Design and technology have overcome previously perceived boundaries and dreams with such vigor and speed that in a sense it is no longer necessary to look for other design solutions to urgent problems, but the problems themselves for existing solutions, resp. their meaning in our lives.
A2 magazine survey on graphic design
What does committed design mean to you? What is its position in Czech design?
Something vague, forming (albeit an avant-garde reference) and a name that is too general. Reducing the energy consumption of computers or water in automatic washing machines, social projects (not only) for the third world and at the same time, for example, the words Eat rich on the walls. Also engaged visual design as a seemingly neutral tool for formulating opinions and engagement requirements. His position in our country is marginal, if any, represented by several solitaires and projects. As in society as a whole, engagement is understood (and unfortunately rightly so) as something annoying, a matter of eternal troublemakers , more things than opinions.
What role do you think design can play in a critical reflection on today's society?
Like anything else, different and marginal, which is probably paradoxical but characteristic given its ubiquity. So also negative. Today, design is like a marketing tool. Whoever uses it usually does not seek reflection, but strengthens his position, declares his status, expands the market. At the same time, the idea prevails among designers that it is necessary to push their feet into every door, make a logo for everyone, redesign everything, level it, unify it and repaint it. Designers would have to find the courage (and therefore the motivation) to stop being mostly parasites of institutions and to take to the streets and start really communicating and collaborating, looking for content that makes sense to formulate or shape. In fact, critical reflection could help the designers themselves.
How can design contribute to positive social change? By this we mean, for example, a change in the behavior of civil society, the economic sphere or nature protection.
Happier colors, laughing slogans and rounder shapes or pleasant surfaces. Low cost and small environmental footprint. Or another experience, an ethos. Finding ways out of marketing strategies, if any. By co-creating a space for sharing, discussion and initiative. Stop spewing products, helping shape frames. Just start communicating, solving problems. Or just have a good time.
The statement that design is ubiquitous and currently permeates our daily active experience (for example in self-presentation on the Internet and text editors) is already trivial, but we may not be fully aware of its importance. Design in all its breadth truly shapes and dominates not only our visual and objective world. Design and technology have overcome previously perceived boundaries and dreams with such vigor and speed that in a sense it is no longer necessary to look for other design solutions to urgent problems, but the problems themselves for existing solutions, resp. their meaning in our lives. All this happens without deeper or any reflection. Perhaps the time has come for critical distance and caution, for an attempt to characterize the present and to look for possibilities and spaces outside of design.
A 2, 2012