Turn a How-not-to into a How-to
Finnish material specialists, Ore. E. Refineries, recently caught our attention with their post on the how-to website Instructables entitled, How Not To: Design a Chair. A title guaranteed to pique our interest because we think hard before we design a chair. The post is a challenge to designers to refrain from designing chairs in 2012.
The guys as at Ore. E. Refineries raise some great points, namely that there are a lot of chairs in the world. They ask us to rethink the meaning of sustainable design and suggest repairing old chairs. So why did they create a how-not-to? Wouldn’t a call to action be more powerful that a call to non-action? Engage designer to use their talents to creating “new” chairs from old chairs, or perhaps a how-to on repairing old chairs would have been useful. Positive challenges will lead to positive outcomes.
Do you agree?
We have been told that as consumers we are responsible for what is found in the stores. “There isn’t enough markets for organic foods” etc. So consumers are made to be responsible for bad design and the usage of unsustainable materials by the industry. This idea turns the tables around. Instead of blaming consumers they are blaming designers. But they are not blaming us so that we would feel guilty. Instead it makes us smile.