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Democracy and Design. Essays by Students of MuID Kiel, WS. 19/20

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Democracy and Design
Essays by Students of MuID Kiel,
WS. 19/20

Prof. Dr. Annika Frye – Intro

Pablo González Rivero – The Democracy of Design
Bashar Zapen – Flat-packed Democracy
Yuyang Wang – Design for Equality
Sofiia Skryhunets – Mass Customization and Democratic Design
Erik Wetendorf – Range Sliders and Their Democratic Power
Alejandra Presedo – The Future of Design

The notion of ‚democracy‘ and its connec-
tion to seriality has been a paradigm in
modernist and contemporary design. It
was a way to legitimate functionalism and
consumerism. ‚Democracy‘, in its diffe-
rent modes of understanding, has led to
different understandings of design. Early
modernism was dedicated to the develop-
ment of a general concept of design star-
ting with design as a mixture of craft, art
and technique. Most ideas here relate to
the structure of mass-production as origin
of design and a new visual language. Fun-
ctionalism and a systematic design me-
thodology were developed. In this context,
all hopes were on the notion of design as
a democratic practice. In post-war Ger-
many, the Werkbund was using the so-cal-
led ‚Werkbund-Crate‘ to educate german
students in ‚good design‘. The crate con-
tained mass-produced everyday artifacts
and was used to demonstrate to future
consumers in the classroom what ‚good
design‘ is. ‚Good design’ was also suppo-
sed to somehow relate to the development
of a democratic society. However, as of
a following ‚crisis of functionalism‘ in the
1960s, designers formed an opposition to
functionalism. Ideas of artistic freedom
and Do-It-Yourself were acquired. Post-
modernism drew attention to the singular
unique design piece. Memphis and Alchi-
mia acted similar to artists. Concept beca-
me more important than the the relation of
form and function. A whole industry emer-
ged that was centered around the figure
of the author-designer. Still, first steps
towards participatory and open design
were taken, too. These developments are
of interest for contemporary design. To-
day, network and openness as well as the
3
Intro – Prof. Dr. Annika Frye
design of interfaces form the core ele-
ments of design. We are neither designing
mere industrial products nor can we focus
on artsy singular pieces. Design within the
culture of digitality is process-design as
we are dealing with hybrid objects bet-
ween digital and analogue.
The seminar ‚Introduction to Design Stu-
dies‘ at Muthesius Academy of the Arts,
Kiel is drawing this line from modernist
design ideas towards contemporary
practices of digitality and openness. The
following essays from design students at
muthesius are an outcome of the semi-
nar and highlighting the relationship of
examples from the design discourse to
ideas of democracy. Knowing that design
has never been and will never be a neutral
discipline, but always relate to politics and
society, their esssays refer to examples
which directly let the user participate in
an open design process with many actors,
or they critically reflect on contemporary
consumer electronics as well as furniture
design.
 The Democracy of Design – Pablo González Riveiro
The Democracy of Design
21.02.2020
Pablo González Riveiro
From the first Industrial Revolution to the
present day, different societies, in their attempts to
bring the virtues of industry to the majority of the
population, have confronted the dominant
capitalist industrial monopoly in an attempt to
democratize the material goods produced by it. In
this essay we will make a brief historical review
showing this process until our days.
With the First Industrial Revolution
that initiated in the second half of the 18th
century in Western Europe and North America,
the greatest technological, economic and social
transformations in the history of
humanity took place. Industrialisation
replaced labour based on manual labour and the
use of animal power with machinery. Agricultural
and infant industry production multiplied
at the same time as production time
decreased. This led to an unprecedented
increase in wealth and per capita income, and a
significant increase in population. New social
classes emerged; industrial workers on one side
and the bourgeoisie, owner of the means of
production and holder of most of the income
and capital, on the other.
At the end of the 19th century, the Second
Industrial Revolution took place and as a
consequence of the extension, evolution and
improvement of the industrial industry and
techniques, methods of industrial organization
such as Taylorism or Fordism appeared. These
methods of organization, with scientific-
mechanistic foundations, designed and
introduced into society by the bourgeoisie,
were aimed at increasing the productivity of 1
the
industrial worker. From this point on, standardized
material goods began to be manufactured, adapted
to industrial manufacturing methods. With this, the
prices of manufacture and sale to the public fall, so
that a large part of the industrial working population
can afford the consumption of the material goods
offered by industry. At the same time, as an antithesis
or reaction to industrialization, a revolution of
a socialist nature arises that defends the manual
creation and the use of machinery to improve the
conditions of the worker and fights against the
alienation of the industrial worker in the assembly
lines or derivatives. This movement is known as Arts
and Crafts and its intention is to provide society
with consumer goods, without paying the price of
worker alienation given in the dominant industry.
But due to the increase in population and the high
cost of manual manufacturing these consumer
goods despite their socialist intentions could only be
acquired by a minority with high purchasing power.
From this moment in history, industry is crowned
as a democratic tool, since it manages to provide
a large number of individuals with a position in
the emerging consumer-capitalist society that
allows them to improve their living conditions
through the consumption of material goods
provided by the industry of which they are a part.
In the United States at the beginning of the
20th century, the so-called „happy 1920s“ were
characterized by unprecedented economic
growth due to the capital generated by the
export of arms and consumer goods to European
countries during and after World War I.
During this period, it seemed that industrial society
was bearing fruit and the future looked brighter;
„In the United States today we are closer to the final
triumph over poverty than any other country in
history. Asylum for the poor is going to disappear
in this country. We have not yet achieved the goal,
but if we are given the opportunity to achieve the
 The Democracy of Design – Pablo González Riveiro
policy developed during these past eight years, we
will soon, with God‘s help, be able to see the day
when poverty will be banished from this nation. At
the same time, in Europe after the First World War,
there was a time of peace when the priority was to
restore the ravages of war. In Germany, in a period
known as the Weimar Republic that began after the
defeat of this power in the IGM, a series of cultural
movements arose that would later have an important
global impact. In 1919 Walter Gropius founded the
Bauhaus in Weimar, a school of architecture, design,
craftsmanship and art after having participated
before the war in movements such as the Deutscher
Werkbund with similar intentions to those that the
Bauhaus would have at first; „The recovery of the craft
methods in the construction activity, raise the craft
power to the same level as the Fine Arts and try to
market the products that, integrated into industrial
production, would become affordable consumer
items for the general public“. In this first period of
the Bauhaus with great influence of the Arts and
Crafts the intentions were to become independent
of the dominant industry, which did not provide
quality consumer goods to the whole population.
Later on, after internal disputes, Bauhaus left behind
the expressionist-romantic vision of Arts and Crafts
and started to defend functionalist-rationalist
values without leaving aside the socialist nature.
In 1929 the American economy collapses and with
it the world economy, the years of consumerism
and welfare enjoyed by a large part of the American
population end, giving way to what is known as the
Great Depression.
Due to this world crisis Germany is seriously
affected and with it the plans of the Bauhaus are
truncated. Finally, with the arrival of the Nazi party
to power in 1933, Bauhaus comes to an end. Five
years later, World War II breaks out.
2
After the Second World War, Germany was in a
similar situation to that after the First World War,
but thanks to the Marshall Plan implemented by the
United States to regenerate Europe after the wars
and Ludwig Erhard‘s liberal reforms, it recovered
strongly.
Ludwig Erhard‘s liberal-economic policies
greatly supported industry and industrial design in
Germany. In 1953 the Ulm School was opened, a
university institution whose aim was to help in the
cultural reconstruction of the society that had been
Exterior of the Bauhaus at Dessau, designed by Walter Gropi-
us in 1926. Photo: © General Photographic Agency
morally and materially destroyed by Nazism and
World War II. The first rector of this new institution
was Max Bill, a former Bauhaus student, but a few
years later he would resign from the post due to the
same conflicts that occurred at the Bauhaus. Max
Bill defended the values of Arts and Crafts and these
did not fit with the industrial models, so the artist
and industrial designer Tomás Malodonado would
take his place in 1956. With Tomás Maldonado as
director, the Ulm School began a new phase in which
he worked closely with industry. It is here that the
figure of the industrial designer we know today was
born; a professional capable of coordinating with
 The Democracy of Design – Pablo González Riveiro

Studentenversammlung in Ulmer Hochschule für Gestaltung-1968 Photo: Bernhard Bürdek

a large number of specialists from different fields,
the most varied requirements of manufacturing
and use of products. Also with the responsibility of
not putting obligations to industry before those to
society.
Within the model of teaching product design of
this school, the scientific method occupied a very
important place, moving away from the methods of
the Bauhaus in which the designer was seen more as
an artistic creator than as a scientist.
Although the social, economic and cultural
environment in which the Ulm school is located is
not comparable to that of the Bauhaus, finally, due
to economic problems and internal disagreements
on teaching models, this institution is dissolved in
1968.
In a lecture given by Tomás Maldonado at the 1958
World‘s Fair in Brussels, he anticipated the problem
that would lead to the institution‘s demise: „What
German industry wanted from our Institute at the
time was not very different from what it had wanted
from the Bauhaus four decades earlier: that we
should help create a vaguely cultural alibi for its
production programme. We were aware of this, but
we were under the illusion [...] that it was possible to
reconcile the interests of the production of nascent
neo-capitalism with the interests of the users. This

3
 The Democracy of Design – Pablo González Riveiro
Ivan Illich (1926-2002) Photo: Adrift Animal / Wikipedia
Commons
later turned out to be a serious error of judgement.
By the time we realised this, and adopted an attitude
of denunciation and even rebellion [...], the fate of
our institution was already marked“.
At this point in history it can be seen how a
similar pattern of behaviour was repeated from the
beginning by institutions dedicated to design and
industry. Within the institutions and movements of
designers there were two sides; one that defended
a design based on the artistic expression of the
designer and opposed the industrial model and the
other that without leaving aside socialist ambitions
tried to collaborate and adapt to the industrial model
of the moment. The industrial model, because it is
designed and controlled from the beginning by an
upper class and far from the needs of the majority
of society, has as its ultimate goal the accumulation
of wealth, and although it sometimes favours and
4
supports attempts to democratise material goods, it
always ends up looking after its own interests, as has
been demonstrated throughout history.
Philosophers of the last century as Theodor Adorno
or Ivan Illich were already conscious of the situation
in which our industrial society was then and now.
Ivan Illich detected a series of threats of the industrial
development that arrive until our days; the right
of the individuals to be autonomous, the threat of
creativity by the overprogramming of industrial
and capitalist ideologies or the destruction of the
traditions of the different human cultures. Today,
approximately half a century after the creation of
the Ulm school, we are faced with models of design
studies and industrial dynamics similar to those of
the time, but facing a new paradigm.
With the entry of the 21st century and the
democratization of the Internet, movements such
as Open Design or Maker culture are appearing,
creating an environment that once again confronts
the dominant industry.
The culture of Open Design materializes the
theories of Ivan Illich, that in general terms defend
an education independent of the institutions, since
these are influenced by the interests of the industry
and also, as in the Arts and Crafts movement,
it proposes a use of the technological tools with
democratic aims, without these being monopolized
by the interests of the dominant industry. This
is possible today thanks to the Internet and the
digitalization of the means of manufacture. With
this, the figure of the industrial designer born in the
last century is once again being questioned as being
an accomplice of the dominant industry. Thus, the
need to adapt design and the designer to the new
social, technological and productive needs marked
by this new culture of Open Design that fights for
a free production based on cooperative practices
appears.
 The Democracy of Design – Pablo González Riveiro

With these new practices, phenomena such as the Literature

monopoly of intellectual rights or manufacturing
methods would be replaced by more democratic
models that allow the adaptation of products and
their manufacture to local and even personal
needs. In this context, it is worth mentioning the
Creative Comons licenses that fit perfectly in this
context, since they encourage the free exchange
of knowledge and its use, without it becoming a
private tool of power for a few.
ECOSSISTEMA OPEN DESIGN -Edison Uriel Rodríguez
Cabeza, Dorival Campos Rossi, Mônica Moura- Fourth
International Conference on Integration of Design, Enginee-
ring and Management for innovation.Florianópolis, SC,
Brazil, October 07-10, 2015
Resurgences: south, as designs and other designs. - Alfredo
Gutiérrez Borrero

In an environment dominated by open design

practices, problems such as the delocalisation HfG ULM EL DISEÑO EN LA ALEMANIA DEL WIRT-
of production points would be solved. The SCHAFTSWÜNDER - Eugenio Vega - febrero 2013 | infolio |
overexploitation of a territory‘s resources, the ISSN 2255-4564
precariousness of its people‘s jobs or the mass
transport of goods could be a thing of the past. Transitional Objects — Room One Thousand 21.10.18, 13
http://www.roomonethousand.com/transitional-objects/
Perhaps we are in front of a new paradigm that will
make us get out of the vicious circle that started
with the First Industrial Revolution, dominated by
manufacturing and design methods that did not
allow a real democratization of consumer goods.

5
 Flat-packed Democracy – Bashar Zapen

Flat-packed solidarity during and after the events of

World War II. By holding conferences
Democracy during the 1940s in Helsinki, Oslo,
Stockholm, and Copenhagen, Halén
The history of Scandinavian concludes that "Nordic countries could be
design and its contribution to perceived as an entity when it came to
design issues."
solving global crises.
Strengthening the Nordic design
image both locally and abroad was the
31.12.2019 priority of the movement, and by the mid-
20th century, the efforts have primarily
Bashar Zapen been fruitful (Halén and Wickman, 2003).
Names such as Hans Wegner and Arne
Jacobsen were on the tongues of the
Scandinavian design has had a American public that had been craving for
significant impact on democratizing the humanistic functionalism of the
furniture by making it accessible and Scandinavian Design movement. The U.S.
affordable to the masses. This essay was fascinated by Wegner's wooden chairs
discusses the history of Scandinavian for its described 'organic functionality,'
design and how some of its leading while Jacobsen's Series 7 chair took the
proponents, e.g. IKEA, are using its core world by storm for its intricate balance of
democratic philosophies to create solutions beauty, minimalism, and functionality
to our modern-day problems, such as (Halén and Wickman, 2003).
climate change and the refugee housing
crisis.
Originating alongside the modernist
movement in the early 1950s, Scandinavian
Design prioritized democracy, affordability,
minimalism, and functionalism.
Scandinavian Design shared many
hallmarks of the modernist movement, such
as clean lines, functional furnishings, and
neutral colors. However, it was also heavily
influenced by the cold, short winter days of
the Nordic region and the desire for
furniture to be cozy yet bright.
Nordic interiors maximize light at
every turn by utilizing light colors, simple
forms, and open plan spaces. Pale colored
walls and flooring seldom have clutter or
ornamentation, as they are a blank canvas
for functionality and flexible use. Figure 1: Arne Jacobsen's Series 7 Chair, no date.
Nevertheless, how did different
countries with disparate histories,
languages, and geographical locations At the height of the design
become associated with a single design movement, House Beautiful editor
movement? Elizabeth Gordon proposed the "Designed
According to historian Widar Halén in Scandinavia" exhibition touring 24
(2003) in his book 'Scandinavian Design: locations across the U.S. and Canada. The
Beyond the Myth,' Nordic countries grew in tour ran between 1954 and 1957 with the

1
 Flat-packed Democracy – Bashar Zapen
support of the kings of Norway, Denmark,
and Sweden, among other highly regarded
patrons (Hucal, 2016). The exhibition
firmly asserted the Nordic's place on the
North American market.
Scandinavian design focused on the
individual's home and family, asserted
democratic principles, and emphasized the
traditional craftsmanship to tailor fit the
consumerist ideals of the postwar era.
Gordon was critical of the radical nature of
American modernism by publishing a
series of articles condemning International
Style – a commonly used name for the
modernist design movement at the time – in
which she referred to the movement as
"totalitarian," and those promoting it as
"dictators in matters of taste" (Hucal, 2016).
The sentiment drew inspiration from the
politics in the Cold War era.
By the end of the 1950s,
international and North American imports
of Scandinavian products had increased
markedly, with household names
companies and local department stores in
New York City displaying the streamlined
shapes of Nordic furniture and décor.
However, this global popularity quickly
waned down by the late 1960s. During the
postmodern craze of the 1970s and 1980s,
many Scandinavian design classics went
out of production in favor of other design
languages around the globe (Hucal, 2016).
Nevertheless, with a new generation
of consumers in the 1990s and a newly
formed public consciousness and interest in
sustainable development and products, the
spotlight was once again up for grabs for
Scandinavian design. Designers such as
Jasper Morrison honored Scandinavian and
Danish modern traditions early in his
career, while Swede Thomas Sandell raised
the bar for Nordic design standards. A flood
of exhibition tours and academic papers
helped usher the region's designs into a new
era (Hucal, 2016).
Scandinavian design remains
fashionable to this day, and thanks to mass
retailers such as Ikea, clean lines and
minimalist aesthetics have now become
2
mainstream. The story of Ikea began in
1943 in a small Swedish village called
Agunnaryd, where the 17-year-old founder
Ingvar Kamprad worked as a catalog
homeware supplier. His business was
named based on Kamprad’s initials, the
first letter of Elmtaryd, the farm where he
grew up, and the first letter of his
hometown, Agunnaryd.
It took Kamprad a decade before his
first furniture piece appeared. It was The
LÖVBACKEN side table, the first item to be
sold in a flat box, only by making the legs
detachable. Leading Swedish auction
houses are currently selling the original
copies of this iconic product for thousands
of euros (Van De Sype, 2018). However,
Ikea sells a temporary reissue of the table
for a much lower price tag.
Figure 2: A reissue of the iconic LÖVBACKEN table, no date.
Much like other Scandinavian
furniture, the side table is rugged and meant
to stand the test of time. The clean and
minimalistic aesthetic of the design invited
all consumers to have the table at their
homes, whether it is a farmhouse or an
urban industrial apartment. Scandinavian
design lent itself to other styles, principles,
and classes. Further promoting the notion
that beautiful and functional products
should not only be reserved for the wealthy
but rather be accessible and affordable to
 Flat-packed Democracy – Bashar Zapen
everyone hence why Scandinavian design
is often referred to as democratic design.
The development and successes of
Scandinavian retailers such as Ikea have
been primarily influenced by the increased
availability of new low-cost materials and
methods of mass production. Moreover,
with inventive business models that cut
down the assembly line in favor of the
“self-assembly” novelty, it is no wonder
that Ikea remains a dominant force in the
industry with its affordable yet beautiful
products.
Ikea’s self-assembly approach is a
perfect example of open design practices.
Consumers buy the company’s products in
flat-packed boxes and assemble it with the
help of the famous illustrated guide. Many
initiatives provide open design products
that allow consumers to download
blueprints and various documentations to
build the products themselves. A few
notable examples are the Pod Stool by the
French designer Samuel Javelle, the Never-
Ending Bench by designer Félix Lévêque,
and the Italic Shelf designed by Ronen
Kadushin; all of which have PDF
instructions available online and only
require easily accessible materials. Those
designs are also open for customization and
modification.
Ikea’s own innovation and research
lab, Space10, envisions open design to be
the future of design. One of Space10’s
flatpack solutions to societal needs is the
Growroom, a DIY garden structure
designed to help people grow their food in
a local, beautiful, and sustainable way
(Azzarello, 2016). The structure is the
product of a collaboration with the two
architects Sine Lindholm and Mads-Ulrik
Husum.
3
Figure 3:The Growroom at the Chart Art Fair, Vibe, 2017.
Growroom’s plans and blueprints
have been made available online for free as
they are intended for communities to start
their affordable urban gardens. The
structure takes about 2.8 x 2.5 meters of
space, utilizing a spherical shape to
maximize the surface where plants can
receive natural light in such a vertical setup.
Space10 explains in a Medium post
“It is designed to support our everyday
sense of wellbeing in the cities by creating
a small oasis or ‘pause’-architecture in our
high-paced societal scenery, and enables
people to connect with nature as we smell
and taste the abundance of herbs and plants”
(SPACE10 open sources The Growroom,
2017).
They further go on, “The pavilion,
built as a sphere, can stand freely in any
context and points in a direction of
expanding contemporary and shared
architecture.”
Building a single Growroom
requires 17 sheets of plywood, metal
screws, a CNC milling machine, and a
rubber hammer for assembly. From there, a
step by step guide instructs how to
assemble the sphere as it were any other
piece of self-assembly Ikea furniture.
 Flat-packed Democracy – Bashar Zapen
Figure 4: Pages from the instruction manual, 2017.
People were requesting to buy their
Growrooms for their neighborhood or
houses; however, it did not make sense to
Space10 to advocate local food production
to reduce a community’s carbon footprint
and then start shipping structure across
oceans and continents. Hence why the
Growroom remains an open-source design,
and people are encouraged to build their
own (SPACE10 open sources The
Growroom, 2017).
Ikea’s efforts at open design do
benefit not only future communities and
contemporary consumers, but also
humanitarian causes around the globe. For
instance, in collaboration with the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees
(UNHCR), Ikea’s flat-packed temporary
refugee shelter made waves in the press
4
after winning the ‘Beazley Design of The
Year’ award in 2016, by London’s Design
Museum. The project was dubbed as the
Better Shelter and given to an organization
with the same name, who dispatched
16,000 units in 2016 to various crisis
locations and nonprofit organizations
around the world, such as Ethiopia, Iraq,
Yemen, and the many Syrian refugee
camps (Wainwright, 2017).
Figure 5: Exterior of the Better Shelter in Ethiopia, Cox, 2013.
Figure 6: Interior of the Better Shelter in Iraq, 2015.
The Better Shelter is packaged in
two flat-packed boxes and comes up to a
robust 17.5 square meters when assembled.
The process of assembly can be done by
four people in under four hours, given that
they follow the familiar picture-based-
instructions that can be understood
regardless of the mother language or
education level. The Allen keys are
substituted for a rubber hammer, with no
extra tools necessary.
The key factors that won the shelter
the design award were the scalability and
cost-efficiency of the material, the
 Flat-packed Democracy – Bashar Zapen

versatility of the design as units can be different stakeholders influence the

expanded or reused, and the durability of decisions made by the team, effectively
the structure as they are meant to last allowing them to participate in the design
around three years (Wainwright, 2017). process. By democratizing the design
However, Better Shelter and Ikea process, the Ikea Foundation has remained
Foundation quickly started working on faithful to its open design policy and
redesigning the shelter a few weeks after Scandinavian design roots.
the 16,000 shelter shipments (Fairs, 2017).
According to a report by the design
magazine Dezeen, only 6000 units have
been deployed while the other 10,000
shelters remained in depots as the UNHCR
halted deployment after Swiss and German
authorities raised fire safety concerns
regarding the material choice.
The Better Shelter was quickly
under fire as humanitarian sectors criticized
the $1,150 cost of the shelter compared to
the average $300 budget for each family in
their shelter programs. Other nonprofit
agencies raised questions such as “How
does this fit with the idea of using local
materials and rebuilding local economies,”
as it is the driving notion of humanitarian
missions (Fairs, 2017).
According to Johan Karlsson, the
managing director of Better Shelter in a
Refugees Deeply interview, the design
team intended to redesign the shelter from
the beginning. The team could not have
known what would have worked and what
would have not back when they started
sketching their blueprints in 2010. When
finally deployed, the team observed how
some design elements worked very well in
Iraq but did not work as intended in Dolo
Ado, Ethiopia. It is two different cultures
with wildly different environments and
weather conditions (Alfred, 2017).
Regardless of the redesign efforts,
the Better Shelter team has been closely
working the UNHCR to identify contexts
where the remaining 10,000 units of the
first shipment can be used safely according
to the fire safety concerns (Alfred, 2017).
The team continually collects
feedback from partnering individuals at
implementing organizations about the
assembly process, cost, and various factors.
The firsthand experience of the user and

5
 Flat-packed Democracy – Bashar Zapen

References Images

Alfred, C. (2017) Why IKEA’s Award-Winning Refugee Shelters

Need A Redesign, Refugees Deeply. Available at:
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05/19/why-ikeas-award-winning-refugee-shelters-need-a-
clear_lacquer (Accessed: 31 December 2019).
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Figure 2: LÖVBACKEN (no date). Available at:
Azzarello, N. (2016) SPACE10 plants inhabitable 'growroom' in
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beyond the myth. Stockholm: Arvinius. Figure 5: Cox, R. (2013) Exterior of the Better Shelter in
Ethiopia. Available at:
Hucal, S. (2016) The Rise of Scandinavian Design, Curbed.
https://bettershelter.org/press/press-images/ (Accessed:
Available at:
31 December 2019).
https://www.curbed.com/2016/3/23/11286010/scandinavi
an-design-arne-jacobsen-alvar-aalto-muuto-artek Figure 6: Interior of the Better Shelter in Iraq (2015). Available
(Accessed: 31 December 2019). at: https://bettershelter.org/press/press-images/
(Accessed: 31 December 2019).
SPACE10 open sources The Growroom (2017). Available at:
https://medium.com/space10/space10-open-sources-the-
growroom-aa7ca6621715 (Accessed: 31 December
2019).

Van De Sype, K. (2018) Dit tafeltje van IKEA kost 69,90 euro
en zou volgens bekende veilingsite over enkele jaren
duizenden euro’s waard kunnen zijn, hln.be. Available at:
https://www.hln.be/nieuws/binnenland/dit-tafeltje-van-
ikea-kost-69-90-euro-en-zou-volgens-bekende-
veilingsite-over-enkele-jaren-duizenden-euro-s-waard-
kunnen-
zijn~a1937f27/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.
com%2F (Accessed: 31 December 2019).

Wainwright, O. (2017) Why Ikea's flatpack refugee shelter won

design of the year, The Guardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/jan/27/
why-ikea-flatpack-refugee-shelter-won-design-of-the-
year (Accessed: 31 December 2019).

6

Design for Equality: The
Ultimate Goal of Democ-
racy
20.02.2020
Yuyang Wang
The mutual effect between technology and democ-
racy has been much discussed over time. Some
have pointed out that technology may contain the
process of democratization (e.g. certain energy
technologies requiring a central system of con-
trol), others have argued that technology can play
a positive role in the process of seeking democracy
(e.g. information technology supporting the Arab
Spring). Equality, as the ultimate goal of democ-
racy, has not only been mentioned in discussions
about the strike of new technologies, but also in
discussions on the design process of development
of innovative objects.
Design for equality, for example, we talked about
how costume design can be a fairly expensive
profession to break into, and how many groups (i.e.
students from low-income communities) may be
priced out of entering into design industry based
on simple things like the cost of hardware and
software to be able to create simple design outputs,
may therefore both be outcome oriented (through
adopting methods of value sensitive design) and
process oriented (through adopting methods of
participatory design). Democracy is also related to
various other values, such as justice and transpar-
ency. Both recent developments (e.g. micro-tar-
geting voters on social media) and future promises
(e.g. the smart city) make design for democracy
more relevant than ever. Various researchers of
Technology work to integrate the value of equality
into the process of design and innovation, in order
1
Design for Equality – Yuyang Wang
to advance democracy and equality. For example,
inviting people of different genders or ethnicities
to join the design team. In addition to this, mak-
ing users of different ages and physical conditions
participate in the product test.
Industrial design was truly formed and developed
at the beginning of the 20th century, which is
very different from traditional design, the most
fundamental difference is that industrial design is
closely related to large industrial production and
modern civilization, to modern social life style and
economic operation, and to modern science and
cultural and artistic trends. These are not available
in traditional design.
Strong consumption ability, along with the cultural
concept and aesthetic trend of internationalization
and democratization, has rapidly expanded into
an international commodity consumption market.
Elegant culture and art are rapidly being civil-
ianized with mass-produced products. Industrial
design has changed the direction of the previous
design, design for serving the nobility, the ten-
dency of nobility in the design style is gradually
diluted, the trend of democracy and opposition
to designing for the powerful are becoming more
and more strong. The prominence of individual-
ism and the dominance of democracy are one of
the greatest features of industrial design. This new
social situation and consumption structure stimu-
late the development of industrial production and
promote society into the consumption era. Busi-
nessism quickly became the main driving force
behind design. Design has become a promotional
tool, creating the conditions for the ideal of serving
the public through the market way advocated by
industrial design.
At the beginning of the 20th century, along with
the rise of a number of typical design and art
schools such as Bauhaus (Figure 1), the discipline
foundation of industrial design was gradually
established, and the first generation of professional

Figure 1: Bauhaus Building by Walter Gropius (1925–26), bauhaus-dessau.de
industrial designers oriented towards society and
enterprises were gradually cultivated.
“Our guiding principle was that design is neither
an intellectual nor a material affair, but simply
an integral part of the stuff of life, necessary for
everyone in a civilized society.”[1]
Bauhaus is an ideal school for architecture and art.
Some believe that its highlights lingered on April
1, 1919, when the first headmaster, Walter Gropius,
read out a utopian manifesto, he wanted to build
a new organization that would seek a “new unity”
in craft, art and technology. The teaching methods
of Bauhaus schools are different from in the past
and celebrate collective cooperation. Some people
flock to Bauhaus because it represents the desire
to transform society. In the early days Bauhaus
was known for its anti-bourgeoisity. The second
headmaster of Bauhaus, Hannes Meyer, famously
said that “People’s needs, not extravagant needs,
2
Design for Equality – Yuyang Wang
should be met”. Later, Bauhaus’s socialist tempera-
ment became an important reason for the Nazis to
oppose it.
But what is best known for Bauhaus is the func-
tionalist design philosophy, which is very different
from its early years, but it also makes Bauhaus a
brand, not just a school. The brand, which pro-
motes industrialization and mass production, is
part of the modernist movement.
During the period of the rise of Bauhaus style, a
large number of professional industrial designers
appeared, designing many classic products. The
Barcelona chair, shown in Figure 2, was designed
by Bauhaus‘s third president, Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe, for the German Pavilion at the International
Exposition of 1929, hosted by Barcelona, Cata-
lonia, Spain. The Barcelona chair has an curved
cross-shaped stainless steel frame supporting
leather cushions, two rectangular leather cushions
that form cushions and backrests. Beautiful and
functional.

Figure 2: Barcelona Chair, Knoll Archive, March 28, 2011,
Knoll Inc., knoll-int.com.
Although many architects and furniture design-
ers of the Bauhaus era were intent on providing
well-designed homes and impeccably manufac-
tured furnishings for the „common man“, the
Barcelona chair was an exception. It was designed
for the Spanish Royalty to oversee the opening cer-
emonies of the exhibition and described by Time
magazine as inhabiting “his sumptuous German
pavilion.”[2] The form is thought to be extrapolated
from Roman folding chairs known as the Curule
chair – upholstered stools used by Roman aristoc-
racy. According to Knoll Inc., despite its industrial
appearance the Barcelona chair requires much
hand craftsmanship.
In his 1981 book about modern architecture, From
Bauhaus to Our House, Tom Wolfe called the
Barcelona chair as “the Platonic ideal of chair”, and
wrote that, despite its high price, owning one had
become a necessity for young architects: “When
you saw the holy object on the sisal rug, you
knew you were in a household where a fledgeling
architect and his young wife had sacrificed every-
thing to bring the symbol of the godly mission
into their home.”[3]
Continuous evolution of manufacturing capabil-
ities, business needs, human factors, materials,
and contexts created a wide spectrum of ways in
3
Design for Equality – Yuyang Wang
which industrial designers could express a partic-
ular product. However, it was the embedding of
electronics into products that resulted in the most
radical shift in both design possibilities and rela-
tionships between people and objects. For the first
time, the potential behavior and functionality of a
product was disconnected from its physical form.
Consider the difference between a chair and a
radio. Although chairs vary widely in form and
materials, the way that a person uses them is large-
ly self-evident, without instruction or confusion.
With a radio, the functionality is more abstract.
The shape of a knob may communicate its ability
to turn, but not necessarily what it controls.
A designer of electronic products uses a mix of dif-
ferent controls, displays, colors, and words to com-
municate the purpose of various components and
provide clarity in how they work together. When
this is done poorly, users can be overwhelmed and
confused by the possibilities and interrelationships,
requiring them to read a manual before operating
the product.
German industrial designer Dieter Rams is a
master at simplifying these complex electronic
products to their essential form (Figure 3). Rams
Figure 3: Braun SK 2 Radio, Kuen Chang, June 17, 2010,
oreilly.com.

Figure 4: Apple Watch Series 5, apple.com
designed simple, iconic products for German
household appliance company Braun for over 40
years, where he served as the Chief Design Offi-
cer until his retirement in 1995. His understated
approach and principle of “less but better” resulted
in products with a timeless and universal nature.
He was restrained in the amount of language used
to label knobs and switches, relying on color and
information graphics to communicate a product’s
underlying behavior in an intuitive manner.
Part of Rams’s enduring legacy is his ten principles
for good design[4], which are rooted in his deep
industrial design experience and remain relevant
decades later to a broad range of designers. The
principles we chose for this book overlap with his
list, emphasizing those that relate best to UX and
interaction design challenges. Much has been writ-
ten about Rams’s ten principles, and we encourage
you to review his list as a jumping-off point for
further learning and inspiration.
Rams has influenced many contemporary de-
4
Design for Equality – Yuyang Wang
signers, and between 2008 and 2012 the Less and
More retrospective of his work traveled around the
world, showcasing over 200 examples of his land-
mark designs for Braun. During an interview with
Gary Hustwit, Dieter Rams said that Apple is one
of the few companies today that consistently create
products in accordance with his principles of good
design.
It’s no surprise that Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Chief
Design Officer, is a fan of Rams’ work. Since join-
ing Apple in the early 1990s, the British industrial
designer has overseen the launch of radical new
product lines with unique and groundbreaking
designs, including the iPhone, iPad, and Apple
Watch (Figure 4). Regarding these innovations, he
emphasizes that being different does not equate to
being better. In reference to the first iMac design,
Ive has said that “the goal wasn’t to look different,
but to build the best integrated consumer com-
puter we could. If as a consequence the shape is
different, then that’s how it is.”[5]
 Design for Equality – Yuyang Wang

The market opportunity in health and Medical is
huge, and Apple sees healthcare and wellness as a
core part of its app, services, and wearables strate-
gies. Now the company is aiming to become your
personal health record, jumping into research,
medical devices, and more.
There are few major reasons for Apple’s moves into
the highly regulated world of healthcare. Tech gi-
ants, for one, are becoming more competitive with
one another, encroaching on territories Apple has
historically dominated: Google is making phones,
Amazon is focusing on home hardware, the wear-
ables market is saturated, and so on. As tech giants
continue to move into Apple’s territory, healthcare
can help the company differentiate its products and
further reach its core goals, which include:
1. Selling more high-margin hardware.
2. Increasing switching costs from its ecosystem.
3. Expanding its service offerings (Apple Cloud,
App Store, etc.).
sides. At the same time, the link between design
and democracy is growing. But further, democracy
is rooted in equality. Just as the Apple Watch brings
to more people a equal chance of getting help, De-
sign in the future should also strive to bring equali-
ty and excellent experiences to everyone.
Literature
[1]. interviewmagazine.com: Form and Function. Berlin
2009.
[2]. content.time.com: Art: Architects‘ Furniture. 1957.
[3]. Tom Wolfe: From Bauhaus to Our House. New York
1981.
[4]. Dieter Rams: The Ten Commandments on Design. Ham-
burg 1995.
[5]. Leander Kahney, Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s
Greatest Products. New York 2013

This is more conceivable thanks to the prolifer- Figures

ation of FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Figure 1: Bauhaus Building by Walter Gropius (1925–26),
Resources) technology, which looks to increase bauhaus-dessau.de
interoperability among hospitals, physicians, and Figure 2: Barcelona Chair, Knoll Archive, March 28, 2011,
other relevant parties. FHIR creates standards Knoll Inc., knoll-int.com
for different data elements so that developers can Figure 3: Braun SK 2 Radio, Kuen Chang, June 17, 2010,
build application programming interfaces (APIs) oreilly.com
that can be used to access datasets from different Figure 4: Apple Watch Series 5, apple.com
systems. Apple is part of the group pushing this
standard forward.
Finally, Apple can use healthcare as a means to dis-
tribute its products into the hands of demograph-
ics that it has traditionally had a tough time pen-
etrating: the low-income and elderly populations.
Considering these groups are disproportionately
more likely to be sick, Apple can position itself as a
tool to improve outcomes and distribute via family
members or insurance carriers.
Design has now permeated our daily lives from all

5
 Mass Customization and Democratic Design – Sofiia Skryhunets
Mass Customization and
Democratic Design
10.01.2020
Sofiia Skryhunets
We are in the midst of a move beyond designing for
people (traditional design) in the direction of approa-
ches for designing with people (participatory design).
We are also starting to observe a move beyond de-
signing with people to the exploration of approa-
ches for designing by people [1].
In the 80s, Stan Davis, based on Alvin Toffler and
B. Joseph Pine‘s ideas, proposed the concept of mass
customization, by which he understood the possi-
bility of providing individually designed products
and services for each customer through flexible
production processes [2].
Democracy generally refers to government by the
people — all the people. Similarly, with democracy
concerning design — we mean designing by all of
them. For instance, a lot of us know Eric S. Ray-
mond‘s book »The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Mu-
sings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental
Revolutionary«. It is an original text that expresses
the idea of open-source codes, which is considered
a form of democratization in modern technolo-
gy. Raymond believed that there are two opposing
approaches to software development [3].
According to the cathedral model, the software and
technology belong exclusively to the developer.
In 1960-1970s computer centers were like
cathedrals, where developers went to code.
According to the bazaar model, on the con-
trary, the software is available to anyone
who wants to take part in the development.
In the bazaar model, technology is everywhere.
This approach also partly explains why modern
people have supercomputers everywhere - in their
1
pockets, on their wrists, and so forth.
But as can be seen from the opposition between
the two models, any idea (e.g. technology) be-
comes more effective when it is democratized:
when it uses the hands of millions of people.
The same can be said about design.
Therefore in case of design in the hands of non-de-
signers we can refer to the design thinking process.
The democratization of design means that its lan-
guage and a dictionary will be the property of the
world. This is important as only a relatively small
part of the design went beyond professional circles.
Nevertheless, where do we stand today on the de-
mocratization of design? The design has been
undoubtedly undergoing revolutionary changes
over the past decades.
The emergence of interest in research using the po-
tential of collaborative work, involving the team in
the design process can be traced back to the work
of G. Bjerknes and his colleagues [4] who brought
together the proceedings of a conference on »Com-
puter and Democracy« held at Aarhus University in
Denmark in 1985.
At that time, the parametric design was not yet a
settled term, but only an emerging field of research
and practice revolving around the idea of democra-
tization and improving quality of life.
While »cooperative design« and the »Scandinavian
approach« to system design are clear signs of descri-
bing such design activities, in which designers and
users are actively involved, »participatory design«
has become the term that such activities have come
to be called [5]. It is worth mentioning another
work based on the review of the 1993 conference
»Design for, with and by the user« by U. Briefs [6].
Now it is difficult to think of developing any new
product or idea without the participation of a wide
range of people, including end-users.
Participation, joint development has become a key
feature not only of participatory design (cooperati-
ve design), but also of related trends in co-design,
 Mass Customization and Democratic Design – Sofiia Skryhunets
co-creation, design-industry.
Several companies are adopting parame-
tric driven digital interfaces that enable
the user to change design parameters to personalize
a product. This »democratization« of design - as it
is being called - has multiple social, cultural, and
design implications.
One of the features of the modern era is the rapid
development of science and technology, focusing
on the individual, which causes the transformati-
on of production and consumption processes and,
consequently, the transformation of design as a
connecting element between them.
Moreover, one of the trends is the ever-increasing
individualization of products and services. There is
a deconstruction of the classical marketing organiz-
ation of production, a gradual increase in the role of
the consumer, its direct inclusion in the processes of
production and design of the product.
It not only provides an environment for construc-
ting different iterative cycles but also implements
the creation of innovative design methods, assem-
bly, and fabrication processes. From the standpoint
of a market, consumers have become more deman-
ding for diversity, uniqueness, and personalization.
The ability of parametric design to generate va-
riations and imply products where the users can
shape the parameters, combined with the aptitude
of digital fabrication to render this variety of phy-
sical is potentially one of the deepest aspects
of the contemporary use of computation in de-
sign[7].
The concept of mass customization has different
implications in different sectors ranging from the
customization of products, services, and experien-
ces. It may operate in different production levels -
design, production, or post-production.
By way of example, in architecture, the idea of com-
bining the economy of scale with personalizati-
on is not new. Most buildings combine standardly
mass-produced components to generate non-stan-
2
dard personalized designs.
It is also essential to highlight the varieties of mass
customization as well as their primary strategies
for successful implementation. They include four
types: collaborative, adaptive, cosmetic and trans-
parent customization. The primary strategies of im-
plementation are differentiation, cost lowering by
outsourcing the production to suppliers and cutting
the intermediators between the company and its
customers.
The methodology used for this essay is a review and
analyses of different examples of mass-customiza-
Figure 1. Knobs assortment, Prettypegs, 2020
tion products. Those examples range from AI Po-
wered Startup »ELSE Corp«, »Prettypegs« - small
personalized furniture company, Pop-up-project
»Vitra«, »The Modern Modular« by RES4 and »Em-
bryological House« by Greg Lynn.
ELSE Corp offers technological solutions for Virtu-
al Retail and Cloud Manufacturing to fashion
brands, retailers, manufacturers, and designers.
They provide the fashion industry with an open and
a reliable platform for 3D Virtual Retail.
Furthermore, a different area is the customization
of IKEA furniture. Almost everyone has experi-
mented in this field. Besides, there are whole com-
panies that specialize in this particular business.
In addition to mass customization, individual ad-
aptation of finished products is just as much po-
 Mass Customization and Democratic Design – Sofiia Skryhunets

Figure 2. Prefab - The Modern Modular, RES4, 2015.

pular: with the assistance of specific companies, in

workshops, or independently.
For instance, »The Prettypegs« (Figure 1), where
you can order any legs for standard furniture, in-
cluding brass or sharpened. By offering accessories
such as legs, knobs, and fronts that add personality
to IKEA furniture, people also tend to keep their Figure 3. Prefab - The Modern Modular, RES4, 2015.
furniture longer.
What is more, different platforms enable anyo- chitecture offers »modern modular« homes formed
ne to choose the house design they like, explo- from a range of standardized modules.
re available options, and then simply modify This makes it possible to minimize the cost of pro-
it (within some carefully imposed limits)[8]. duction and maximize possible combinations avai-
The website by New York studio Resolution: 4 Ar- lable for the consumer. They have designed over 120

3
 Mass Customization and Democratic Design – Sofiia Skryhunets
Figure 4. Eames Plastic Chair Pop-Up Store, Vitra, 2017.
modern prefab homes using modular, panelized,
and hybrid construction methods. RES4’s syste-
matic design methodology - The modern modular
- leverages existing prefabrication methods to pro-
duce modern custom homes.
The Eames Plastic Chair pop-up store is also worth
noting. In autumn 2017, »Vitra« has opened two
pop-up stores in the cities of Zurich and Amster-
dam. The temporary shops were dedicated to the
Eames Plastic Chair by Charles and Ray Eames,
where visitors can come across the high adaptabi-
lity of this design classic and configure their own
personal chair. The Swiss furniture manufacturer is
establishing a hybrid retail approach that amplifies
the stationary shopping experience with contempo-
rary digital components and consequently unites
the benefits of on- and offline commerce.
Through »the Embryological House« Lynn recon-
siders the concept of the manufactured house, mo-
ving from the modernist idea of a form based on
modules to a form based on potentially unlimited
iterations derived from a basic form, or »primiti-
ve«. (Figure 5). His purpose was to design and cre-
ate houses that display a large variety on the basis
of mutual regulating principals of »mass customi-
zation« to allow the mass production of individu-
ally unique products. Lynn looks forward to the
modern potential of computer-aided design and
computer-numerically-controlled (CNC) manufac-
turing to support this kind of design process [9].
4
Y. Moon highlighted three market positioning stra-
tegies aimed at changing consumer perceptions of
products - reverse positioning, detachable positio-
ning and concealed positioning [10].
In conclusion, the following factors contribute to
the high relevance of individualized products: the
rapid development of production and information
technology, in particular, 3D-printing, AI-oriented
design, modern technology robotics, which provi-
des opportunities for flexible production systems.
With 3D modeling, scanning and printing, mass
customization becomes possible because of the pro-
cess of creating individual products is accelerated,
the price remains reasonable, and people can pro-
duce items on their own.
Digital technologies allow creating uniform infor-
mation space for communication and interaction of
all interested in the project: not only and engineers,
technologists, developers (that is very important for
creation of as much as possible perfect product in
the technical plan), but also consumers, investors,
designers; digital technologies allow the consumer
to test and understand sensations and impressions
from use of a product even before actual manufac-
ture that allows us to make changes or to make de-
cisions on the improvement of a product.
Only then is it possible to create not just a device,
but a genuinely customized product with a high
consumer value.
The process of individualization of products and,
in particular, mass customization changes the very
process of consumption, which becomes not only
an act of choice from available alternatives, but also
an act of creativity - both the surrounding reality
and itself. Here lies both the humanist potential and
the danger, because things will no longer be deaf
masks reflecting the image and style laid down by
the designer but will become reflections of the per-
sonalities of their users.
 Mass Customization and Democratic Design – Sofiia Skryhunets
Figure 5. Embryological House: Size “A” eggs, Greg Lynn, ca. 1999.
Literature
[1] Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders and Pieter Jan Stappers: From
Designing to Co-designing to Collective Dreaming: Three
Slices in Time, in ACM Interactions, 2014.
[2] Piller, F.T.: Key research issues in user interaction with
user toolkits in a mass customisation system.
[3] Raymond, Eric: The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings
on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutinary
Würzburg, 1997.
[4] Bjerknes, G. et al. Computers and Democracy: A Scandi-
navian Challenge. Farnham: Gower Pub Co., 1987.
[6] Briefs U., Ciborra C.U.: Systems Design For, With, and by
the Users: Proceedings of the Ifip Wg 9.1 Working
Conference on Systems Design For, With, and by
the Users, Riva Del Sole, Italy, 20-24 September 1982.
[7] Van Stralen, Mateus: Mass Customization: a critical
perspective on parametric design, digital fabrication and
design democratization, Federal University of Minas
Gerais, November 2018.
5
[8] Kolarevic, Branko: From Mass Customisation to Design
Democratisation, 2015.
[9] Shubert, Howard and Lynn, Greg: Discuss of software use
and the genesis of the Embryological House,
29-30 October 2007.
[10] Moon Y.: In defiance of the life cycle // Harvard Business
Review: Russia, October 2005.
Figures
Figure 1: Knobs assortment, Prettypegs, 2020.
Available at: https://www.prettypegs.com/
de/237-knopfe
(Accessed: January 10, 2020).
Figure 2: Prefab - The Modern Modular, RES4, 2015.
Available at: https://www.re4a.com/prefab#/
the-modern-modular/ (Accessed: January 10,
2020).
 Mass Customization and Democratic Design – Sofiia Skryhunets

Figure 3: Prefab - The Modern Modular, RES4, 2015.

Available at: https://www.re4a.com/prefab#/
the-modern-modular/ (Accessed: January 10,
2020).
Figure 4: Eames Plastic Chair Pop-Up Store, Vitra,
2017. Available at: https://www.vitra.com/en-ie/
home (Accessed: January 10, 2020).
Figure 5: Embryological House: Size “A” eggs, Greg Lynn,
ca. 1999. Available at: https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/
articles/issues/4/origins-of-the-digital/5/embryo-
logical-house (Accessed: January 10, 2020).

6
 Range Sliders and Their Democratic Power – Erik Wetendorf
Range Sliders and Their
Democratic Power
20th February 2020
Erik Wetendorf
Wording and emphasis of the description for Fabio
Gramazio and Matthias Kohlers project »mSHA-
PE« together with the first product that emerged
from it, the »mTABLE« (Fig. 1), can invoke the im-
pression that the world was already entering a new
age of democratic design in 2002: »mSHAPE is a
PARAMETRIC DESIGN PROJECT [sic.] which
EMPOWERS PEOPLE to affect the SHAPE of a
design object. […] mTABLE ENABLES PEOPLE to
create THEIR OWN TABLE using a mobile pho-
ne.« (architonic.com 2020). Empowering, enabling,
shaping the design – with the »mTABLE« Grama-
zio and Kohlers created one of the first parametric
1
Fig. 1 – »mTable«-customizing phone interface (left) and the
resulting »mTABLE« (right) in front of various »mTables«
created with the phone application (Gramazio and Kohler
2008: 105).
designs (Kolarevic 2015: 53), that everyone could
customize to their taste all through the interactive
interface of a now antic seeming Nokia phone. This
early example, which will be taken a closer look at
later in this essay, can be viewed as an archetype
for »Mass Customization« in the field of industrial
design. The novel take on the design process, enab-
led through technological progress and digitizati-
on, raises new questions regarding a design scienti-
fic classification and the democratization of design.
This essays intention is to research different
approaches to mass customization based on three
specific examples and to evaluate the democratic
power of the different implementations. Therefore
this essay is structured with a short historical clas-
sification of design paradigms and a clarification
 Range Sliders and Their Democratic Power – Erik Wetendorf
of special terms with their definition in a design
context. Each example will then first be described
from a formal aesthetic point of view and later on
examined for the implementation of mass custo-
mization and the corresponding democratic power
that derives from it.
Historical classification
In order to judge the development of design
through the new age of digitality in the late 20th
and early 21st century, a look at the historical
context is mandatory. With the development of
mass production at the end of the 19th century,
initiated by industrialization and mechanical
progress , the profession of the designer emerged
from art, craft and industry (Mundt 1990: 7). The
serial character of industrial production formed
new requirements for the design of objects, thus
the concept of »Design« and »Industrial Design«
in particular started to develop. Over the course of
the 20th century, different paradigms influenced
the way industrial designers worked. The principle
of functionalism for example emerged from mass
production and set the focus of design to the sole
purpose and construction of objects, strictly subor-
dinating the visual aesthetics in the design process
(ibid.). Opposed to this, designers in the age of
postmodernism began to experiment and created
objects that resembled pieces of artistic expressi-
on, like for example the memphis design group in
the 1980s. As it is common in art, the focus lies
on the artists themselves, their view on the wor-
ld, their way of thinking and their way to process
their environment. Another example is the famous
»Eames-Chair«, that carries the name of the desi-
gners, Ray and Charles Eames, in the name – in-
dicating the strong connection between designed
object and the designers themselves. This renders
the chair as an expression of their own, putting
emphasis on the special and singular design piece.
A good fit to describe this development is the term
2
»Singularity« that is coined by social- and cultural
scientists such as Andreas Reckwitz. They use it
to describe the abandonment of the standardized
and general for the special and particular (Reck-
witz 2017: 1). This transition can be observed in
nearly all spheres of society. As described before,
the shift from design paradigms like functionalism
to design as a form of artistic expression with a big
focus on special design pieces fits into this descrip-
tion. It‘s not just any chair – it‘s the Eames-Chair.
Later on, rapid technological progress, the rise
of the internet and digitality in general lowered
the barriers for everyone to access design specific
tools, so new approaches, that are in opposition to
the paradigm of singularity, emerged. Open Design
projects for example stand out because participa-
tion and a community based thinking aim for the
exact opposit of singularity, rendering the design
process less elitarian and causing flatter hierar-
chies. Open Design approaches also sparked the
discussion about democratization of design. In a
community based design process no single person
can claim the authorship for the work created and
everybody can get the ability to take part in the
design and influence it. The more »singular« the
design and the process are the less democratic it is,
because it is exclusive. This is why the classification
of the examples in this essay in regard to their sin-
gular notion is important – it stands in connection
with the democratization of design.
In contrast to the exclusive and elitarian singu-
lar approach to special design pieces, decades of
mass production and seriality in industrial design
also led to a kind of »cultural homogeneity«, that
can be observed in both industrial design and ar-
chitecture. Together with the rise of singularity in
society itself this led to the development of »mass
customization« in the 1990s (Kolarevic, 2019: 49).
The term references the mixture of »mass produc-
tion« on the one hand and the term »customizati-
on« on the other, normally associated with a small
 Range Sliders and Their Democratic Power – Erik Wetendorf
scale handcraft level of production. All this is made
possible through the digital revolution and its
connection to industrialized processes, significant-
ly influenced by the rise of the interface and the
paradigm of human-centered design at the end of
the 20th century. The design of mass customizable
products differs from the design process of conven-
tional products. Designers can’t focus on a single
»perfect« design anymore, they need to create a
parametric design. The parameters are the com-
ponents or features that users can change themsel-
ves later on. A parametric design thus creates the
ability to generate variation and bespoken, perso-
nalized products through the use of an interactive
interface and a file-to-factory process (Kolarevic
2015: 52). The mass production of non-standard
products can still be judged as a novelty in many
branches and is thus also very interesting for mar-
keting. »Create your own sneaker«-like campaigns
are the result. Regarding democratization of design
processes this essay will examine the notion of
authorship and the level of customization that the
examples offer. Eric von Hippel also proposes that
the ability to innovate a product is a key to measu-
re the democratic notion in the design (2005: 64).
This is relevant because while approaches like the
just mentioned »Design you own sneaker«-campa-
igns are exemplaric for mass customization, they
neglect the users power to innovate the product.
Users are strictly limited to superficial features like
the color of different components of the shoe
Since the interface is the way people get to
customize their product it shall also be judged how
the interaction of the customization offers feed-
back to users to evaluate their own design and how
many parameters the design allows to customize.
mTABLE
The first example to be examined is the mTABLE
(Fig. 1) by Gramazio and Kohlers from 2002, that
was already mentioned in the introduction. The
3
design of the table follows the formal aesthetic cha-
racteristics of a conventional dining table – it has
four legs and a tabletop. But the tabletop is what
makes the table special. Customers could choose
the size, dimensions, material, and color of the
tabletop from their cell phone by changing corres-
ponding range sliders in the interface. After doing
so they could place deformation points on the un-
derside of the table and »press« them (Fig 1 left) to
deform the table tops underside. These points were
then able to break through the surface, creating
holes with thin edges, turning the table‘s top and
underside into a distinct landscape with a certain
topology defined by the users interaction. The pro-
gram on the cell phone then verified the practica-
bility of the design. The designers intention behind
the project becomes clear in a paper explaining the
questions Gramazio and Kohler tried to answer
with their project (2008: 104 f.). For example how
much responsibility a customer assumes and who
ultimately is the author. To what extent does the
co-designer identify with the product?
The responsibility taken by the people custo-
mizing their own table can be assessed as rather
low regarding the program that kept them from
choosing options impossible to produce. Also
judging the project and the tables originating from
it nearly twenty years later the variations (back-
ground of Fig. 1) mainly impress through their
similarity to each other. So questions about au-
thorship are rather easy to answer. Gramazio and
Kohlers also need to put up with the assumption
that their project mainly targeted the IKEA effect
(Norton, Mochon and Ariely 2011: 21), when they
were asking how much the co-designer identifies
with his or her product. It describes the effect, that
people have stronger connection with things that
they assembled, made or designed themselves.
Also the novelty of being able to design through
a cell-phone probably had a great effect on how
people perceived their table.
 Range Sliders and Their Democratic Power – Erik Wetendorf
The table can be clearly attributed to the pa-
radigm of singularity. The customization of the
tabletop is an integral part of the concept. It is very
clear, that holes in a tabletop don’t correspond with
a functionalist approach. Together with the whole
concept everything indicates a rather artistic work.
Nevertheless the project does offer a democratic
notion, because the consumers still had the ability
to co-design the table in a very easy and accessible
manner, something that differs from the conventi-
onal design process. But the interface didn’t leave
room for innovation but more for the mere appli-
cation of the designers concept and idea.
Fig. 2 – Step 1 of the Evolvex Design Tool. (Maly 2012)
Fig. 3 – Step 2 of the Evolvex Design Tool. (ibid.)
Evolvex furniture design tool
The next example takes a different approach to
mass customization. The Australian based design
studio »Luxmy« offered a concept implementing
mass-customizable features dating back to 2012.
4
With the help of an interactive, web based design
tool (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3) customers were able to
choose from a base model of furniture (Fig 2) and
customize it to fit their own taste and needs, using
a palette of modular parts (Fig 3). After placing
an order the parts needed for the product were
added to the production schedule, this manufac-
turing-on-demand model helped them to control
costs. Although the project is no longer active
there are still videos of people using the interactive
tool. In contrast to the mTABLE project, ques-
tions regarding authorship are harder to answer
in this example. While the mTABLE offered a very
unique design on its own and the parameters open
for customization were limited in a way that no
completely new design was to be expected, the
»Evolvex« concept offered an option to include
user-creations in a catalog of »notable designs«,
hence implying that the designs created with the
program have a stronger diversification due to the
modular design approach. A simple customization
of color and dimensions doesn’t render a creation
»notable«, an innovative one does.
The furniture created with the »Evolvex« tool
also differs in another way from the previous
example. The mTABLE already had a certain name
and look associated with it and the customers were
part of the concept, implementing the designers
vision. The »Step 1« of the Evolvex’ web-tool on
the other hand doesn’t display names for the base
furniture models that act as starting points for
the following design process (Fig. 2). The preview
images purpose is to give the users a general idea
of what they can create, resembleing different types
of furniture in general, featuring parts that they
have in stock (e.g. wheels or cupboard legs). So
the customer is not customizing a certain »Evol-
vex« design, but more creating a general piece fo
furniture. The interface provided for the following
design process seems targeted at people with no
previous experience in furniture design hence
 Range Sliders and Their Democratic Power – Erik Wetendorf
offering a broad group of people access to the
customization functionality. While some aspects
of the interaction also indicate a marketing dri-
ven character of the project the overall experience
seems to fit well into a novel category of mass
customization approaches. The name »Evolvex«
does not allow direct association with the »Luxmy«
design studio, the modules don’t resemble special,
well known design objects and the interface allows
for an appropriate level of innovation user-wise.
Thus the democratizing notion of the project is
quite high, even though there are some aspects that
could easily be improved like a wider variety of
modular parts. Initial parameters of customization
leave enough room for consumers to create origi-
nal products. Still the project doesn’t offer a com-
pletely open approach to mass-customization since
the modules in the design process are all provided
by »Evolvex« and not customizable themselves.
So the project holds some aspects of singularity,
because after a successful design the product will
still be associated with the »Evolvex« design tool
or the »Luxmy« design studio. But the question
of authorship is way harder to answer because the
ability to innovate is much larger.
Fig. 4 – The interface of the »MatterMachine« (von Stralen
2018: 5)
MatterMachine toolkit
The last example is the now offline product design
and customization toolkit »MatterMachine«. The
projects goal is to “catalyse the democratization of
5
manufacturing«. It is a browser based CAD-pro-
gram that can be used to design and customize
physical products. An important difference to the
other examples is, that the MatterMachine is just
an interface (Fig. 4). The MatterMachines explicit
mission was to enable designers to easily define
»open« parameters in their CAD-designs and
thus allowing for easy co-creation of parametric
designs that others could customize later on. A
special node-editor could be used by the designers
to easily define dependencies in the design, that
react to certain customizations by a user, giving
the designer all the power about the level of custo-
mizing. Users can modify the design then with
range sliders to fit their personal needs. This also
means that there is no way to categorize the ability
to innovate of a product in the MatterMachine
in general, because each designer has their indi-
vidual power to identify dynamic parameters of
their design. The project acted as a collaborative
platform where these parametric designs could
be shared right after creation and downloaded or
customized by consumers. The CAD-design could
either be imported or directly created inside of the
MatterMachine, a feature that also democratizes
the access to often very expensive CAD-Software.
What makes MatterMachine so interesting is
that it allows for different approaches to customiz-
ation. It doesn’t dictate a certain level of openness
and that a designer must give up their authors-
hip in a way she or he doesn’t want to. But it also
allows for completely open sourced products with
a lot of variations. In a way the MatterMachine
is similar to the web community »Thingiverse«
(Thingiverse 2020) where 3D models for 3D-prin-
ting are collected in an open source way. But the
»Thingiverse« doesn’t offer an integrated, browser
based interface for CAD-modeling and -customi-
zation. So the democratic power of the MatterMa-
chine can be categorized as quite high, because
using it doesn’t require expensive software. It is
 Range Sliders and Their Democratic Power – Erik Wetendorf
fair for both the designer – decisions regarding the
openness of the design can be set by the author –
and the user that can create customizations in an
accessible manner. An interesting next step would
have been if online shops integrated links to the
corresponding MatterMachine-plan next to their
products and thus exposing users outside of the
open source community to the ability to customize
products.
Conclusion
The previous three examples represent different
approaches to mass customization. The mTABLE
uses mass customization as an inherent part of
the artistic concept, locating it clearly in the para-
digm of singularity with a strong connection to the
authors Gramazio and Kohlers. The customization
does not allow for unforseeable user innovation.
The »Evolvex« design tool follows a more open sty-
le. Base objects used for the further design process
are not clearly attributable to existing designers
and the interface offers a way to create innovative
furniture combinations distinguishing it clearly
from a sole product configurator.
The MatterMachine provided the most open
approach to the topic with a lot of potential to
simplify the creation of parametric designs for
designers, yet the connection to mass production
is missing, since the MatterMachine only provides
an interface. The adoption of the MatterMachine
in the context of mass production could have been
possible but never occurred. The fact that both
the »Evolvex« design tool and the MatterMachine
are offline nowadays and were not replaced by a
well known alternative stirs some questions and
assumptions. Just like in a real world context where
people have the democratic right to vote, a lot of
people don’t make use of this right because they
are not interested in politics. Maybe the same can
be said about the latter examples. Most people
are not willing to put the effort in to go for a high
6
level of customization. Platforms like Thingiverse
do well and still exist because people interested
in 3D printing are often also interested in open
source technology and in need of design models.
But regarding conventional furniture there is a
massive offer on the market to choose from. Most
cases of mass customization, for example in the
online shop of IKEA, offer only a small degree of
customization. Choosing color, maybe the mate-
rial and whether or not the chair will have wheels.
Those who want to customize more just go for a
different product that fits their needs. So in conclu-
sion approaches to mass customization do offer the
ability to democratize design to a certain extent.
This extent varies dependent on the amount of pa-
rameters a consumer can change. Questions about
authorship of customized products need to be ans-
wered case by case. Range sliders themselves can
offer democratic power if they allow for more than
just adjustment of color and size. The key factors
are the amount of authorship of the base models
used for the customization and the ability to come
up with innovative new creations.
Literature
architonic.com (2020): mTABLE #1 by M-SHAPE, [online]
https://www.architonic.com/en/product/m-sha
pe-mtable-1/1001698 [02.01.2020].
Gramazio, Fabio, and Kohler, Matthias (2008): Towards a
Digital Materiality. In Kolarevic, B. and Klinger, K.
(eds.): Manufacturing Material Effects: Rethinking
Design and Making Architecture, New York: Rout
ledge, p 103–118.
von Hippel, Eric (2005): Democratizing innovation: The
evolving phenomenon of user innovation. In: Jour
nal für Betriebswirtschaft., p 63–78.
Kolarevic, Branko (2015): From Mass Customisation to De-
sign »Democratisation«. Architectural Design, p.
48–53.

Maly, Tim (2012): The Ikea of Mass-Customized Fur-

niture, [online] https://www.wired.com/2012/07/
evolvex-custom-furniture/ [02.01.2020].

Mundt, Barbara (1991): Produkt-Design 1900–1990. Eine

Einführung. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.

Norton, M., Mochon, D., Ariely, D. (2011): The “IKEA

Effect”: When Labor Leads to Love. Harvard Busi
ness School working paper

Reckwitz, A. (2017): Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten: Zum

Strukturwandel der Moderne. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

van Stralen, Mateus. (2018): Mass Customization: a critical

perspective on parametric design, digital fabrication
and design democratization.

Thingiverse. (2020).What is Thingiverse?, [online] https://

www.thingiverse.com/about/ [17.02.2020].

Figures
Figure 1: Gramazio, Fabio, and Kohler, Matthias (2008):
Towards a Digital Materiality. In Kolarevic, B. and
Klinger, K.(eds.): Manufacturing Material Effects:
Rethinking Design and Making Architecture, New
York: Routledge, p 103–118.

Figure 2 and 3: Maly, Tim (2012): The Ikea of Mass-

Customized Furniture, [online] https://www.wi
red.com/2012/07/evolvex-custom-furniture/
[17.02.2020].

Figure 4: van Stralen, Mateus. (2018). Mass Customization:

a critical perspective on parametric design, digital
fabrication and design democratization.

7

The Future of Design
The way we see design nowadays and
how we can improve design in the future
21.02.2020
Alejandra Presedo
Design has had a place in society since tools were
designed, even without calling them a „design“ and
the meaning of this word had evolutionated since
then. Nowadays we are surrounded by design, and
our vision of it has changed. We, as a society, are
trying to find the best way to work in a sustainable
and responsible way to ensure our future and a he-
althy (both mental and physical) life. Our demand
is to find out the role of the designer in the society
as a tool to design products for a more sustainable,
responsible and less capitalist society.
The progress that is born with serial production in
the commerce industry is crucial to analyze both
the evolution of industrial designers and consu-
mers in a capitalist society; and analyze how the
role of the designer can improve the situation in
the industry today.
Before the birth of serial production, which comes
with the Industrial Revolution, the production was
mostly handmade. Through crafts, human com-
munities covered material needs such as clothing,
weapons of war, labor, transportation, etc. through
different techniques and practices based on the
ability of the man‘s hands.
Chain production arises with the Industrial Re-
volution between the eighteenth and twentieth
centuries, with the aim of raising the quality of
products and controlling the production time per
unit. To achieve these objectives, production is or-
ganized so that each worker specializes in a specific
function, carried out by his corresponding machi-
ne; machines that at that time had reached a high
1
The Future of Design – Alejandra Presedo
technological development.
The organization used to achieve greater efficiency
in chain production work in the Industrial Revo-
lution is called Taylorism, created by Frederick
Winslow Taylor (American economist mechanical
engineer); which is based on the measurement of
seconds and fractions of a second in each chain
operation, with the purpose of increasing the pro-
ductivity of workers.
With Taylorism as antecedent, Fordism appears
in the 20th century, named after Henry Ford, who
was the creator of the assembly line. This socioeco-
nomic system is based on serial industrial produc-
tion. Fordism promotes specialization, transforma-
tion of the industrial scheme and cost reduction.
This system aims to break the monopoly of work
and, thereby, lose control of production times.
From this impressive development of applied
sciences and industrial activity, which give way to
the Industrial Revolution, crafts are directly affec-
ted in a decadent manner.
The economic and technological changes that led
to the decline of handicrafts were no less than the
innovation of ideals that came with the serial pro-
duction and, with them, the capitalist development
and the devaluation of society towards artisan
work.
Serial production led directly to capitalism, whe-
re almost everyone could have access to certain
products due the low cost of their production. This
situation led to generate a capitalist idleness, where
happiness is sought from material objects.
In today‘s society, and for many years, capitalism
takes advantage of every situation to be present,
appropriating cultural traditions or creating new
ones that invite the exorbitant consumption of
material goods in determinated dates; apart from
inviting us every day to consumption through
advertisements, brands and images of a happy life
at your fingertips.

Currently we see advertising everywhere, being
part of our daily lives: we see it on the street, in sto-
res, on the internet, on social networks ...
The impact that advertising generates on its consu-
mers can be mainly, in two ways: the most com-
mon is that the consumer really believes that the
advertised product or service will bring greater
happiness or success than what he already has, just
for the payment and possession of the product its-
elf, it doesn‘t matter if it is a vacuum cleaner, a car
or a trip, leaving the responsibility of your happi-
ness and / or success in the hands of the product or
service consumed. These types of people will con-
tinue to consume what the market offers in search
of that happiness they crave and will never achieve
in this way. The other group of users are people
aware of the (not) power of these products and the
deception of advertising when they promise a bet-
ter life for the consumption of the product; These
users are responsible in their form of consumption,
analyzing and obtaining only those things that
they really need or want, without being fooled by
the promises of advertising and not holding those
material goods responsible for their happiness or
progress as a person.
From the hand of advertising comes design, which
is the first step to get a product to take shape and
be put on the market, having a very important, if
not essential, role in the capitalism, overproduc-
tion and overconsumism that we live in the 21st
century.
This design is commercialized with the arrival of
serial products, since all products, also handicrafts,
need a design for the realization of each of their
products; but there is a deifference with design
from the industrial revolution, due that it focuses
on the production of serial material goods; thus
separating the production process from the design
one.
Industrial design can mark its starting point in the
Great International Exhibition of 1851 in London,
2
The Future of Design – Alejandra Presedo
where the production of these objects must res-
pond to the demands of consumers, solving the
problems present in society and offering mainly
functional products, and not precisely aesthetic.
From this event the need arises to train designers
and design becomes a professional career.
From this exhibition it is concluded that the
design is the reflection of the moral state socially
speaking, and it is its duty to improve the living‘s
standard of society.
Figure 1: Interior view of the Great Exhibition of 1851, The
British Library Board, source: Antique Box Guide.
It is from this point that the designer has the
responsibility for what he generates and what this
product may or may not contribute to society and
the individual who uses it.
Leaving aside the utilitarian functions of the pro-
duct, which correspond to the function, form and
technology and which are innate to the design, we
can talk about the impact that the product has on
society, both in its individual and social consump-
tion.
»The designer should not seek the exteriorization
of his personality in the design, but the function
that the designed object fulfills in society and the

Figure 2: Project Cybersyn, Gui Bonsiepe, 1972.
use that it makes of that object.« (BONSIEPE, G.
Diseño industrial: Artefacto y proyecto. Madrid,
Alberto Corazón Editor, 1975, p. 54).
This idea reflects the idea of a good design. A good
design may vary depending on who you are asking,
but there are some definitions that generally makes
sense to everyone: the best and simplest version
of a product, a design that fulfills its function in
society solving a problem and the capacity of the
design to be intiutional and sustabinable.
As an example of this same designer, Giu Bonsiepe,
we have the Cybersyn project, a Chilean project
for real-time economic planning. This project
aimed to create an innovative cyber management
and information transfer system, trying to achieve
3
The Future of Design – Alejandra Presedo
long-term equality, empowering workers in decisi-
on making; unlike in countries like Cuba or Russia,
where a similar system was trying to be designed
but with a different objective: to give more power
to the political hierarchies of the Communist Party,
instead of looking for equality.
In this society there are also examples of designs
made with the aim of selling, leaving aside the
social and cultural part that a design entails. This
function of industrial design in society is a very
questioned issue in the criticism of the aesthetics
of consumer objects. A very interesting reflection
reflected in the 70s and with which we can still
identify as part of a capitalist society is the follo-
wing:

Figure 3: Dieter Rams.
»Design in the form practiced by capitalism serves
manipulation.« (THOMAS, K. Diccionario del arte
actual. Barcelona, Ed. Labor, 1978, p. 81-82)
This reflection leads us to question the design as a
way of manipulating the users so that they consu-
me, many times more than they need or solve a
problem. There is currently a huge overproduction
in both product and fashion design, producing
much more than can (or should) be consumed.
When the design is done with that goal in mind, it
is no longer a good design, since it is simply a form
of manipulation, so it is not an honest design; it‘s
about advertising.
Both areas, design and advertising, have a key
weight within the society in which we live and
their behavior. The question is: who has the power
over what is designed: the people who need certain
products or the companies that are responsible for
their manufacture and placing them on the mar-
4
The Future of Design – Alejandra Presedo
ket? And that brings us another question: How can
designers design for a more sustainable, responsib-
le and less capitalist society? Is that in the power of
the designer or in the consumer‘s demand?
Throughout history we find designers like Dieter
Rams, who opted for being true to a good design,
defined by himself from the following 10 princi-
ples: it is innovative, that makes a product useful,
aesthetic, that makes a product understandable ,
unobtrusive, hones, long-lasting, that is thorough
down to the last detail, enviromentally friendly and
that is as little design as possible.
Currently these standards are maintained within
the world of (good) design, being principles based
on the functionality, aesthetics and veracity of the
intentions and utility of the product, individually
and colectively.
From this definition and having as an example
designers who have marked history we can say that
if a designer is aware and responsible for his work
and the impact that this entails, he will be able to
make a good design, regardless of the society in
which he lives.
Currently and with the awareness of climate
change and the damage that this overproduction
does to Planet Earth, both the public and compa-
nies are beginning to change, offering more and
more sustainable products, more effectibely and
sustainable ways of productions (as it can be Open
Design), with more and more brands opting for
slow-fashion and also increasing consumption in
second-hand stores.
Currently there are movements such as Open De-
sign, where you bet on sustainable designs that are
not part of the “capitalist” indutry. Open Design
involves the development of physical products,
machines and systems trough publish the design‘s
information of the product. This new design is
facilitated through the Internet and its objective is
to offer, both free and remunched, the main design
and essential documents for its realization by the
 The Future of Design – Alejandra Presedo

user who consumes it. The principles of Open De- Rams, Dieter: Less but Better, 2014.
sign are: accesibility to the source file, transparency Adorno, Theodor W.: The Culture Industry, 1991.
in the design process, replicability and modularity Sudjic, Deyan: The language of Things, 2008.
as a posibility of a design to be separated in modu- Wikipedia. https://es.wikipedia.org
les, focusing on specific issues and facilitatying de- ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/
sign adjustments for application in toher contexts.
There are online companies that sell these types of Images
projects; This type of web pages is based on the fact Figure 1: Interior view of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Sour-
that the user buys the project of a product and this ce: http://www.antiquebox.org/the-great-exhibition-of-1851/
is done at a local factory (and usually handicraft) Figure 2: Project Cybersyn, Gui Bonsiepe, 1972. Source:
in the surroundings of his home; thus betting on https://www.americasquarterly.org/content/bartlett-long-
international and local designs at the same time. view-span
As consumers we have the choice to start to build Figure 3: Dieter Rams. Source: https://medium.com/what-is-
a better world trough small steps like asking to great-design/who-is-dieter-rams-82bfb80d94fc
ourselves what we are buying and for what, and
being more conscious and more responsible when
it comes to consuming, I believe that a reconcili-
ation with industrial design is possible, returning
to equip the industrial design with the defincition
that it has had, or should have had, always: a very
useful tool to solve problems that we are facing
both as individuals and as a collective within a so-
ciety; and facilitating the lives of those who consu-
me industrial products responsibly, both with
consumerism and with the environment.
From the role of the designer what, in my opinion,
is the most acceptable solution nowadays, is an im-
plementation of responsibility that currently lacks
within companies and even freelance designers.
This responsibility is a responsibility to the public,
industry and the environment, where the designer
must choose options more „healthy“ for the pro-
duction of your product, coming, perhaps some-
day, to live with a healthy industry and a healthy
society.

Literature
Boleyn, Tilly: Forms Without Ornament: A New Industrail
Design Process - Inside the Collection. Museum of Applied
Artes & Sciences, 2015.
Transitional Objects - Room One Thousand, 2018.

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