Visual Pollutants And Aesthetic Proliferation

Noted Swedish designer and strategist David Carlson has released his new trend report called Time To Rethink Design. The report argues that “design has degenerated into a state of aesthetic proliferation” that, combined with our obsession for newness, has resulted in poorly designed products made with unfriendly materials and artifacts and solutions that are either discarded quickly or are unwanted in the first place.

Carlson says that there is a general lack of respect for the well tried, trusted and workable objects, and questions why such products can’t be left untampered:

Why can’t products be allowed to collect memories like good leather chair, why don’t we accept the patina of usage like a loved skateboard, when will we accept aging as life’s rich story, like a prized broach our grandmother left us, or the lines of our grand father’s face, of a life well lived!

Carlson further adds that Design has become a ‘visual pollutant’ and is losing its relevance and that this situation can be rectified only when Design genuinely starts enhancing the quality of everyday life. His diagnosis to cure the pandemic of ‘designed stuff’:

The diagnosis is not making Design better, but making Design matter.

David Report: “Time to Rethink Design”

[via Apartment Therapy]