AUTOLOGUE

Phillipe Stark Says Design is Dead

So it must be the truth. 

I have a love/hate relationship with Stark, as I'd guess many designers do. I love some of the things he did with Alessi (Dr. Skud fly-swatter) and some of the more successful items from his short-lived Target collection (like the translucent scale) and the now-ubiquitous Louis Ghost and ERO/S chairs. But he's also the guy we designers love to shit on, calling him a sellout for his collaborations on luxury Vegas hi-rise buildings. The only reason we do that is because everyone knows him and we all kind of dream of being him. He's made some of the most beautiful and iconic design objects in our lifetime and although we may now aspire to different things, the reason we got into this game is because we like pretty things.

I've always hoped to see Stark's name associated with something for the greater good - are we at a turning point? Stark and Social Design? Stark joins the Designers Accord? Or Stark just poops out after 20 years of jet-setting and retires to the south of France...we'll have to wait and see.

Via beitbart.com and nussbaum on design

Designism

So, my One Voice idea has apparently already been coined into a word and a whole DESIGN MOVEMENT by our friends Steven Heller, Milton Glaser, Jessica Helfand and others (you know, the usual suspects). Apparently, designers can hope to enact social change, not just sell products. 

Designism was a conference held by the Art Directors Club in September.  I don't know if any students were asked to speak about their interest in the movement, but that seems like an excellent starting point to generate energy around the idea.

Designism 2.0 December 13, 2007

Bruce Sterling on Futurism, Modernism, and Designers

Bruce Sterling visited us at CCA last night and gave an image-free lecture on designers' role in the new future. He proposed a system of product distribution and recycling that enables users to lease products as long as they are useful to them, and then return them to the producer. Maybe they will then be reused, or recycled.

Always nice to have a visionary in our presence. I think our school could use a visionary. An advisor with no agenda other than to talk about ideas. And more lectures without images. They force you to pay attention to and synthesize what you're hearing. Unless the speaker is really bad, in which case you're left with nothing.

http://viridiandesign.org/