It’s time to become aware of the power of design
Design used to be the discipline that could solve a problem by producing a new product. However, creating more things, more “posters and toasters”, is not the way to solve the majority of today’s problems. We have already designed a human-centric material world, one that is focused on consumers’ needs and wants. This has caused a lot of the complex social and ecological imbalances we are facing today. How can designers use their skills to address these issues?
In recent years, design has expanded from objects, signs and symbols to services and interactions, to how we engage with our surroundings and other people. But the expansion has gone even further into a macro level, into devising pathways to facilitate transitions and systems. We want to use design methods to address the difficult issues that have no easy answers — transitioning away from fossil resources, aging society, resilience, system thinking, connecting knowledge from different fields, visualising data and finding ways to regenerate ecosystems.
At the same time, design has spread out to a micro level. We are developing materials, molecule chains and DNA codes of certain organisms. This means that designers are engaging in multidisciplinary practices, linking knowledge from different fields: chemistry, physics, social sciences, eco-systemic sciences etc.
The role of the designer has evolved from shape-giver to facilitator, from me to we.
Our power lies in getting people around the table and helping them realise that what they work on individually can actually be connected. We can link seemingly unrelated things together and form something new, something meaningful.
Design is always empathic. We always want to design for an ‘other’ — be they human or other species we share the Earth with. We want to understand and include that other in our decision-making processes. We strive to make things understandable, relatable, concrete, and actionable. Design is a good way of translating theory into practice.
We have a wonderful ability to shape the world and make a difference. But we shouldn’t confuse it with control. We are affecting everything but not controlling everything. A lot of the problems we face today are, in fact, the results of our previous design decisions. Now it’s time to think in more than human-centric frames and become aware of the political agency design has. To rethink how design can be of service, not only to our short-term goals but to future generations as well.
Julia Lohmann
Julia Lohmann is Professor of Practice in Contemporary Design at Aalto University. She investigates and critiques the ethical and material value systems underpinning our relationship with flora and fauna. Julia’s research interests include critical practice and transition-design, bio materials, collaborative making, museums and residencies, embodied cognition and practice as research. As designer in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2013, she established the Department of Seaweed, an interdisciplinary community of practice exploring the marine plant’s potential as a design material.
