Design must be an innovative, highly creative, cross-disciplinary tool responsive to the needs of men. It must be more research-oriented, and we must stop defiling the earth itself with poorly-designed objects and structures.
Interpretation
Design should be innovative and responsive to human needs, while also being mindful of environmental impact.
Victor Papanek emphasizes the importance of design as a tool that is not only innovative and creative but also responsible and research-oriented. He argues that design should cater to human needs and halt the creation of harmful products that damage the environment, highlighting the ethical obligation of designers to consider the consequences of their work on the planet.
In practice
In a presentation on sustainable design principles, one might quote Papanek to emphasize thoughtful design.
We live in a society that penalizes highly creative individuals for their non-conformist autonomy. This makes the teaching of problem solving in design both discouraging and difficult. A...student (has) massive blocks against new ways of thinking, engendered by some 16 years of mis-education.
Design is the patterning and planning of any act toward a desired, foreseeable end... any attempt to separate design, to make it a thing-by-itself works, counter to the fact that design is the primary underlying matrix of life.
There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a few.
The only important thing about design is how it relates to people.
Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
Throughout this book, we've been evangelizing simplicity, but ironically, the practice of simplicity is not simple. It is easy to build a bulky design by adding layer upon layer of navigation and features; it's much more difficult to create simple, graceful designs. Paring designs to essential elements while maintaining elegance and functionality requires courage and discipline.
Form must never trump function. Some objects are made to look so smooth, you don't know where to pick them up or how to turn them on. If I'm designing a garlic press or cheese grater, I need my hand to fit comfortably on it. I like to know, instinctively, how to use it.
Design cannot rescue failed content.
I am passionate about what design can do - how far it can support the new ideas and the new ways of living of this 21st Century. Good design accelerates this exciting future where manufacturing is local, materials and processes are cradle to cradle, business models are both socially and financially driven.
Design needs to be plugged into human behavior. Design dissolves in behavior.
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