Great Acceleration. What does it mean to think in systems as a designer? What does it mean to think and design beyond the present?
What does it mean to be a designer? We probably say that someone who can create new ideas and brings them to life, but being a designer is more than just designing and putting things out for others to see.
The moment when we stepped into the design school, we all have a deep sea of knowledge and technique about design, yet, we are never really taught about what happen after the design. We are blind people who are producing what we were told to produce. If we put our vision wider, there are more than just the design. Everything are interconnected, and so are our creations.
If I design a cup, it’s more than just a product. A worker who collected the raw clay for the cup had to suffer from over-work. The factory who produced the pottery paint might cause a lot of water and air pollutions. It’s a cup of that’s full of impact. Every addition that we put into design might result into something greater.
Since we have this much impacts for our future, planning ahead is crucial. What does it mean to think and design beyond the present? For me, the design is not just useful for present, but it’s an everlasting creation that brings beneficial impact to human race. For example, my porcelain cup will no longer be made by clay, but I will use biodegradable substance instead, which will not bring pollutions to the world and the cup will not become the useless waste that stay on earth forever.
As a communication design student, my estimate future job may be helping company selling products and most products nowadays are generating waste. However, if there is no desire, there will no consumption. Company are pushing commercial part of the products to make more customers wanting to shop. Yet at the end, there will be pollutions and wastes are produced by the leftover and abonnement of the old products. We keep telling people to buy new products and never tell them about the detrimental part of wastes. I want to be a communicator who are spreading the truth and make something that brings meaningful impact among the great acceleration era.
