New Designers Show

New Designers Show – 18 July 2008

I went to the New Designers not really knowing what to expect. At first, I was impressed. Designers were considering their audience, inventing new interfaces, making products more user-friendly. There was return to tactile control and interaction. Some projects focused on using their product to create an experience.

But the more I saw, the more I realized that there weren’t many designers working with sustainability in mind. There were a few cool projects addressing global issues – access to drinking water and waste management. There was one close to home looking at Beehive design - I appreciated this as on Cape Cod (MA), many beehives are experiencing Colony Collapse Disorder . Without bees, flowers and crops go unfertilized, food chains are disrupted. Basically it's just bad news. On the other hand, I also saw at least four different designs for deodorant. frankly, I'd rather have my flowers alive and smelling good (no offense to those designers who put a lot of time and effort into creating their deodorant designs).

After a few hours of walking around and talking with designers, I came to the conclusion that most of the designing aimed to satisfying wants rather than needs. It solved trivial problems and was designed for middle class and up. Now don’t get me wrong, there was a spectacular spread of solid 'design', but most of their definitions of design lacked environmental or social concerns. This disappointed greatly. I had done previous interviews and remembered that two people I already interviewed had gone to the Milan furniture design show and been disappointed in the lack of sustainable design.

I guess this proved to be my Milan furniture design show. Fresh with new design ideas, but slightly less hopeful about the planets future, I left the show.