Lasting But Not Least
In our post-industrial world, where “artisanal” refers to cheese and “heirloom” to tomatoes, design refers to the new, the innovative, the global. Even with all the talk of carbon footprints and environmental stewardship, design is too often about the transitive and the temporary.
Before the Industrial Revolution, artisans created heirlooms. Each object was imbued with personality and value; heirlooms were tools intended to last for generations.
Perhaps it’s a bit old-fashioned to stress the importance of the art and craft of design in today's connected world.
Imagine a cell phone that lasts like a Stickley chair or a magazine that matters like a Gutenberg Bible.
Change is the watchword of the day, driving business and politics and society. But, there's a new form of change on the horizon; we’re heading into a constrained environment where the designer's artistry and craft will have to encourage what lasts, what matters, what sustains.
As designers, we have the opportunity to use our art and craft to redefine wealth in the future. We have the opportunity and the responsibility to create a world where each object and experience is filled with value, where living with less but better is both joyful and meaningful.
Hugh Graham is an experience designer and storyteller. Hadley Hooper is an artist and illustrator. Both live and work in Denver.
Remarks 14 total remarks were added before the post was closed.
Armin
> a magazine that matters like a Gutenberg Bible.
Semi related:
Revolve: The Complete New Testament as a magazine. Not Gutenberg-like, but the semi-point is that design, at least visual communication, is usually just as lasting as the content it represents.
Immortal
Before the industrial revolution, the work you describe was made by families for families. It was rarely distributed or sold to consumers outside the family sphere. In other words, there wasn't a commercial model behind Uncle Billy's building a whatnot shelf for the family parlor.
Modern designers, however, are engaged in a commercial enterprise, and commercial enterprises require forward momentum and change in order to sustain revenue streams. Designers, after all, must eat and pay for health insurance premiums like anyone else.
Therefore, the emphasis for designers engaged in commercial pursuits should be to find greener, more sustainable ways to create and distribute their wares.
That said, I think you make valid points, but perhaps the shift that needs to occur is not in designers making more lasting products, but redirecting consumer behavior away from constant hunger for the new, and moving it toward the enduring.
By the way, this was a wonderfully written and illustrated piece.Thank you.
Tom Reeves
Focus is grabbed by change. This quality is persistent, and perhaps, biological. It rewards change. Craftsmanship is the ability to create that withstands our inherent focus on change.
Have you noticed that virtually every blog post, if not almost all of the text based web content, is short-lived? It commentary on current events. We don't create on-line content that is persistent. We create content that is commentary on change.
I am creating persistent web content in my own little corner of the web. Your post hit home.
I love the sentiment.
Warren Blayney
I liked that you chose an iPod to emphasize the message. I enjoy technology as much as anyone else, but I agree that the continual turnover of newer and smaller products is getting a tad ridiculous.
My Dad has a fantastic LP record collection that someday might be in my possession. I would classify these as heirlooms. Will I be able to say the same for my iTunes library one day!?
Bravo! Hugh, great piece. Hadley, perfectly illustrated.
Jenny Thomas
Well-said, and well-illustrated, Hugh and Jill.
It seems that one way industry has moved to create "meaningful" products out of mass-produced objects has been to offer customization options. From cell-phone sleeves to shoes to cars and homes, personalizing products is an evolving process, but I think it has yet to resolve the "throw-away" culture of consumerism. These objects are only meaningful until the next, better technology is available.
Jacob Halton
I guess it's the whole thing about how "they don't make em like they used to."
It's not like stuff we buy breaks on it's own, if it's designed to break then of course there won't be any lasting objects. Personally I would rather just buy something once, and not have to worry about buying it again in a newer form. For example: Cell phones, mp3 players, computers (sheesh).
Maybe the whole idea of things being "throw-away" is because so many products are marketed as fashionable rather than quality. With fashion trends changing every season, it gives us the urge to update our unfashionable stuff...
David van Wert
I enjoyed this article, but I must take exception with your claim that "artisinal" and "cheese" don't belong together. That smacks of someone who only eats individually wrapped Kraft singles -- and I pity you for that. There most certainly are some food products that justify the adjective "artisinal." Nothing whatsoever in the definition of the word implies "will be here for a thousand years." Yes, artisans sometimes create heirlooms but not exclusively. They also create very fine cheeses, wines, sausages, etc. An artisan is a person who takes great care in the crafting of their work. What the word really implies is the lifting of "craft" to "art," a celebration of making the everyday object something to savor -- could be a chair, could be a sausage, could be a doorknob.
I'm sad for you that your experience with food includes no examples of artisanship. Eat better.
eric niu
This sparked a thought about the importance of framing. In Naked Economics (a great book, btw), Wheelan talks a bit about how we measure our economic wellbeing based on "purchasing power".
If we think about the way this frames our economy, its implication is that purchasing, buying more stuff, is an inherently good thing, a sign of prosperity. It's subtle, but powerful, memes like this that quietly shapes how we behave and leads us to make cheap crap. It's not about what we own, but how we own it.
Could we create or co-opt an equally powerful meme that subliminally suggests that buying fewer, better, sturdier, more adaptable things is the real sign of prosperity? Appreciation Index? Staying Power? Actual Worth?
dave
Designers have always designed for sustainability. Look at the model T Ford. But the commercial world is what is changing by force more so than the designers. Designers can only adapt to the commercial environment they find themselves in.
rjm
Though products such as cell phones aren't made to survive the elevated wear we put them through, there is also a culture issue involved in the long-term use of a product. For some of us (like myself), getting a new electronic is almost a form of entertainment.
If I loved my iPod purely for its music and not for its technology, I may still be using the original 'touch' that I purchased 6 years ago.
Stephen Tiano
Sounds to me like the argument of subjectively valuing--for want of a better word--stuff versus objectively valuing rears its head yet again. Once you get past something we can all agree on--say, that a $300 electronic device that dies after a month or two of use is crap--it becomes more an issue of how we, as individuals, assign worth to things.
I’d like to think that every word I utter or write is a pearl, but who knows whether there's any value beyond my need to somehow express each of them.
On the other hand, it’s far easier to look at objects that have survived time and see some relative value in them, if only becaue they’ve lasted.
Oh, and what is persistent web content? I suppose that as long as one has a web host, it persists. But I’m sure that more was meant than that.
Matt Crest
Well put Hugh. I remember struggling with this concept as a design student. "What will I be contributing? Am I merely helping to promote things that people don't really need?" (and I think that was even before reading Adbusters)
Not sure if I've found my answer. It's somewhere between "sort of" and "not really", depending on the client and work that I pursue.
Thought to ponder: Most talk of lasting design pertains to industrial design and products. As graphic or web designers, how do we create lasting design (not like Styrofoam, but meaningful, like an Eames chair).
Daniel
Although we view modern objects as disposable, there seems to be a finite period of obsolescence that then gives way to nostalgic collectability. A five-year-old iPod may seem a bit worthless and clunky today, but imagine it's value in fifty years time.
I spend lots of time and money trying to re-purchase books and magazines that I once thought I had no need for: maybe one day my stack of Face magazines will be considered an heirloom!
It'll be interesting to see the change in value of the humble Polaroid camera changes a few years after they stop production.
Daniel
I'm sorry, that last sentence made no sense. You know what I mean though.