Beyond the New
- Year: 2015
BEYOND THE NEW
A SEARCH FOR IDEALS IN DESIGN
Hella Jongerius and Louise Schouwenberg have written a Manifest in which they plea for ideals in design and call upon designers to take the lead in a much-needed change of mentality.
The designer and design theorist criticise the obsession with the New for the sake of the New, and deplore how the discipline lacks an intimate interweaving of the values that once inspired designers, as well as the producers of their ideas: making the highest possible quality accessible to many people.
From the text:
“What most design events have in common are the presentations of a depressing cornucopia of pointless products, commercial hypes around presumed innovations, and empty rhetoric.”
“It is absurd and arrogant to begin the design process with an empty piece of paper. Cultural and historical awareness are woven into the DNA of any worthwhile product.”
“Know the companies that share your moral and aesthetic values. Know the others too.”
“Count the blessings of industry. Industrial processes have greater potential than low-volume productions of exclusive designs, which reach such a limited market that talk of ‘users’ can hardly be taken seriously. Industries can make high-quality products available to many people. We should breathe new life into that ideal.”
#beyondthenew
During the Salone in April 2015, Disegno conducted an extended interview with Jongerius and Schouwenberg, examining the central tenets, motivations and arguments of Beyond the New.
An edited transcript of that conversation can be read here: www.disegnodaily.com/article/beyond-beyond-the-new