The Five Rules of Design by Sir Michael Bichard
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 01. 9.08
1. Great design can change the world and move people
2. If you think good design is expensive you should look at the real cost of bad design
3. Design, creativity and innovation are essential if we are to meet the global challenges of sustainable development
4. Design is not just about products and communications, it's also increasingly in the services we receive or buy
5. To consume design is a creative act - and everyone can be creative!
Sir Michael Bichard, the author of this list (which does a pretty good job of summarizing why TreeHugger pays attention to sustainable design), is a design fan and former government bureaucrat now helming the UK's Design Council, an organization dedicated to "helping businesses become more successful, public services more efficient and designers more effective," and it comes amidst an interesting debate on the current and near-future state of British design: where does creative industry fit in with the economy and sustainability?
Like many things, it depends on who you ask. Will Hutton, in The Observer, says the glass is half full; "Britain's creative industries are now as important in terms of wealth generation as the financial services industry... There is a golden thread that links the creative energy on...Glastonbury's stages to the creative energy that animates new design."
According to UK Design Week, the glass is half-empty (or more): "The UK's product design industry is over-confident, overpaid and in danger of being left behind', according to [design consultancy firm] Pearson Matthews director Jim Dawton.
"Dawton forecasts that in 2008, 'design education is going to become increasingly irrelevant to the needs of the design business" and that a "small number of good design graduates' will send salaries spiralling unsustainably high.
"'For me, it isn't whether or not we will continue to consume objects, but rather whether the UK product design industry will remain interested enough, or even competitive enough, to design them,' he says."
Designers, UK-based or otherwise, what do you think about this? via ::Core77
British design companies may well be left behind as the emerging markets seek products and designs that are more relevant to their needs.
But as the country that started the Industrial Revolution, I think we have to be responsible for finding ways to fix the problems we helped create!
1. Great design can change the world and move people; neither of which is inherently good.
2. If you think good design is expensive you should look at the real cost of bad design, then amortize the cost of bad design into the cost of well-designed products and you'll see the real cost of all that unnecessary, but cool, stuff.
3. Design, creativity and innovation (along with careful reevaluation of our actual needs) are essential if we are to meet the global challenges of sustainable development.
4. Design is not just about products and communications, it's also increasingly in the services we receive or buy and our desperate attempts to define our self-images.
5. To consume design is a creative act, but still, ultimately, consumptive.
Gary Paudler, Designer.
These 5 points are very good. We are always paying attention to design ideas because Permaculture (Permanent Agriculture) is all about designing for efficiency, sustainability, multi-function, and it often mimics micro ecosystems. Much of the world, farming and food production, housing, clothing and travel, is based on bad design and cheap fuel. On the other hand, we have designed our award winning eco-lodge in Ecuador using permaculture philosophy.
Signed – the Black Sheep Inn
These 5 points are very good. We are always paying attention to design ideas because Permaculture (Permanent Agriculture) is all about designing for efficiency, sustainability, multi-function, and it often mimics micro ecosystems. Much of the world, farming and food production, housing, clothing and travel, is based on bad design and cheap fuel. On the other hand, we have designed our award winning eco-lodge in Ecuador using permaculture philosophy.
Signed – the Black Sheep Inn
1. Great design can change the world and move people; neither of which is inherently good.
2. If you think good design is expensive you should look at the real cost of bad design, then amortize the cost of bad design into the cost of well-designed products and you'll see the real cost of all that unnecessary, but cool, stuff.
3. Design, creativity and innovation (along with careful reevaluation of our actual needs) are essential if we are to meet the global challenges of sustainable development.
4. Design is not just about products and communications, it's also increasingly in the services we receive or buy and our desperate attempts to define our self-images.
5. To consume design is a creative act, but still, ultimately, consumptive.
Gary Paudler, Designer.
hmm...he must have a lot of designer friends.
Basically the design described here and utilized most, because it's cool, is visual design, which can stir emotions in people, but which ultimately is a shallow waste of time, energy, and resources. Function should be lauded first and foremost in design of things that people use. Form can get it's chance through art...
I don't feel that the design argument of form vs. function is relevant any more. In good design, form and function create synergy enabling an appropriate experience or product.
Social ad environmental appropriateness is the key to sustainable design.