We need to be more critical.
If design really is important, and I think it is, then we need to criticise it more. Paolo Antonelli, top dog design/architecture curator and head of R&D at MoMA in NYC, says this:
“Knowledge of design is very, very important. It’s so empowering to people. To me it’s almost outrageous that there are no design critics in major publications. There’s only one … Alice Rawsthorn at the International Herald Tribune, but she’s the only one that really sits as design critic. Otherwise, nothing. You have critics for perfume; you have critics for dance. It’s time to understand that design is not only style; it’s not only decoration; it’s part of our lives. It touches every single aspect of our lives, including the moral sphere, and tremendously so. It’s just necessary to spread that knowledge. I think it’s time that publications just get with it.”¹
Why are there movie critics? Food critics? Why do people read them? So they can make well informed decisions. So they can spend their money on the right things. People can read the opinions of those whose job it is to have opinions and know whether they should fork out to see Captain America 3 (you should- it’s epic), or eat at latest Italian restaurant that’s popped up around the corner. The same should happen for design! Papers should have columns dedicated to it. There’s no shortage of products coming out.
There are pages dedicated to new products, but they’re all essentially marketing pieces. It almost happens for phones and some technology, certainly online and in specialist magazines. But it needs to happen in the mainstream, in the papers everyone reads. Because design is for everyone, whether they like it or not.
Good design critique is especially important as we are at a stage now where there is so much ‘design’. So much is masquerading itself as a good and useful product. The money and marketing machines are making people buy terrible and pointless products. Things they don’t need. And so we should call that out, not let rubbish products get by.
Marc Newson also thinks we need more design critics:
“I wish people would be more critical of design and designers and the people responsible for some of the nasty stuff. Of course, we can blame consumers ultimately, but I don’t really think they’re responsible. Everyone is nervous about saying the right thing, me included. I think that’s something I’d like to see: a critique, a professional free-for-all. That would be really fun.”²
He seems to be talking more about designers critiscising each others work, not being scared of telling it how it is. There is nasty stuff as Newson says and it doesn’t have to be ok! We don’t have to accept it! Providing better options to bad design is one thing, but we also need to help each other realise bad design when we see it. We often blame frustrations we have with products not working and things going wrong on ourselves, but really the designers are responsible. If you are finding something hard to use it might be because the designer is incompetent, not you. And so we need to find bad design and bring it under the spotlight.
So I think more critique, while sounding negative, would actually be a positive thing for the design world and for consumers. It will help us seperate the wheat from the chaff, and hopefully stop companies getting away with this idea that sticking ‘design’ on the label makes a pointless, useless product ok. Or at least persuade consumers to stop buying it even if it continues. And also constructive criticism will allow us to work together to create the best products. When we realise problems and flaws we can eliminate them. And the end result will be better products.
- Paola Antonelli. Helvetica / Objectified / Urbanized: The Complete Interviews, edited by Gary Hustwit
- Marc Newson. Helvetica / Objectified / Urbanized: The Complete Interviews, edited by Gary Hustwit
