Intro
A topic that I have been really interested in recently, is cutting out irrelevant design and centring all my projects and design thinking around solving big issues. Throughout out my design journey the past 4 years it's always been around how can design looks aesthetically pleasing to a consumer. None of the projects really served a deep purpose or function. Last year I was interested in the future, and I looked at technology to see how this could pave the way forward, I looked into lots of areas for this such as Smart Cities, Augmented Reality, 3D Printing etc... It was fascinating researching into all of these areas, but there was something in the back of my head, asking why is this the future and what is the purpose of all this technology? I realised that the future is not about new tools and technology that will solve problems and pave the future but it is stripping it back and focusing on humans and changing the way society thinks and their behaviours, this could be through new tools and technology, but at the end of the day it is about understanding humans and designing good, moral choice architecture that society can participate in.
What research and moments triggered this type of thinking?
There was a couple of factors:
1. My grandmother passed away at the start of the year, we were very close. It was also the first time that I have ever lost someone that I loved. It made me really question what life is? What is real happiness? It made me realise that we as humans are not around on this planet for a long time. It made me question when I pass what will I leave behind, what will I remember for, have I lived a life full of happiness and have I left this plant in a better state than it was before I was here. It shocked me but the answers were no for all of the questions that I was asking my self. I don't think I was a bad person I was just a person that was fitting into society and keeping my self to my self. This presented an opportunity in my head to start kicking some ass and trying to solve some big problem in small ways.
2. When I was researching for my dissertation I stumbled into a book called ' Nudge Theory'. This book really opened my eyes and it gave me a light bulb moment. I finally understood that design is a language and communicates to people. The core of society is based on choice architecture. It made me realised that the world we live in I could question how society works, how it function, is it the best way proceeded as a society. I never question options that we were given as a society. I also thought that it as thought through and best for society and the plant. Now I understood that actual choice that we are given are curated and picked for us. These are normal what the business wants us to pick and most of their motive is profit driven and not sustainable driven.
3. D&AD project made me really understand sustainable design thinking. This is when I started researching into disposable plastics and how damaging it was. It also made me fully aware that business and corporations, where turning blind eyes and where not doing anything of a mass market scheme to change people behaviour to solve the problem long term. It really shocked me that no one seemed to care. This project made me very angry and how society works and made me very motivated to try and use design for good.
4. Another last light bulb moment I have had is a book that I have started reading called the "Tipping point", it is about how little things can make a big difference. This had a big impact on my thoughts as I realised that you don't have to solve a big problem at once, a small little difference can have a huge impact. It is very daunting facing some of the worlds biggest problems, this has always put me off thinking about it. But now if you approach it in small little ways, it can start chipping and away and making a difference.
5. I went to a talk late last year, it was given by Jack and Alice. They were two photographers that documented their journey to thought the refugee camp. What I found interesting is that they were young and 'cool'. A lot of the time people dealing with big issues seem to be either very 'hippy', 'uncool' lacks 'style'. It made me aware that you can work on big issues and still be fashionable in society.
6. Pollitt & Partners Talk on "What does it mean to be good?" This was just a really interesting set of talks and discussion that made me aware of how I could practise sustainable design thinking with big issues. There was an idea that doing going was split into 3 categories, the corporate, the activities and the self-centred viewpoint. I decided that I was interested in the corporate as this allowed to effect change in a mass market and have the biggest impact on my skill sets.
Further Research into Sustainable Design Thinking:
1. Architecture is in crisis and sustainable design talk
- Technology has allowed objects throughout society to become SMART.
- Architecture seems to be about, trying to embed as much technology and signature styles, not creating work for design anymore.
- Most designers are restricted by commercial, mass markets and globalisation. This is because our society values are based on economic growth and they neglected socially responsible and the preservation of our plant.
- Nature is a great source of inspiration for geometry, rhythm and light.
- The damage has already been down, it can not be undone. The only way to stop even more damage is to change our behaviour.
- Sustainability demands awareness of the 3 interconnected parts, the environmental, social and economic. The higher of relevant is that if we fail the environment we are doomed.
- To be truly sustainable all 3 systems should be sustainable.
- Sustainable architecture is about taking an integrated holistic approach to the environmental social and economic issues within the project.
- Sustainable is about taking into consideration the whole lifecycle of products.
2. Sustainable Design
- Sustainability in design is not solving problems at the scale needed.
- There are not great solutions at the moment, people seem to be thinking of it as another perfect world this needs to change.
- Sustainability if it's going to happen in the actual world we live in now, so within the existing capital structure, it can only work if you start changing little things within the structure of how society has been built.
- Things that we have to admit is consumed rule capitalism and consumerism and are still the innate superstructure of the green movement all over the world.
- Go to the dark place, don't be so optimistic, this can allow you to analyse the problem in more detail.
- A great way to do successful sustainable design is looking at things in a systematic way, following a lifecycle and analyse each stage and how it could be more efficient.
- We are living in a current myth where we think of emerging technologies that can transform the way we think about ourselves and our stuff but ultimately many are creating even more stuff. Technology is not going to save us, what will save use is changing human behaviour.
3. What Ecology can teach us about sustainable design
- Changing the view of products of not just how we use it, but understanding full product lifecycle allows greater insight on where we can make things more sustainable.
- Product to Organisation viewpoint
- Ecology studies the interaction of organisms and ecosystem in nature. How can we use this thinking to look at what our society?
- An ecologist would never take a single species in isolation and study it. They would take a whole ecosystem into account.
- Need to look at the system of how to deal with waste
- Natural ecosystems you see might be the ones that solve big issues like global warming.
- Don't over think things, understand causes cause the problem and solve it at the start then when the problem has happened.
5. Dissertation on "What is history and theory for sustainable design education?" - http://connected2010.eproceedings.com.au/papers/p72.pdf
6. Principles of Sustainable Design - http://www.designorate.com/principles-of-sustainable-design/
Design Studio embrassing big issues:
1. Futerra - https://www.wearefuterra.com/about/
What I find interesting about this company is how they bring together big corporate retailer and big issues to try and solve problems. There tone of voice with their projects suite the target audience perfectly. They feel contemporary and 'cool', which is quite hard to find the correct tone of the voice on big issues.
2. Sheridan & Co - https://www.sheridanandco.com/news/future-plastic-retail/ - https://www.sheridanandco.com/news/industry-zero-waste-way-forward/
Sheridan & Co is a global retail design agency whose experience, global reach and diverse expertise. Most of their work is corporate, however, they have a really good blog which sums up trends and raises awareness of issues, their last blog post is "The Future of Plastic in Retail".
3. Holition
Holition is a creative studio using future technologies to create intelligent and beautiful digital experience. They use an artistic approach to technology. Their clients are big retailers such as Conde Nast, UNIQLO, Loreal. There creative work they produce is amazing, but I think that they are a really good example of a design studio that also puts aside time to react to big issues. This project below was called Helen Sotey, it was a partnership between Helen & UAL. "The dress is a surface that allowed data visualisation to communicate complex issues and stimulate debate about society and the effect of migration".
Reflection on topic:
I firmly believe that design can be used as a powerful subtle way to stimulate mass change in our society. I think that there is a lot of potential and areas of growth with sustainable design, that can also be very profitable. I understand that you can dream big, but in reality, these changes won't happen, I understand it is more important to pick big issues and certain elements to work on within that issue and try and change something small on a big scale. I understand the change has to fit into systems that our society already has in place and I understand that you can't force change, you have to understand humans needs and wants and then figure out how the change can come about to match it.
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