By Paul van Horn / 17-11-2009

“Start a white label that is not for your own benefit but to that of everyone. A platform where designers develop and show their products, anonymously.”

It was a ‘hands on’ suggestion from Dutch product designer Jurgen Bey in response to the question, in what kind of challenging new directions young designers should look for. It was also the most concrete thought that was heard at ‘Face Value’, a joint Design Forum organized by Premsela and 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT that took place on Tuesday 3 November as part of Design week in Tokyo. Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukusawa and Studio Makkink & Bey (Rianne Makkink & Jurgen Bey) were invited to participate in the forum, which focused on the central question: “Do we take design at face value? What is the value of design in a contemporary culture?”

Tim Vermeulen, programme manager at Premsela set the scene by referring to the impact of the financial/economic crisis. ‘We believed in the values and everything was going well as long we had trust in it. This value changed overnight with the fall of Lehmann Brothers.’ Indirectly Vermeulen showed the audience that the environment of design and how it is valued has also changed dramatically.

After this introduction Fukusawa took the audience with him on his quest. “I want to design relationships among things, people and environments that seem as if they are were naturally built.” This thought was illustrated with a picture of an umbrella propped against the wall, its tip wedged between floor tiles. An example of what Fukusawa considers as ‘ecological design’. “When objects and the environment are in harmony, we can call it ecological design.” For him designers can fulfill an important role to improve environments instead of what many of them are doing now, competing each other with the same products. “A table is a table. There are too many choices and as a result people long constantly for something different. Still people are not satisfied. The kind of tables everyone commonly likes are not so many. Everything else is just a variation. A role for designers is to find out such inevitable forms which things should be and make it correctly. But people seem to put so much energy in finding different tables and chairs. If people change this, there are so many other things people can do to enjoy their life. Because table is a table after all. Otherwise this strange culture continues to accelerate this vicious cycle."

Bey connected with a rhetoric: “Why not let go? If we learn to share things then we can refocus our energy on other things. Designers have to find new settings, a new kind of competition that takes design further.” As an example he mentioned the Formula 1 where cars, engines and designs are constantly changing within strict boundaries. Bey stated furthermore that designers should take responsibility for the future when it comes to economics and environments: “We are heading towards a collective world - share not own.” Rianne Makkink added, “It is a process where we can learn, inspire each other.” As an example of this and as an observation about how she admired the social responsibility of Japanese culture, Makkink compared the trains in Japan and The Netherlands. “Whereas the Dutch trains have waste bins that are too small, the Japanese trains don’t have bins at all. It means we have to change our mindset towards things that are being taken for granted.”

Moderator and Design.nl journalist Jeanne Tan asked Fukusawa how designers could change their focus. “When we talk about the design process we sometimes go to far”, he admitted. “We tend to lose ourselves in the process. We have to realize that it is not the product but the direction one is searching. We have to change our mind for our own benefit.”

But searching, researching undoubtedly leads not only to success. “What about your failures. What did you learn from them?” Tan challenged him. “Whether it is a design or an experiment, the result is not visible in an instant. It needs time. Time to evaluate. Perhaps later one can state that it was the right thing.”

Bey: “Designers have to start researching. Try to deal in a different way with a topic, show possibilities. We have to be more aware about context. Design is just an illustration of that context. There should be a great feeling of collectiveness. It is not about your own benefit. Perhaps think of a white label where designers anonymously provide their ideas, their designs.”

Photography: Madoka Sakamoto

Add to favorites