"A century ago, design was the future. Good design, by which was meant modernist design, would create a world of fewer, better things. The wasted labour and obsessive ornament of the Victorians would give way to a world of bent tube, steel and glass, transparent furnishings, skeletal fittings made by machines freeing a class of workers to enjoy more leisure time and liberating interiors from unnecessary clutter and waste."
"That social purpose which accompanied the birth of design as a profession quickly dissipated, hijacked by capitalism as a sales schtick, a way of selling newer, more fashionable, more expensive products. Modernism became marketing. "Everything is Design. Everything!" wrote Paul Rand, the graphic designer responsible for the distinctive logos for IBM, Enron, UPS and others. What happened to that sense of social purpose? Design today has clearly been strugglin"
Design in the early to mid-20th century claimed authorship over all human-made things and promised a modernist future of fewer, better objects. Modernist projects aimed to replace Victorian excess with machine-made, transparent, efficient forms that would free workers and simplify interiors. That social mission was overtaken by capitalist marketing, turning modernism into a device for selling newer, fashionable, costlier products. The planet now faces severe environmental degradation—warming climate, polluted air and seas, microplastics and deforestation—linking design to ecological harm when everything is framed as designed. Design currently faces an existential crisis visible across schools, biennales, festivals and fairs.
Read at Ft
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]