A Designer's Call to Arms
We've screwed up. Sustainability is dead. It's time to redesign our future.
by Mike Lin, Vestal Design Atelier LLC
The Present: People, we have a problem.
We have polluted our air, soil, and water and we have exploited every natural resource imaginable, including human labor. We are even changing our global climate. The jury is in. We are royally screwed.
This is not a political statement; it is not about left or right, liberal or conservative. Rather, this is an ethical and a moral obligation to do what is right. We face a challenge to reshape industry, business and culture to ensure for ourselves a healthy and livable future.
Social and environmental activism are not enough. This is a call to action for a new design movement. In short, we have made some serious mistakes. It is time to redesign our future.
The Past: Eco-friendly didn't cut it.
We've been settling for second best for too long—too often "ecological," "green," or "sustainable" products fall short in both function and design.
Despite good intentions, such token products as ineffective natural cleaners, dim compact-fluorescent light bulbs and coarse hemp garments reinforce stereotypes of inferior quality and inconvenience. Mediocre products such as these cause more harm than good; their disappointing functionality and lackluster design alienate the general public and fail to resonate with the broader audience required to effect real, mainstream change. How could these dysfunctional solutions and underwhelming experiences ever inspire a cultural shift? They're a liability to our future.
The Future: A new design movement.
Design grapples with the most important questions of the day. To move forward, we need to forge a new design directive. We need a new philosophy and a new culture.
On the macro-level, we need to inspire a cultural shift in a society so that it not only values economic efficiency, functional simplicity and refinement in form—but also deeper, more substantive values. Imagine a society whose aesthetic sensibility that goes beyond the sleek lines and glossy finishes to encompass social justice and environmental elegance; to shudder in disgust at grotesque design but also grotesque inequity and inefficiency. Imagine transparent, uncorrupted governments with foresight and businesses that aren't just simply driven to maximize shareholder value, but to also maximize value for every living organism. Imagine if success were not only measured in dollars and cents, but also in breaths of fresh air, stretches of clean rivers or clusters of thriving, healthy cities.
On the micro-level, imagine individuals not simply as "consumers" with dollar signs floating over their heads, but as informed and engaged participants in the economy. Imagine individuals who have a connection with their products beyond the on-button. They know where their products came from, how they were made, and where they will go. They might even know how to hack, modify, or (heaven forbid) even fix their products.
Imagine individuals who delight in the knowledge that a product is ethically produced and decomposes as easily as it was created without sacrificing functionality for those traits. Imagine a landscape free of the ills of industry but still benefit from all of humanity's greatest advancements.
This is our future—but it's slipping away. Design is a method of action: We need to learn from our mistakes and create solutions. We need to futureproof our products, our processes, and our built environment to ensure a healthy and livable future.
Next
We are entering into a Prius-equipped, local, organic, Inconvenient Truth era. Consumers are calling for a secure, healthy, and livable future. A hunger for new solutions is growing.
Designers take note, you need to go beyond "sustainable." Sustainability as we know it is dead. Sustainability has become tired, uninspiring, and played out.
Make for yourselves a new name that will replace "sustainability" by going beyond simply using token green materials. Be courageous and challenge yourselves not to use traditional green rhetoric or easy-choice planet imagery to communicate your message. Rather, put your ideas into motion and create new graphics, textiles, media, food, buildings, packaging and products that will forge a new design movement. Consider whole systems and leverage design to inspire the adoption of greater values beyond the status quo. Kindle new ideas that will foster a cultural shift towards transparency, knowledge and engagement. Create daring, provocative works that will speak louder and brighter than "sustainability" ever could.
You are this movement. Answer this call.
On the surface, the goal was to develop a simple low-power LED night light for bathrooms. However, I view design as a vehicle for dialogue. We need to go beyond using green materials and use design to inspire and facilitate deeper conversations about whole systems. This simple piece seeks to go beyond by leading people who use this light to think about the relationships between plants, light, air, water and how we are all tied into systems, big and small. If this subtle message is lost on the user, then at the very least, my hope is that this light brings a little beauty into world.
