Quotes & Contradictions by The Index Project

Quotes & Contradictions DESIGN TO IMPROVE LIFE

The focus of INDEX: on Design to Improve Life was established during conversations with many hundreds of people in many parts of the world. To keep the focus alive and vibrant, we depend on listening. In early autumn 2008, we listened to 50 people talk to us about globalization, sustainability, education and design. We listened and discussed for more than 100 hours. DESIGN TO IMPROVE LIFE

What we heard was intriguing, interesting and insightful – and ﬁlled with contradictions, doubts and uncertainties. What you are about to read are the headlines and main quotes from our many conversations. You are about to explore a variety of views on some of the major trends and potentials in the world right now. We have not weeded out the contradictions, the uncertainties or the doubts, because they are precisely what describe our world today. Major thanks go to those who gave us their time to help us better understand the world and thus to better explore and promote Design to Improve Life. Enjoy! Kigge Hvid, CEO of INDEX: & Gunnar Näsman, Project Coordinator Copenhagen, January 2009

THE TRIBE

Among the six people in the INDEX: office in Copenhagen, there has for some years been a shared understanding that something good is going on in the world – in spite of wars, financial crises, hunger and seemingly unsolvable global challenges. For the past few years, we have called this phenomenon “the Tribe” and have referred to people as Tribe members wherever we identified their striking efforts, endless energy and intelligent approaches to improve life for other people around the world.

During our conversations, the Tribe was mentioned again and again in different ways. But always the concept was invoked as referring to something open, based in action, inclusive and preoccupied with new power, shared network-power, loathing old fashioned power, the kind of power that’s pursued only to be kept to oneself. Here is what people told us about the Tribe.

“They swirl, these tribalists do, with radiant energy when they get together. But can such diverse creativity be focused enough to accomplish the great work? or do we end up with what john sayles calls an ‘anarchists’ convention’?” porter anderson

”For tribal man space was the uncontrollable mystery. For technological man it is time that occupies the same role.” Marshall McLuhan

â&#x20AC;&#x153;T Thi hiss mo move veme mentt without a male lead der is prob pr obab a ly the he bes e t thing that has ever happened in the world ld. It canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be measured, captured, stop st o ped! There are so o ma m ny n of them that it has an effect on the world. The resource es are huge.â&#x20AC;? Bruce Mau

“We have worked harder here than we would do for any client and we didn’t even get paid” Arnold Wasserman, after a four-day seminar planning INDEX: strategy for the coming years.

Paul Hawken may be the person who knows most about ‘the Tribe’. One day he realized he had thousands of business cards from people, groups or companies dedicated to improving the state of the planet by acting/living/being environmental, social etc. He started looking into this and found what he calls

The Movement. What we call the Tribe is to Paul Hawken the largest movement on Earth and its deﬁning characteristics include no leaders, no name and a quick worldwide spread. It is a bottom-up movement found in every city, every town, every culture and religion.

“It is alm mosst liike I am m in a tower looking ng o out on a fo ore est s ful u l of p peo opl ple e wh w o are lookin ing g fo for a be ett tter e way y tto o live v . Th They ey come from all ove verr th the e worl wo rld d an a d I ﬁnd d my yse self lf talking to people whom I ha ave e no conn co nnection to, and we ar a e talk k ing the same langu guag age, ag e no e, no matt tter e our rel elig ig gio ion, n culltu t ra ral he eritage, nationality, inc ncome e e c.”” et Chris s Jo ordan an

“There is a netw t ork of peopl p e rising. Th hes e e people are interested in ‘g good od’’ is issues and n societal change. It is very exxciti ting ng.. Muham mmad d Y nu Yu n s did itt and what he did was to st s art small and then it develope ed and spread to the entire wor orld ld.. If you start small you yo u ca c n re eally make a diff ffer erence.” Alan Webber Al

E B IR T E H T

GLOBALIZATION

Here is what Wikipedia tells us about the complex, interlinked and diverse concepts of Globalization: Globalization in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are uniďŹ ed into a single society and function together. This process is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces. Globalization is often used to refer

to economic globalization, that is, integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital ďŹ&#x201A;ows, migration and the spread of technology. This is what we heard from the people we talked to:

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The 40-foot container is a much stronger driver for globalization than facebook, myspace, etc.â&#x20AC;? Christian Madsbjerg

Amid globalization, the world has seen enormous changes and has become so much smaller. This creates a lot of new possibilities for those who can afford them, and those possibilities are triggering more logistical hurdles, such as a massive rise in global air mileage

and products travelling the world in the manufacturing process before reaching their end-users. This, in turn, is a major environmental challenge: It connects the pressure of globalization with the prize of sustainability.

“The more you connect and d the mo more e cur urio ious you are r about ut new places, the more you travel. If yo you u do bussiness in china sooner or o later you will have to go to ch hina na.” .” Simon na Mas a chi

“Globalization is driven by ec e onom mic and political developme me ent, carried by communication. Alsso th he de desi s re to rule the world pla ays a rol olle in globalization.” Peter r By ysted

“When it comes to culture, it is very complex - and globalization brought profound cultural changes that are both positive and negative ” Sali Sasaki

This new ‘small world’ is challenging us. We are provided with a massive flow of information, and when something happens we know about it instantly. Globalization moves so fast that the human mind and emotions have difficulties understanding and accepting our differences, which leads to some of the conflicts that we see in the world today. 14

“We are connected ﬁnancially. The rise of corn prices in the US affects the price of a tortilla on the streets of Mexico City.” Ged Davis

“Facebook is a tool for communication where 90 percent of your friends live within ﬁve miles.” Christian Madsbjerg

“Today, there is not one thing on the dinner table that was available 60 years ago. And I did not grow up a starving child.” Richard Saul Wurman

“Today, ideas and concepts are ﬂowing through the internet without borders which is very demanding since ideas look very different according to which cultural lens it is seen through. So there is a huge need for cultural interaction and understanding.” Peter Bysted

“With globalization, we have to understand that we are part of a bigger whole.” Richard Grefé

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Glo oba bali l za zatio on has opened up p div iver ersi sity ty for the e in ndi divi vidu vi d al du al.. As o our wor orld shrin in nks k , we w b be eco ome mo ore r awa w re of th the e wo worl rld d around nd d us, we co comm mmunicate e glo loba ball ba llly, lly, y, we mi m x, x, a and nd iin n tu turn rn we wiill e eve ve vent ent ntua uall lly y ha h ve o e glob on bal cul ultu ture re ma ad de up p o off in indi diivi v du ual o obj bjject ec tive tive minds ds that are nott rep pre ress sssed by race ra ace, re reli l giion li o or gr g ee eed d.â&#x20AC;? Karim Kar Ka rim Ra Ras shid sh

“Somet ethi h ng interesting hap appe ens when tradition and cu cult lture meets tech hno nolo log g y. Design g is able to a and d should d integrate the notion o off cult ltur ural al iden id entity t in te tech chnolo logy y or vice versa.” Sali Sasaki

“In my work the issue of globalization surfaces in the use of local resources and local ornamentation. I confront them with morre un u iv i ersal and contemporary, name it ‘global’, languages. I don on’t counter ‘globalization’ and I don’t merely embrace local a ity, y I strongly belief in the combination. Progress and sustain nability go hand in hand.” Hella Jongerius

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GLOBALIZATION AND SUSTAINABILITY As Mahatma Ghandi said: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” To make the best use of globalization and to improve sustainability, you have to look and search globally – but act locally.

“In general, people only relate to own experiences and experiences conveyed to them by someone they trust. To understand what happens in Africa, you need to have been there or you need to know someone whose life depends on political and social developments in the region. Therefore, we need to grow people’s awareness and understanding of issues like famine and malnutrition, poverty and diseases by showing that such problems can actually be solved through creativity, innovation and design.” Steinar Mowatt Valade-Amland

“Globalization is spreading no matter what. Sustainability is up to us.” Tore Kristensen

N O I TA Z I L A B OL G

SUSTAINABILITY

After years of focusing, acting and buzzing sparked by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, the dominant temptation could be to give up in frustration on sustainability. Everywhere, there seems to be a growing recognition that sustainability is not only complicated but very complicated. No easy solutions are available because of the complex, interlinked coherency required for genuine sustainability.

Think about it: A recent study concluded that for people living in Denmark, buying tomatoes from Spain is more environmentally sustainable than growing them locally because more energy is spent on ripening them in Danish greenhouses than on transporting them from Spain. However, other research points to the fact that the energy used to ripen the Danish tomatoes is harvested primarily via solar cells and other sustainable energy sources. So which is true – which tomato should Danes buy? 21

Faced with such paradoxes, we might expect to see people growing indifferent to the agenda. They could be forgiven for waiting until there’s enough data and experience to conﬁdently and efﬁciently address sustainability on the basis of long-term actions. And yet, they tell us, this is no time for throwing in the towel. Here is what we heard:

“The Al Go Gore re m mov o ie rai aise ai s d a lo se lot of o awa warrene ess and d pu putt so some me g glamo our on th the e is issu sue. su e. But the he debate te d die ied ie d ou outt agai ain” n Heat He athe at her he r Ma M rtin n

“The biggest emerging thing in my opinion is sustainability, and it covers both business and personal life. It’s about survival, and it will dwarf all other trends. Nothing can be more important than survival.” Olle Zachrisson

HOW DOES BUSINESS REACT TO SUSTAINABILITY? Customers want sustainable and genuine brands. The corporate world has to adapt and is delivering in large numbers, but there still is a long way to go.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Transparency is growing. It is getting harder for shady companies to hide. The same companies use green washing because it is good for businessâ&#x20AC;? Petz Scholtus

“Att some e lev eve el the here he re e is grree een n wash hin ing go goin in ng on on.. Bu But ut wh whet ethe herr th he the e gree gr een wa een wash shin sh in ng ha hass a re real a iimp al mpa mp ac t is que act u stio ona nabl bl Iff it mak ble. akes e a diffe eren nce ce, I’m m no nott comp mpla ain nin ng. g” Adem Ad emol ola ol la Ad Ades esin in na

“G Gre reen en peo peopl eople ple ar are e st star artiing g to in infil filtr trat ate e co ompan anie iess as a offi ffice ce er s and nd directors dir re and an d high-level el man anag ager gerss an and d sharehol sh h old lder der s. So o tth he com mpa pani anies es are w wak akin ak ing g up ffro rom m th the e in insi side si de. Em de Emp ployee ploy yee es wa w ke up an and d sa say: ‘H Ho oly shit shit it,, th t is is not wh hatt I wan nt to o happen. n ’”” Chri Ch ris ri s Jo Jord rdan an

“We e ar are e no ot crreating a h hol o istic fu f ture forr all l , bu b t mi m cr croo solu luti lu tion ti onss forr on ou urssel elve ve ves. es. s . I wo orrry y tha h t we w a are re e cre reat atin at in ing ng ‘g gre reen en’ en n’ so solu lution tion ti ns to to jus usti tify fy y our ne need ed for or consump mpti tion ti on inste ead of adop opting ng a ccul ulttural sh hif iftt in i the e u e of our us our p pro r du duct ctss an ct nd bu buil ildi ding ngs. s.”” Cam amer eron on Sincl in ncl c ai air r

GREEN CONSUMPTION

“We have a genuine need for consumption: Pleasure, beauty and ‘no’ will not solve the problem. People don’t want to get out of cars. The car is not a failure, but rather a success as a design. The damage on the environment is the real failure.” Bruce Mau

IS SUSTAINABILITY REAL?

“More and more companies want to generate both proﬁt and social impact. Now, when I present the idea of social investment, people understand it instantly. That tells me that there has been a change and people are up for it.“ Ademola Adesina

“A more sustainable development requires - not altruism – but an understanding of causes and effects, perhaps even a little fear. Somehow, we need to be touched on a personal level; to worry about the wellbeing of our children and grandchildren, before we are genuinely concerned. Only few people are able to fathom sustainability as a question of saving the planet for the planet’s own sake.” Steinar Mowatt Valade-Amland 26

“I thi hink n ‘eco fr f ie endly’ productss wil i l be aroun nd for quite a while. It is th he ﬁrsst massive shift I have seen in produc ts and ucts nd a few ew ccol old d wi wint nterr s will not nt ot k ill it. Ther e e is so mu er much h research that validates the eco problem and climate ch hange ge. Th The e de esi sign gn cha hall l enge ll enge g I see e now now is ho how w to o develop a communications strate t gy tha h t sh hif ifts t th he way we (soc (s ocie iety ty)) ac act. t The h re are so o ma any m mes essa s ge sa gess o ou ut th her e e, e so o ho how w ca an th thes ese es e be e str t ea e ml mlin i ed d and nd taiilo lore red d to to creatte th he impact requ q irred to ge ene era ate a ssoc ocia iall mo move v me m nt n in resp sponse to cllim imate change?” ?”” Emma Loades

“I thi hink nk the desire fo forr ch chan an nge is re eal iin n mo most st p peo eopl plle, but few a are re willing g to take the radical conseque ences nces tha hatt ar are e re requ quir ired ed d. su such ch as as giving ng g up ﬂying, g buying imported foo od, etc tc.. Of Ofte ten, n, peo eopl ple e th thin ink k th that a buying organic mil i k is is enough”. Adem mola Ad A es esin ina

“Sussta t inabilit ity y is a an im imperative v . But in n the rea al world d it is only l a ccho hoic ice e fo for th hos o e who can af aford it.”” P teer Bysted Pe

IS IT ALREADY TOO LATE? Quite a few of the people we listened to say they are worried that the plane has crashed already into the mountain: Irreparable damage has happened.

“Most companies are committing random acts of greenness — a disconnected set of initiatives, sometimes impressive ones, but not really a strategy. The question they need to ask is whether they’re moving the needle, both for their companies and the planet, or whether it’s too little, too late.” Joel Makower

“Waste management of certain products has become difﬁcult to deal with. Awareness just stops at the fact that we know we have a problem, but there is minimal drive to put systems and policies in place to deal with it.” Eric Anane-Antwi

“We cannot keep 20 perce cent ntt off th the e wo worl rld’ d s po popu pulatiion prosp pering (and dying from m wellbeing) while the rest sufferr s in debt be behi hind nd ttra rade de bar arriers, leading to some of the most tragic conﬂicts of our time.”” Jesper Nørgaard Pagh

“Change occurs with the conception or actuality of catastrophe. It is only because we think we are in a disaster we do something about it.” Richard Saul Wurman

”We are in a bottle neck. We won’t have this problem forever. We will hit 9 billion people in about 50 years or so, and then the growth will stop. After that, we will be less people again. Bu ut how do we get people, species etc. through this period?” Bruce Mau

“70 or 80 years from now people will look back at this period of history and understand that this was a crucial, pivotal time They will conclude that there were many factors involved, including demographic trends, the emergence of new world orders, climate change, the impact of new information and connectivity technologies on the mindsets of the young, and so on. Historians will also argue that this was a second Renaissance period, although the new thinking, the new science and the new growth clusters once again emerged in some surprising places. 2009 may well be seen to rank alongside 1929, 1939 and 1989 in terms of watershed moments in our collective history.” John Elkington

“Sustainability has been around for over 20 years, but it has taken time for the concept to sink in and now we are getting there. It is like everything else. For example, in the beginning nobody used seatbelts in a car, and now almost no one gets into a car without strapping themselves in. Or take smoking – for years we knew smoking is dangerous, but it isn’t until recently that people have begun to stop smoking. Similarly, I believe behaving in a way that enhances sustainability will become part of our life.” Pamela Hartigan

“In 2015, we will have 700 million people moving g into the middle class worldwide. That is two USA’s!! The capacity to solve the problems will have to be quite impressive, thus making the capacities a part of the prob-lem themselves.” bruce mau

Y T I L I B A N I ATS U S

OPEN SOURCE & DEMOCRATIZATION

Open source and sharing is not a new idea. Digitalization, however, which gives millions of people access to the same information at the same time, is new. This democratization is massive and many digital products and programs are designed for change, many are contributing. The technological tools becoming very cheap and people being able to use them is bound to lead to radical change. 33

“O Our intim macy y will be e challlenged to an ex treme.” Alex e Blanc B ch

“T The he h hug uge oppo ug ort rtun unit un ity it y fo forr desi sig gn and innovations is to innovate ourselves out of w wha h t we inn novat ated ed our urse selv se lve es iint nto” o Arno Ar old d Was Wa asserman

“O Ope p n source is most probably the most powerr fu full and an nd in inno n va vati t ve develo lo opment in globa al citizenship in n the t pas astt 100 10 0 0 years, and it is a ressu re sult of increasing sult ng g soc ocia iall aw ia awaren ness and so ocial entrepreneu ur sh hip arou ar und n the he globe.” .”” Jacques s Lang ge

WILL OPEN SOURCE LAST? Democratization and sharing offer huge possibilities for creating positive change and breakthrough innovations. Open source seems to be in its childhood now and most say they believe it will undergo immense chances and developments but stay around for a long time … as in always.

“It is like being in 1981 and asking; are personal computers going to fade away?” Joel Makower

“In the early days of computing, there was a community that shared and discussed everything regarding computers, but then came the let’s-make-this-a-business era and now we have the wildly competitive ecosystem that is Silicon Valley. Study the work of economists like Nikolai Kondratiev and Joseph Schumpeter, and it is clear that the cycles of innovation and entrepreneurship, of industrial revolution and creative destruction, will rise and fall - often at the same time”. John Elkington 35

TRANSPARENCY NOW! Bloggers are evaluating brands. Customer experiences, scandals are leaked and everything is accessible online in a split-second. Communication cannot be controlled and the smallest negative blog post can set off an avalanche. Corporations are forced to adapt to this new dynamic.

“Thanks to open source, there is deﬁnitely a growing focus on transparency in business and practice, which encourages better ethics.” J. Carl Ganter

“There has to be motivation for the open-source thought. There is a tendency for blogs to be read only by bloggers. But it is very real for the people involved” Ged Davis

“The web is the ne ew comm co omm mmun unit un ity it y centre. Where pe eople used to meet in the villa la age cchu hurc hu rch rc h, tthe h, hey y no now w me m et on the web. b..” David Kester

“The aggre “T egated d kn know owledg ow dge and skillls of th the e wo world’ss populati t on n are almost inﬁ a ﬁni n te. It It’s the e bo bord r ers of pat atents t , trade limits and corporate te sil ilos o that arre keep ping g us down.”” Jesper Nørgaard Pagh

BUSINESS IMPACT OF OPEN SOURCE

“Self-fabricated products are predicted to save resources and energy; since you only make what you need at home, there is no over- or under-production, no inventorying, packaging or shipping.” Arnold Wasserman

“When people start seeing the money and other possibilities related to ideas, etc. they will start re-assessing.“ Tore Kristensen

“Businesses are frightened by open sou ource approa ach chess because they don’t ﬁt their business models whicch are based on int nte ellectua al property.” Pameela Har Pa artigan n

“The Democratization of Innovation is spreading. Economics favors user-based design under many conditions. With the passage of time, many producer-base s d design departments will be displaced by distributed user design gn commu unitiies e .” Eric Von Hippel

“Businesses will ﬁnd other er w way ayss of m mak aki k ing proﬁts. All services in the future will be free of costt. JJus ustt like fre ee email and free information, the future hollds d free banking, trave el, food, education, hospitality, news, entertainment - any se ervice yo y u can think of of.”” Sudh Su dhir dh ir Sha h rm rma a

“The notion of getting your things from stores and brands is here to stay. Stores make products easier to ﬁnd and brands establish a sense of trust. Other channels have their place, but I don’t see many buying an open source developed pacemaker from a no name shop. Sometimes you simply want the best there is.” Erik Almenberg

“Open source will see companies less controlling, with a greater deal of sharing and collaboration. Businesses will let the consumers in, and that is new. There will be greater mind-sharing.” Simon Roberts

â&#x20AC;&#x153;There re are a lot of fo foun undations, s corpo ora rati tion onss an on and d ve vent ntur nt u e ca ur api p ta tallists sta tart rtin ng to investt in no open so s urce. It iiss ab abou outt ma maki king ng a cha hang nge e in tthe e wor orld ld.â&#x20AC;? Alan Al an W Web eb bbeer

ÂŠ Torben Stroyer/Polfoto

NOITAZITARCOMED & ECRUOS NEPO

EDUCATION

With a few exceptions, education is still building on the idea that a teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s job is to know everything and teach it. This strategy worked ďŹ ne when knowledge and information were inaccessible and development was slower. It works far less well in a world of fast changes, interconnectivity and knowledge-sharing. At the same time, information is far from equally distributed leading to a growing gap in accessibility between the developed and developing worlds. 43

“Edu duca du cattional ca ti sys y tems nee e d to cha ang nge. T They are ou o utdat dat ate ed and do not relate to to oda day’ y’ss life.” y’ Sudhir Sha har ha rma rma

“We live in a wo worl r d with much-accelerated rl ch han ange ge a and n itt is h hard fo f r education to ccat a ch up.” Simon Sim mo Roberts

“The ee educational systems of th the e dev developed world arre bett tter er tai ailo lored lo to tth he needs of to he tomo m rrow mo w ttha han ha n th thos o e of the developin ng world.” wo Cosmas Okoli Co li

“The way we are measuring education iss rrid idiculous. For or e exxample, xa the Pi P sa testing sys yste tem is just hardcore knowledge-testing and d does not co onsid id der a perso on’ n’ss ability and willingness to contribute, nor does itt ccon onsi side derr making use eo off th t e person’s knowledge in a meaningful way to society or a company. Th That at iiss ho ow you would testt a product in a manufacturing company. And that does not make sensse wh when en y yo ou deal with people.” Lavr La v ans Løvlie vr

ARE WE EDUCATING THE RIGHT WAY?

WHAT IS MISSING IN EDUCATION?

“The education system doesn’t teach emotional intelllig igen nce.” Chr ris Jord rdan an

“The most inte tere rest sting g techno olo ogy g is the e hu huma an br brai ain. n It is whe here r itt all starts. And we do on’t know w a thing ab bou o t itts ca apa pabi bili l tiess yet.” Rich har a d Sa Saul ul Wur rma man n

SELF-LEARNING With the Internet and the possibilities of getting information in mind, there is a great opportunity for self-learning. When the Massachusetts Institute of Technology makes curriculums available online it is quite a radical step, but on the other hand you get the full studying environment and meet the professors only if you go to MIT.

“Hollywood stars earn zillions and teachers very little. It says something about our priorities.” Pamela Hartigan “Hollywood stars earn zillions and teachers very little. It says something about our priorities.” Pamela Hartigan

“I make a living based on what I learned outside school and from daydreaming in school while some teacher tried to knock the row of kings into my head.” Lars Lusenberg Nielsen

“In general, we see and learn a lot online nowadays and of course education has to follow that trend.” Ged Davis

HOW CAN EDUCATION BE IMPROVED? “I never liked strict teachers, but at the same time too much freedom is dangerous. You should not just give the freedom to create – you should guide, mentor, enforce concepts, ideas, dogma and instill passion.” Karim Rashid

“Business and academia need to work closer together to design secondary and tertiary curricula. They need to understand each other’s needs better.” Emma Loades

“We should be preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet – jobs that use technologies that haven’t been invented in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” Arnold Wasserman

“M Man any yo youn u g pe peop o le e, at a least in my percept ptio ion, n, are missing ng the classi sical refe f rencces, th he underpinning g s of thought and personal ethos.” J. Carl Ganter

“When I teach, I don’t teach the students as much as they have to ﬁnd out on their own. It is more about guidance than traditional teaching.” Petz Scholtus

“There are great possibilities for cross-cultural and cross-generational learning.” Hael Kob bayas a hi

N O I TA C U D E

INNOVATION

As companies look for tools to foresee and adapt to change, many turn to design and innovation for possible solutions. To some extent, the terminologies have started merging and are treated as the same. We asked people to deďŹ ne the two words and it turned out that there is no guaranteed correlation between the term â&#x20AC;&#x153;innovationâ&#x20AC;? and how it relates to design. This is what we heard.

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DESIGN AND INNOVATION? “Without design there cannot be innovation. But without innovation there can be design. It is called bad design.” Cameron Sinclair

“Design and innovation are related and interdependent, but they are distinctly different concepts – one is an attitude (innovation) while the other is a skill (design).” Jacques Lange

“We need to distinguish between the kind of innovation that designers could/should be involved in (the professional aspect) and innovation as a basic human activity (the reason we’re not still living in caves).” Patrick Whitney “Innovation gives us new processes that inﬂuence how we solve problems” Hael Kobayashi 52

“Don’t tel ell me what will hap appe pen n in tthe he fut utur ure – yo you u wi will ll be wr wron ong. on g. W Wha hatt yo y u really want to know is:: Wha hatt are the force es that willl create change in n the the futu ture?” Ar rno nold Was asse serman

“’Innovati tion on n’ is a worrd that the b bus ussin ines e s co es o mmunity und nd dersttan ands and lov ves. It see ems to have ha ve mor mor ore e to d do o wi with th ssci c en ci nce and engin neering than an witth aesth thetics and experiience. The irony here e is that mo ost pe eople adore th the e aesthetics cs an and exp xperience pa p rts – thos o e arre th os t e ones tha at reso onate with th them. But if busine ess wan ntss to us use e th the word inn nnovation, tha h t’s ﬁne. A s long as we ag gree e that whatt we’re alll really talki king here ab about is de esign th hink k ing.” Allan Choc ochinov

“Innov ovat atio on is the re ealization of potentia al. This can be ach ch hie eve ved thro ough design g .” Marielle Nadal

“Des “D esig ign n is a pow ower e full ingredi dient in innova v tion, va butt no nott th he on only one!”” Erik Almen e berg en

N O I TAVONN I

DESIGN

It is important for designers to understand that more often than not, the challenges of this world is quite complex and it is only when we embrace this complexity that we truly are able to solve them. This is, of course, likely to lead to designers working in interdisciplinary teams in order to provide real solutions to the actual challenges of this world.

DESIGN TO IMPROVE LIFE

“Young designers must acknowledge their power to improve and save lives on our planet from Day One of their careers.” Omar Vulpinari

Design to Improve Life is a subset of design, not preoccupied only with form and aesthetics. Design to Improve Life is about designers realizing that when you have the ability to respond, then maybe you also have the responsibility to do so. In INDEX:, we call this “RespondAbility”. 56

“Not even the Leonardo da Vincis of to toda day y can n beat beat tthe e int nterdisciplinary team.” Bill Bi ll Mog o gr grid dge

“As a designer er y you ou h hav ave e a re resp s on onsi sibi bili lity ty a and nd I ﬁnd it im impo port r ant to thi h nk about wh hat mas asss pr p od oduc ucti tion on can an d do o to to/f /for or the w wor orld ld and how it can become richer, r, m mor ore e in indi divi vidu dual, fo forr in inst stan ance ce whe en it’ss combined d with other means of productio ion. n.“ Hella Jo ongerius

EVALUATING DESIGN TO IMPROVE LIFE

THREE PARAMETERS MAKE UP THE EVALUATION CRITERIA OF DESIGN TO IMPROVE LIFE

1. FORM The parameter form deals with the formal aspects of design, e.g. what you can feel, touch and see. When form is assessed, INDEX: looks into shape, material, color, consistency, interface, aesthetics, etc. In addition to this parameter â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a criterion INDEX: shares with other design awards -- INDEX: further assesses design in two other tests. 2. IMPACT The parameter impact deals with the effectiveness of the design, e.g. the designâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dynamic and positive contribution to the world. When impact is assessed, INDEX: looks into relevance, function, potential distribution, level of innovation, economy, sustainability, user-friendliness, the scope of the solution. 3. CONTEXT The parameter context deals with the arena the design addresses and in which the design is expected to function. Context includes the problem addressed by the design and accounts for the number of people effected by the problem, the level of urgency, the culture, geography, infrastructure, ethics of the community. 58

DESIGN AND DESIGNERS TODAY

“T The herre re will alwa ways ys b be e a need for o craftsm men and nd style designers, butt ma bu many desig gne ners r are more ore co or corp rporrate engi gine n err s designing whole comp co mpan a ies from the he ins nsid id de ou out.”” D vid Kester Da

“Design has become sttar-drriven and is being curated d and aucttione ed as art.” Jens ns Mar arti t n Sk ti Skib bst sted

“If you look back in tthe he h his isto is tory to ry y of de esi sig gn, you will not be impressed with what at is ha happ ppe pp ening today. What we see as Creative Desiign n ttod o ay is mostly od due to advances in material sciences , man nuf ufa acturing and computer technology .” Sivam Krish

“Desig ign iss won ig o derfullly y ccon onse serv se r at ativ ive. It iss abo iv bout people e, an and d pe peop ople le ed don on n’tt cha ang nge mu much orr te tend to behav ve in the sam me wa way. y. IIn n th that a way a , dessign is a constant science.”” Bill Bi ll M Mog ggrid dge g

“Service design to t day is where industriall de desi sign gn was in the 1920s -- humanizing technology for peop pe ople le.”” Lavrans Løvlie

“Desig ign thin nki king n is mu much ch ttalked ab a out. t. I d do, o, h however, think it is not much different much nt ffrom already unco ove vered th thin inki king lik i e adap apct c iv ve, synthet etic ic, lateral th thinking g etc.” Jens s Mar a tin Skibsted

“Design iss a tool for transformation.” Sali Sasaki

“Design is pushing the idea that people are in the center and design is the humanizer that makes us buy what we need and not loads of stuff we don’t understand or need. “ Simona Maschi

“Design thinking is much talked-about. I do, however, think it is not much different from already uncovered thinking – like adaptive, synthetic, lateral thinking, etc.” Jens Martin Skibsted

“The next big thing within the world of design will be mixed reality: greater convergence of design, media, communications and computing; “design” scoped in its full spectrum from ‘placemaking,’ ‘objectmaking’ and ‘imagemaking’” Milton Tan

“Th he collaboration between different discipli iss in is important in orines d r to make proper use of available tech de chn nolo no og y. In thi h s process, design gn n can play a key role as bridge builderr.”” Lavr v ans Lø L vl vlie

“It’s taken a while for ‘design research’ to come into to its own as a di disstinct discipline, but it’s regrettable that we’re only now recognizing its true value. Good designers always did design research.” Allan Chochinov

GLOBALIZATION AND DESIGN “Designers around the world are trying to get it. As soon as they get it, 10 others probably also get it. Or 1,000 chinese already have it. Being ﬁrst matters greatly.” Chris Jordan

“Some of the bigger design companies with pedigrees are doing really bad designs today. Instead of designing they are prioritizing communication strategies. It’s like they don’t know what to do in a world that’s not stable, but instead globalized, fast and dynamic.” Tore Kristensen

We used to compete with our classmates, but now we are competing with the world. It’s almost as if you have to check Google to see if someone has done it before you and the chances are that many have. So the question is not only whether you have the ability to come up with the right design, but, just as important, whether you can make it happen in the real world. 64

DESIGN EDUCATION

“Firr st st of all, designers should have a far mor o e solid educattion in sci cien nti t ﬁc thiink nkin ing. g Thi his is does not mea e n that at they y becom me sc s ientists, but they should de eep eply understand how sc scie enc nce e ap a proa ach ches es rrea ealiity t , ho how w it shape p s ou pe ourr world vision n and nd its deep inﬂuence on techno n logy.” Alex Al ex Bla lanc nch nc h

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

“De esig ign n pr practi tice ti ce,, by ce y iits ts n na atur ure, ur e, is all about ab b inte ention – whatt we’re try ying to do, o w what w we e’re ’rre tr tryi yiing tto ma ake k , wh hat a we’ e’re tryin ng to o solve. Bu But t ch te c no nolo logy g y – or th the e ma marc rch h of tec ech hnol olo ogy – can n take e placce witthoutt in nte tentio ion io n; iit’ t’ss just an im mpe pera r tive ve, mo movi ving ng on and d on. The proble lem m is that th though gh h mu m uch c of tech ch hno nollogi gica call innova in n ati tion on iiss a wo wond nder er,, th the conseque ences of thos ose e inno innova vat on ti o s off te ten n go u unm nm monitored, un nme easured.... un unappr prec pr e iated. We ar are e se seei eing ng a great divi di vide vi de b bet etwe ween we en n what we “can”” d do o an a d what we “oug ghtt to” do ri r ghtt now now – from cons co nssum umer er soc o ie ety to energy pol olic icy y to o health care ea and soccia al se serv r ices. These rv es are som so me of th the e gr g ea eate test tensionss in our te u wor o ld rright now, an or and they all call out fo or better, more sen nsib ible le e des e ign.” A la Al lan n Ch Choc o hinov oc

“T The h world ld d is fu ull of te tech chnology gy y you can do an nyt y hiing ng wit ith. The e key e questtio ey ion n is why h and d forr wh fo whom om!! I th om t in ink k we w sho oul uld ld bu buil ild il d fo for use e ra r th her ttha han bu ha buil illd an and d ﬁn ﬁnd use.” Sim Si mon n Ro Roberts s

“D Dia ialo logu lo gu ue iss a goo ood d st star artiing g poiint n ffor o gett ett ting g sci cien ienti tist sts ts an and d desiign gnerr s to w wor ork k to toge g th ge ther er.. A lo lott of goo ood d op oppo porttun nit itie iess arre off tte ie en lo ostt in n trran a sl sla atio atio ion. n” J sper Je sper r Nør Nør ørga g ar ga ard d Pa Pagh gh

“There iss no n t en nou ough effort pu ut in into t edu uca c ting ng older gene era rati tion onss ab a out te tech c nology” Hael Kob Ha o ayashi

“Seventy-ﬁve percent of the world’ss desi s gn g ers are being educated in the West, yet 75 percent of the work needed is in developing nat ons.”” ti Cameron Sinclair

“You need to specialize. Choose for instance to be the best knitter in the world. It may be a very tiny ﬁeld, but it’s the only way to become very good. So my credo: Don’t try to improve only the ﬁelds in which you are not good, but become better at what you are already good at. I never hire a generalist.” Hella Jongerius

“Through my educational experience, design becomes a phenomenon rather than talent and skills.” Hani M. Al-Huneidi

“When hiring, we look for the T-shaped designer.” Bill Moggridge

“Designers are often behind the ‘green door’. When you open the green door there are hammocks, table tennis and all that ‘creative’ stuff. So design is often shut in behind the ‘green door’ and that is not the best way to integrate design in organizations.” Sabine Junginger

DESIGNERS, TRAINED AND SELF-MADE

“Many users today cannot design products as well as can professional designers, but user-friendly design toolkits will help them improve their results in future.” Eric von Hippel

“There are of course aspects of this that are very threatening for the design world. On the other hand, Tiger Woods is not threatened when an amateur picks up a golf club and the crowds have no trouble determining which is the professional.” Richard Grefé 71

DESIGN IS TO BLAME

“H How can we still look at des sign only in terrms off beautty, functiion n and d ma arket ap ppeal, as s we diid 15 years ag go?” Omar Vulpinari

“With the end of Wor orld War II and its scarcity, disposability became a marketable design feature. Instead of repairing and keeping things, more and more we began to use them, throw them away and replace them, ever faster, with the next improved version.“ Ar rno n ld d Was asse s rman

THE ROLE OF DESIGN

“The philosophy of the Buddha was about being in sympathy with nature – NOT the Western mentality of overriding it. If you extend this philosophy into the new age of science - it is about building things in sympathy with the nature of materials and processes and being able to delight in its simplicity “ Sivam Krish

“There is a theory that people should adapt to technology in order to have a better life. This is totally wrong; technology should adapt to people and make life better.“ Simona Mashi

“Design should solve for change.” Bill Moggridge

“Design can push Ghana beyond the term ‘appropriate technology’ which only seeks to meett our present needs, but not what will sustain us for the future.” Eric Anane-Antwi

“Great designers are often great innovators, but in reality design’ss greater role is as a nexus point or facilitator of innovation.” Russel Kennedy

“Designers should do what they are good at and not all that other stuff.” Christian Madsbjerg

“The role of design has always been to humanize e technologies – to interpret them.” Patrick Whitney

INDEX: DESIGN TO IMPROVE LIFE INDEX: 2009 is under the patronage of HRH the Crown Prince of Denmark. INDEX: Partner City: Singapore. INDEX: is supported by The Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, JL-Fondet, The Marketing Denmark Fund, The Capital Region of Denmark and the Confederation of Danish Industry. DESIGN TO IMPROVE LIFE

INDEX: Interviews conducted by: Gunnar Näsman Graﬁc design: Gunnar Näsman & Hofdamerne Print: Illemann Tryk Printed in Denmark Number printed: 1500 January 2009

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INDEX: Quotes & Contradictions

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