The morning began with pastries, coffee and pretty people in Steve Madden shoes. If Day 1’s theme was social awareness and philanthropic design, Day 2 was about the return to creation (as in making things, not the garden of Eden).
Bruce Nussbaum, Professor at the Parsons School for Design and former assistant managing editor for Business Week, discussed ‘designomics” – how design can drive business and the economy. Nussbaum identified three global forces that are transforming our lives – the rise and fall of nations, the rise and fall of generations, and the rise of new digital cultures (specifically social media).
‘Innovation today is far more cultural and social than technological.” – Bruce Nussbaum
Although none of this was new to anyone who reads The Economist, Nussbaum’s assertion that the Kindle is for old people, because millenials like to create and re-appropriate content, caused a stir amongst the mag hags.
Anyone for toast?
The Pecha Kucha presentation featured five up-and-comers. These included Boback Firoozbakht, an architect who transforms existing buildings instead of designing new ones; and a South African filmmaker and photographer, Oliver Erasmus.
Most entertaining was designer Thomas Thwaites, who was inspired by a line in the Douglas Adams book ‘Mostly Harmless” to try and make a toaster from scratch. The ambitious ‘Toaster Project” saw him making plastic from potato starch and lugging iron ore around in a suitcase.
Designing film
Documentary filmmakers Gary Hustwit, Doug Pray and Eames Demetrios sat on stage with Michael Bierut to discuss how film collaborates with design. It could have devolved into an indulgent and pretentious talkshop were it not for the humour and zeal of the participants.
‘Advertising can manufacture any feeling you want people to have.” – Doug Pray
Much of their work is being featured at the Design Indaba Film Festival running at the Labia in Cape Town until Thursday 4 March. I recommend Doug Pray’s Art & Copy and Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica.
‘A designer is like a good host who anticipates the needs of the guests.” – Eames Demetrios
We say ‘sweetheart”, not ‘sweetbrain”
Piyush Pandey, the National Creative Director for Ogilvy India and an advertising legend, reminded us that advertising is simply about appealing to the heart and respecting the consumer’s intelligence. This is particularly important in India, a massive and diverse country, where messages need to be universal.
‘Designers don’t just feed on design, they feed on life.”
Although he didn’t have anything very new to say, it’s always entertaining to see the principles of great advertising illustrated through wonderful television adverts, like these ones for Vodafone.
Tord Boontje – embracing imperfection
Tord Boontje, possibly the most talented product designer in the world (who wouldn’t want one of his famous lights?), spoke about the importance of craftsmanship and deliberate imperfections. ‘What makes a hand-crafted object beautiful— everything is made with more love than skill”, said Boontje.
He showed his latest work, which included traditional Guatemalan clay pottery. He applied leaves to the wet clay of the pots and bowls, then fired them so that the leaves burnt away to leave a fossilized pattern.
Boontje’s philosophy is to embrace local tradition and meld it with modern technology to create exquisite and highly desirable objects. He also succeeded in making everyone who works for local décor magazines feel decidedly ineffectual. No small feat.
Monster man
Stefan G. Bucher creates monsters, daily , many of which have a fondness for pinstripe pants and high-heel shoes. People love his monsters so much that he’s made a book of them. But Bucher is also a writer and graphic designer with an obsessive approach to type. He describes typesetting (right down to the kerning) the very long credits for the movie The Fall as ‘a humanitarian typeface gesture”.
Bucher communicated all of this with marvellous self-deprecating humour, poking fun at his German origins – ‘Us Prussians have that ‘must conquer’ mentality, so I insist on doing everything myself.”
‘Be useful, don’t be boring.”
One of the most popular pieces of work amongst the delegates was his Superbowl communication, which contained many geek in-jokes, such as a USB port in the football and Professor Frink from The Simpsons.
But what resonated with everyone was what Bucher calls ‘Greed Control’ – ‘as greed increases and money becomes your motivation, the quality of work inevitably decreases”. He asserts that people get seduced by their lifestyle and having to pay the bills becomes an impediment to free thought.
Obviously everyone in the auditorium worried about being sell-outs. At R6 000 a ticket and judging by how many creatives are not at Design Indaba, this is a valid concern.
‘When you look at museums you go to see the art and music, not Sumerian accountancy. That explains what it meant to be human back then. The artefacts we create will one day tell people what it was like to be human now. We have the skills to translate messages into universally understood things, so do what’s most dear to you – and what’s most fun.” – Stefan G. Bucher