Design 21: Social Design Network

Dear Communitiy Members!

I would like to start a discussion on the latest David Report that is trying to find out a way to a better consumer behaviour for the future. You can find David Carlson's report here:.

I already reacted on the report in my blog. We could go on discussing it here. I would like to know what others think about the future of consumerism.

Thanks and all the best,

Marco

ROGER, the young designmagazine is preparing its next issue. The title is »Hidden and Sought« and deals with the invisibility of design.

You'll probably know the book of Lucius Burckhardt where he explains his idea of the invisible structures that influence people and are so a kind of design. Also Burckhardt used the term »Design for Conviviality« - design that allows and advances community.

Our non-profit ROGER (I am one of the people behind it) is looking for projects that work with the invisibilty of design - wether it's surveillance cameras, service designs, nanotechnology design... the possibilities are broad! As the seperation of design into disciplines like graphic, industrial or whatever design, action from all fields is welcome!

Kalle Lasn, founder of the famous Adbusters magazine and author of books such as »Culture Jam« and »Design Anarchy« has been awarded with the Cologne Thumper 2007.

The »Cologne Thumper« is the only design award that is issued by students. The list of winners is quite respectable: James Auger, Erik Spiekermann or even John Maeda are amongst the winners. A special issue is that it is only given to the winner if he comes to Cologne and physically receives it.

This year for the first time the students made an exemption to the iron rule, because a close family member of Kalle Lasn got seriously sick. They found a compromise: Kalle Lasn was attending the award night through 4 video messages.

I am really happy that something like this award exists and it's interesting to see that especially responsible design was awarded in the last years. Here's a link to the video messages that Kalle Lasn sent in for the night..

Cologne is the capital of furniture design in Germany - once a year there is a big interior design fair that is only competed by the Salone in Milan. So there's a lot of slick chairs, tables, boards and people in the city at that time. This always quickly leads to a interior design overkill. Especially as the cultural off-event got more and more commercialized.

Now there's something new in town: for the first time there will be Rheindesign - a non-commercial event that is concentrating on design not in aspects of saleability. Rheindesign is supposed to be an event that consists of over 30 projects that are spread all over Cologne.

Alongside the participation of big names like Jean-Marie Massaud or ora-ito, I'm mostly looking forward to the experimental projects that are going on there: for example a concert with washing-mashines on the Neumarkt or the exhibition »From Vandalism to Fandalism« that is organized by students of the Köln International School of Design.

I think this event could really become something social in design: getting out on the streets and involve people in design processes wether it be by provocation, involvement or demonstration. For all those who won't be able to come to Cologne: the ROGER Designmagazine will put up a blog and hopefully report from all of the 30 events. Here's a link to the blog, that will work only in three or four days.

Before I start getting angry again about a marketing campaign that wants to save the world, I'm letting Mark Higginson do this job. His comment on Bono's red product campaign is really excellent and hits the nail on its head.

Picture: cc Marco Siebertz

According to the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel public transport trains, run by BVG, get more and more crowded because BVG even on the most used lines does only employ 6 instead of the usual 8 waggons.

The reason: China's enormous demand for steal swept the world market empty.That causes that manufacturers of steal wheels and axis have to extend delivery dates.

Usually we are used to pictures of scarcity in third or second world countries. But first appearances like this show that we are at the beginning of a footrace for the raw materials that are left on Earth. It's also up to designers to switch to a more responsible material culture. The ingenious designer, artist and scientist Richard Buckminster Fuller understood the problem and acted accordingly already centuries ago. I think he's a good example of what the designer can do to be integrative part of this world.

Picture taken in March 2005 by myself.

Personally I find those design projects interesting that use used materials to produce usable products. Or - in other words: projects that give trash an added value.

This pictures shows a board or shelf that uses stacking boxes that are used in industry and that have standardized measures. I found the picture on the website of Christiane Hoegner, a designer living in Brussels. I am sure there are many many more such projects - a lot for sure also on design schools worldwide.

Using products for as long as possible is often the most sustainable way of usage. So extending their life by inventing a second use makes a lot of sense. I am sure that - sad enough - the best designers in those things are the people living in poor countries that depend on using things that they found in rubbish.

So what we do can already be considered as decadent. But projects like Fernando and Humberto Campana's »Favela Chair« that was inspired »by the ad-hoc shelters which are built out mud, sand, scraps of wood, bricks and stones in the hills and on the fringes of urban expansion around Rio de Janeiro« (or in other words: inspired by the life of the very poor people on our planet) really are unacceptable.

This chair, made »from the same wood used to build the favelas«, that is on sale for $ 2,985, really represents the image of the designer that probably many have and that unfortunately gains more and more truth: the stupid stylist that is creating one and another sofa or chair and who does ...

Again something for sustainabilty I forgot to mention:

Of course the world would be much more »sustainable«, if we would not need to produce so many products. A way to achieve this would be the design of services that attract the user.

For example, if public transportation would offer more comfort and joy, more people would do without their cars. Well - difficult area though. But let's take the drilling machine: the average person probably only uses it ten times a year - for maybe 8 minutes in total.

A well-designed service could offer home worker tools on every corner - probably at the next pizza snack or the supermarket. »Using instead of owning« would be the motto for this.

The picture shows Prof. Birgit Mager who is an expert on the field of Service Design on a conference in Pittsburgh. It was taken by Flickr user simonk. Seems she's also making a joke about the German »Bad Design« (bath design) in this moment. Good shot!

As we were talking recently about sustainability: the Wupptertal Institute developed a system how to calculate whether a product, material or service is sustainable or not. The MIPS (material input per unit of service) puts all energy, raw materials, waste and so on in a calculation in relation to the period of usage.

Very interesting - there's a rather short explanation at Wikipedia. But the Wuppertal Institute also offers a PDF with a list of some materials for download. Because of the transportation factor the values are all geographically related.

At the Köln International School of Design, where I studied, Prof. Horntrich used to give the example of the yogurt cup: the plastic cup is made in Poland, the lid is from Italy, the yogurt from France and the strawberries (if it's not some substitue made of tree rinds) are from Portugal. Everythings is then assembled in Germany. So it's thousands of kilometers the yogurt travels across Europe till it's finally in the shelf of the supermarket. Maybe the countries are not correct - but I think it's a good example for what has all to be considered to rate a product as being sustainable or not.

The factors of humanity not even included! Because then it really gets complicated as there are different parties and interests that have to be considered. Difficult subject!

(Picture taken by Flickr user Christian Watzke)

It’s dangerous enough that people more than 150 years after Charles Darwin start propagating a theory that denies the scientific proven evolution process and rather stays to the words of the bible - of the book Genesis (where god created the world in seven days). But it’s even more annoying that those people, so called »creationists«, claim the term »intelligent design« for their abstruse cause.

So it’s absolutely understandable that last year the members of the St. Moritz Design Summit wrote a letter to George W. Bush (one of the spiritual leaders of a USA that is going more and more neo-conservative and »back to the roots«): »The participants of the St. Moritz Design Summit 2005 don’t want design and designers to be divine and they claim intelligence against such stupidity«, so the tenor. Well done!

On May 30th though, the [Creation Museum] http://www.alrcnewskitchen.com/creationmuseum/index.htm opened in Petersburg, Kentucky. »The Creation Museum is a walk through the Bible using science, geology, biology, astronomy and anthropology to confirm the accuracy of biblical history,« says founder Ken Ham in a press release. »Christians are tired of being beaten down and marginalized in this country. Many are telling us it’s about time we had a place where Christians can stand up and say the Bible is true; its history is true; we can defend it; we have the answers; and we can proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s what this museum is all about.«

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