Contemporary influences on design practice

Contemporary influences on mark practiceThere are vocations more defamatory than industrial concept, solely only a very fewby creating whole new species of permanent garbage to clutter up the landscape,and by choosing materials and processes that pollute the air we breath, figureers deplete become a dangerous breedIn this age of mass overlapion when everything must be planned and patterned,design has become the most right on shaft with which manshapes his tools and environments (and, by extension, society and himself).This demands high social and moral responsibility from the designer.Victor Papanek (1985) propose for sustainability is part of the bigger picture of sustainable organic evolution, a subject which hasreceived considerable media attention in recent years due to a range of world wide crises which have manifested themselves as political problems climate change, famine, disease and poverty.The evolution of sustainabilityIs been described as a series of three waves , with peaks and troughs of activity, that contribute to the momentum we see today (SustainAbility, 2006).The first wave occurred in the 1960s and 1970s with the birth of the Green Movement and the rise of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), such(prenominal) as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, which focused on driving change via government activity policy andregulation.The second wave occurred in the 1980s, set off by a range of economic crises (brought on by the collapse of the Berlin Wall) and environmental catastrophes (from Bhopal to Chernobyl) which prompted a range of legislation and environmental, healthy and safety standards. At this time NGOs used a number of high profile business transgressions to catalyse public fence and drive regulatory and market responses. The concepts of auditing, stateing and engagement within business entered the mainstream(SustainAbility, 2006).The new millennium saw the start of the third wave of sustainability. Unrest in the Middle Eas t andelsewhere had led to a growth in anti-globalisation, often in the guise of anti-Americanism. The first World Social Forum, organised in opposition to the World Economic Forum brought together activists and NGOs from nearly the world, campaigning on issues such as trade justice and debt, andincreasingly united on issues of water scarcity and exploitation. In the wake of another set of highprofile business fiascos such as the Enron debacle, corporate governance and liability became a hotissue for top management and for financial markets. Meanwhile, businesses started to explore newpartnerships with NGOs, for example Greenpeace and Shell shared a plat discrepancy at the Johannesburg Summit, also Greenpeace create a joint venture with Innogy to create the Juice repeal power brand, which recently began to feed power generated by a huge offshore wind farm into the national grid(SustainAbility, 2006).Since the late 1960s when Victor Papanek (1971) first blamed the design profession for creatingwasteful crops and customer dissatisfaction, there has been a ontogeny feeling in many environmental circles that design and manufacture is responsible for many of the man-made stresses imposed on the planet. A fact that is well illustrated by the fact 80 % of products are discarded after a single use and 99 % of materials used are discarded in the first six-spot weeks (Shot in the Dark, 2000). Though this crook isexpected to start to change with the introduction of new product focused environmental legislation, the fact still remains that mainstream product design draws on scarce resources to create and power products which often have little or no consideration for impact on society and the environment. delimit Industrial digitThroughout the nineteenth century, the term designer was vague and ambiguous, referring to a wide range of occupations fine artists, architects, craftsmen, engineers and inventors (Sparke, 1983). By the twentieth century the profession of de sign had developed into Industrial practice as we know it today, existing in design teams and governed by management structure (Sparke, 1983).Within industry, industrial designers tend to all work in-house, as a function of a larger organisation or as independent design consultants within a design consultancy that service a garland of different clients (Lofthouse, 2001). Within both of these capacities industrial designers can be involved in the design and development of both consumer and industrial goods (Lofthouse, 2001). This report focuses on consumer products. Within this sector, industrial designers can serve a wide range of industries such as pharmaceuticals, packaging, and electrical and electronic domestic products, as such their outputs can vary enormously in terms of their nature and complexity.Design for Sustainability EmergesThe concept of design for sustainability first emerged in the 1960s when Packard (1963) Papanek (1971) Bonsiepe (1973) and Schumacher (1973) beg an to criticise modern and unsustainable development andsuggest alternatives. The second wave emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s and coincided withthe green consumer revolution. Writers such as Manzini (1990) Burall (1991), Mackenzie (1991) andRyan (1993) began to call for design to make ultra changes. This wave continued to gain momentumtowards the end of the 1990s and early 2000s as design for sustainability became more widespread. Thoughthere has been a long write up of designers being motivated and interested in improving the environmental and social impact of the products they produce, there has been a lack of opportunity within the industrial context with mooring studies only starting to emerge from electronic and electrical companies in the early 1990s when companies such as Philips, Electrolux, IBM and Xerox began to promote the work they had done in this area. Although large industry commitment to integrating environmental and social issues into product developmen t has continued to be on the rise there has been little establish of widespread opportunity for this type of holistic thinking, in the commercial design industry.Design for sustainability issues are currentlyrarely addressed in the design brief (Dewberry, 1996 Lofthouse, 2001) and as such it is often difficult for designers to have the opportunity to engage with environmentally and socially responsible design in a professed(prenominal) capacity. This report aims to change this situation and encourage a more widespread approach to design for sustainability.EducationIn the past environmental and socially responsible design has not been specifically encouraged through design education and training. This is now changing for example in the UK programmes such as STEP and Sustainable Design Awards developed and run by the charity Practical Action are set up to encourage sustainability awareness in young designers working at National Curriculum key stage 3 and 4 (ages 11- 16) and A-level s respectively. Similarly projects such as DEMI (design for the environment multi-media implementation), and the pioneering work of the Centre for Sustainable Design, Goldsmiths College,Loughborough University and the setting up of a Toolbox for Sustainable Design (Bhamra and Lofthouse, 2004) which aims to help other lecturers develop sustainable design courses have helped to change this situation.Research in the sector of design for sustainability is now well established, though it can still be considered a new area. Most of the developed nations now have some form of active research into design for sustainability, covering issues such as implementation of legislation, eco-innovation, corporate social responsibility, product service systems, eco-redesign, impacts of user behaviour, design for disassembly and reverse manufacturing.Introduction. contest for DesignPart of the challenge for designers is for them to fully understand the breadth of the agenda and appreciatewhat can be tackled under the umbrella of design for sustainability. Within the design community there is a general lack of awareness of many issues relating to sustainable development. Designers need to understand and even communicate to their colleagues that design for sustainability is roughly more than recycling or using recycled materials.Design for sustainability offers a new and broader context for designing. Birkeland (2002) encapsulates this by presenting a new vision for designwhich isResponsible redefining goals around needs, social/eco equity and justice.Synergistic creating positive synergies involving different elements to create systems change. settingual re-evaluating design conventions and concepts towards social transformation.Holistic taking a life cycle receive to ensure imprint impact, low cost, multi-functional outcomes.Empowering fosters human potential, self-reliance and ecological understanding in appropriate ways.Restorative integrates the social and natural world recultivates a sense of wonder.Eco-efficient proactively aims to affix the economy of energy, materials and costs.Creative represents a new paradigm that transcends traditional boundaries of discipline thinking.Visionary focuses on visions and outcomes and conceives of appropriate methods, to deliver them.This report aims to reverse the trend of design contributing to global environmental and social problems by inspiring and empowering me to make a difference. It hopes to enlighten about the sustainability generally and show how better design can improve things. By considering the environment and society when you are designing you are able to offer your clients truly good design that meets their requirements and those of an increasingly fragile planet.In accordance with this report, I consider emergent in actuality the guide accomplished byLunar Elements in july 2008. It represent a tooldesigned to help all designers, no matter what their level of experience, design more s ustainableproducts.The designers field guide to sustainability-an overview of sustainable product development and the product life cycle Lunar Elements (2008)WHAT IS IT TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH ?Question the premise of the designConsider other approaches to the problem at hand bugger off is little complexSimple, elegant designs are often the least impactfulMake it more usefulMultiuse products can decoct consumption and increase convenienceHOW IS I T BROUGHT TO LIFE?Reduce material varietyThis can increase recyclability and can decrease manufacturing energyAvoid toxic or harmfulmaterials and chemicalsPVC, polystyrene, lead and BPA for exampleReduce size and weightThis reduces emissions during shippingOptimize manufacturing processesPowder coat vs. paint. Pressure form vs. RIMTalk to your manufacturers about low energy, low waste alternativesDesign packaging in parallel with productsA green product in a wasteful package should be avoided whenever potentialHOW I S IT USED?Design for Upg radeabilityMake standard internal components accessible and self explanatoryCreate durable and high quality designsMake products people want to keepand make them lastDesign for life after deathA secondary use for a product adds value and helps reduce wasteWHERE DOES IT END UP?Make it modularMore easily repaired, and recycledMaximize recycled, recyclable, renewable, and biodegradable materialsPET, Polypropylene, HDPE, Wood, Steel, Aluminum and PLA for exampleMinimize fastenersFasteners add weight, material variety and assembly/ disassembly complexityDont use paintPainted plastics are less likely to be recycledReferencesBhamra, T. A. and Lofthouse, V. A. (2004), Toolbox for Sustainable Design Education. Available at www.lboro.ac.uk/research/susdesign/LTSN/Index.htm (Loughborough Loughborough University).Birkeland, J. (2002), Design for Sustainability A Sourcebook of Integrated, Eco-Logical Solutions (Sheffield Earthscan Publications).Bonsiepe, G. (1973) Precariousness and Ambiguity In dustrial Design in Dependent Countries in Design for Need Bicknell, J. and McQiston, L. (eds.) pp. 13-19 (London Pergamon Press, The RCA).Burall, P. (1991), Green Design (London Design Council).Dewberry, E. L. (1996), EcoDesign Present Attitudes and Future Directions,Heskett, J. (1991), Industrial Design (London Thames Hudson). Industrial Design Society of America (1999), IDSA web site. Available at www.idsa.orgLofthouse, V. A. (2001), Facilitating Ecodesign in an Industrial Design Context An Exploratory breeding, Doctoral Thesis (Cranfield In Enterprise Integration Cranfield University).Mackenzie, D. (1991), Green Design Design for the Environment (London Laurence King Publishing Ltd.).Manzini, E. (1990), The New Frontiers Design must Change and Mature, Design, 501, p. 9.Packard, V. (1963), The Waste Makers (Middlesex Penguin).Papanek, V. (1971), Design for the Real World (New York Pantheon Books).Papanek, V. (1985), Design pentru lumea reala (Bucuresti Editura Tehnica)Ryan, C. (1993) Design and the Ends of Progress in O2 Event Striking Visions,Schumacher, E. F. (1973), Small is Beautiful a Study of Economics as if People Mattered (London Sphere Books, Ltd.).Shot in the Dark (2000), Design on the Environment Ecodesign for Business (Sheffield Shot in the Dark)Sparke, P. (1983), Consultant Design The History and Practice of the Designer in Industry (London Pembridge Press Limited).Design for sustainability Sustainability (2006), Trends and Waves. Available at www.sustainability.com/insight/trends-and-waves.asp.