In last week’s post I used the Katrina Furniture Project as an example of good humanitarian design. The Katrina Furniture Project was one of many projects from Art Center College of Design’s initiative Design Matters. The initiative was started in 2001 to explore “social and humanitarian applications of design and responsible business practices”. Mostly in conjunction with major corporations and non-profit groups, students have worked on projects that try and address the biggest problems facing the world today by practicing design in a socially and environmentally responsible way. Rather than trying to solve the big problems in the world like eradicating HIV or designing a universal refugee shelter, Design Matters projects are usually community specific, like a medical clinic in Nepal or a public ad campaign about earthquakes in LA. As I said in last week’s post I believe that community specific is the best way to go about humanitarian design.
I believe that Art Center with its Design Matters program is leading the way in humanitarian and sustainable design in the US, which is already becoming the next big thing in design. As much as I would love for the US to rise on the international scene as a powerhouse in conceptual design, much like The Netherlands has over the past 15 years, I think that that is nearly impossible given that the most important thing in American consumer culture is make it cheap. And if there is no market for it, it will not flourish. Instead America NEEDS to become the leaders in humanitarian and sustainable design if we ever want to get back to where we were in the 1950’s in terms of design innovation. I believe that we can do this. President elect Barack Obama has made it clear that he intends for the US to become a leader in technical innovation to solve the energy and climate crises, which is going to need the innovation of the design community to work. That also means that it is up to designers to be innovative in these fields and it is up to our educational institutions to start emphasizing these fields in their curriculum.
Design Matters is a great example of an educational institution taking charge in helping to solve some of the biggest problems the world has ever seen. I think that RISD ID is taking small but good steps in the direction that Art Center has gone with the addition of Design for Social Entrepreneurship and Service Design to its course offering but it needs to do more if it wants to become a major player like Art Center has become.
I believe that Art Center with its Design Matters program is leading the way in humanitarian and sustainable design in the US, which is already becoming the next big thing in design. As much as I would love for the US to rise on the international scene as a powerhouse in conceptual design, much like The Netherlands has over the past 15 years, I think that that is nearly impossible given that the most important thing in American consumer culture is make it cheap. And if there is no market for it, it will not flourish. Instead America NEEDS to become the leaders in humanitarian and sustainable design if we ever want to get back to where we were in the 1950’s in terms of design innovation. I believe that we can do this. President elect Barack Obama has made it clear that he intends for the US to become a leader in technical innovation to solve the energy and climate crises, which is going to need the innovation of the design community to work. That also means that it is up to designers to be innovative in these fields and it is up to our educational institutions to start emphasizing these fields in their curriculum.
Design Matters is a great example of an educational institution taking charge in helping to solve some of the biggest problems the world has ever seen. I think that RISD ID is taking small but good steps in the direction that Art Center has gone with the addition of Design for Social Entrepreneurship and Service Design to its course offering but it needs to do more if it wants to become a major player like Art Center has become.
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