OK, so anyone who can read the first page of my site can see that this isn't technically my first post. So, let's just call it the first relevant post and move on...
This blog is meant to be about the things that I see in the world as being important (what an egomaniac, right?!). So, what do I see as important? As this is my first post, I thought it would be useful to layout a little bit about what that might be; set the ground work if you will; paint the picture; fill in the blanks... ahem, anyway, here goes.
As a design student (36 years young) I am constantly in product assessment mode. I can't pick up a fork without thinking "Hmm, is that Polystyrene or Polypropylene?", "Interesting how they used the flashing to create a sharp edge", "oooh! Sink marks, bad design flaw! Or is it?!!" etc...
Sometimes it gets annoying (stop! stop going "Sometimes?!" sarcastically in your head!) As I was saying: For me it can sometimes be annoying, but mostly it is fascinating! Understanding the principles of design and manufacture, materials and aesthetics, costs and marketing, and how all of this "stuff" we use everyday is given so much thought by so many people before it ever even reaches us, just so we can use it for 30 seconds and throw it away - all this is just the most fascinating thing in the world for me. It also provides a very dark and troubling insight into many of the issues we are facing in the world today, but as an aspiring designer, one thing concerns me more than most.
Allow me to elaborate.
Take the disposable fork (please! que rimshot - sorry). My fellow design comrades who may be reading this might be audibly groaning at this point, having just spent 2 months thinking of nothing but plastic cutlery, but bear with me.
Here is an item that provides us with no pleasure, no protection. It offers no intrinsic value or purpose beyond the single, brief use that on average lasts only 3 minutes before it is thrown away. Now there are a number of issues related to this, not least of which is the overfilling of our landfills with single use plastic, but put those aside for a second and think about the sheer effort and enterprise involved in bringing that, literally, disposable experience to you.
The concept begins with the user (sometimes even with disposal), and working backwards moves through monumental logistical movements of international shipping, through to almost unimaginably large scale packaging operations, back to manufacturing processes that rely on millions of pounds worth of machinery and gigawatts of energy and resources, and then back further still to hundreds of man-hours of design and engineering revisions, and finally to the product designer themselves whose job it is to take all of the aforementioned into account (and much more) when conceiving this new, valueless item.
The designer of everyday things must wrestle with a burden of responsibility and calculate considerations galore before bringing their ideas to life; to a degree that no copulating pair of humans hoping to birth a perfect new child into the world ever would. As designers, we are expected to struggle and focus intensely on what is mundane and overlooked to everyone else, while trying to maintain some degree of creativity and aesthetic pride. And for the most part, the designer does so in obscurity.
I challenge you readers to look around your life for anything that has not been designed by human hands at some point. Better yet, look around the room you're in, and name three designers who created any of the items you see. Designers are known for their flair, for their bravado and ego, and yet, most product designers simply make the world quietly function, like unseen elemental gods in a Greek pantheon.
My question then for you, dear reader, is this: If we are the humble gods and goddesses of the material world, shouldn't we be doing a much better job of designing the things in it? If it is our job to take every stage of the design, manufacture, use and disposal life cycle into consideration from the outset, shouldn't Product Designers be expected to create far, far better products than single use plastic forks? I don't mean "Oh plastic forks are beneath us!" more, "Lets come up with something that doesn't wreck the planet, or encourage unfettered consumption".
Just a thought... What do you think?