kit, 2017) it is important to understand that these humans are not the only ones we are designing for, even if that product is solely for them. But when any design comes to life it has impacts on more than just that person but other organisms occupying the same space. There are many other companies as well as designers who do these same things, they promote on the one or two things they do right but neglect what they still have to work on. These are examples of things I believe designers need to change and improve on. This gives me such motivation as a designer as it proves that there is a whole new field of research which needs to be done, new methods of manufacturing need to be created and this proves that designers don’t have a single job of drawing pretty pictures and making them into real objects, but rather as designers we need to take further steps into the manufacturing of these products and make sure that there is no better way to go about it. Our job as a designer does not stop at the end of a project, but I believe that it only ends when that project or object made, is completely disposed of, all while designing in a feasible and viable way. We cannot design products and neglect the impacts they have when they leave our hands, that object has your name all over it and I’m sure that no one wants to be associated with bad environmental impacts or hazardous chemical lichens.
Allan Chochinov a partner of Core 77 and chairperson of the multi-disciplinary MFA in Products of Design graduate program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, wrote a design manifesto which has great relevance to me and I take inspiration from, the name of his manifesto is “1000 Words: A Manifesto for Sustainability in Design”. In this manifesto he gives 10 subheadings where he talks about designers doing their fair share of damage to the world and how designers need to stop producing for landfills (chochinov, 2017). Many of my beliefs are in line with Allan’s views on how designers should work and what has already gone wrong and needs changing in the world of design. Dieter Rams is another designer whom gives me inspiration in the way I create my designs, From the way he says, “good design makes a product useful” to how “good design is aesthetic” each of one of the 10 principles from his manifesto -“10 Principles of Good Design”, is how I would like to design and carry forward my career as a designer. (Rosenfield, 2017)
In the first line of my rational I quote the chaos theory, which I believe can be used side by side with design, saying that a bad design can also have triggered effects on the world which could worsen by adding to it over and over with no long-term solution. My manifesto depicts a butterfly which is the symbol of not only the chaos theory but is also a sign of hope and development, which I hope to see in the world of design. I use green the colour of life, which also stands for youth, and healing, it has even been said that the colour green can help to enhance vision, stability and endurance. Which are all words I would use when describing what needs to be done to create a better world though design. Current design needs further vision and I believe that the future designers of this world are starting to lean towards this and are giving more of an understanding to this which is great, as to be a designer there should be an obligation to design for the future inhibitors of the world and build on the already existing design lenses which I have mentioned.
When looking at any of my designs it is clear to see that I design not only for the products purpose but for the style and look when on display. Why have a product which only serves a single purpose of use, why not rather design with aesthetics and create objects of discussion? I no longer believe that you must sacrifice style for comfort or ease of use, but all this can be done in a feasible, viable environmentally conscious way.
