CONTEMPORARY CRAFT & CONSUMER ATTITUDES A Proposal By Sophie Bain
In a consumer driven Western society, designers and retailers must keep up with customer demands, while having to meet expanding ecological regulations and expectations. To maintain the level of competitive business vital to economic health, the retail sector must become more open minded to innovative processes in marketing and production. Increased public participation in these areas has the benefit of adjusting consumer attitudes towards commodities on a personal and community level, paving the way for eco design to work with the community in the development of products to suit the required future habits of consumption.
This is a proposal for an ongoing study of the contemporary craft phenomenon by the implementation of a resource hub and through the analysis and study of the modular furniture trends. Through the careful selection of materials and encouraged methods, I will attempt to motivate the reappropriation, green living & craft mentality relevant to the consumption habits of residents in the high density living areas of major cities. The failures and successes will be continually monitored under a set of criteria to include the economical benefit and positive effect on trade, style influence on professional practice and social health. The motivation behind this proposal is to better understand and re-direct principles of consumerism thereby allowing equal opportunity for prosperity across all social, political and economic constructs, and to encourage an appreciation for a socially oriented design approach. Central themes of alternative modes of design for production will be studied independently for the purpose of a comprehensive yet succinct examination with a sustainability focus. They are to include participatory design and socialised coproduction, material exchange for mutual benefit (reciprocal design), the potential of online environments as public design tools, nostalgic attachment to commodities and the role of anthropomorphic design. Anthropomorphic design is a direct result of our emotional connection to objects, although it is not necessarily the result of craft focused design methodology. Anthropomorphism helps us relate to an object by giving it features or behavioural characteristics similar to those of humans or animals. In an extract of Capital: Volume One – The Fetishism of the Commodity and its Secrets, Karl Marx states: “Anthropomorphism is one of the most significant instances of the
Methods in Design R & P
GRAP2225, Sem1 2010, Liam Fennessy
Sophie Bain s3195033
fetishism of the commodity” (Marx, 1867, p.17). The example he uses is of a table having legs, a description usually reserved for a human limb. Based on this concept we can begin to comprehend the importance placed on objects in our lives as we feel the need to include them in the human world. This phenomenon has been useful to designers facing the challenge of introducing new technologies to the consumer market. The electronics industry needed a way to communicate with their human operators, so they were given a ‘face’ in the form of a screen coupled with the strategic placement of buttons, keys etc. We are also far more willing to see our belongings and ourselves as an inherent package; you can’t have one without the other. This behaviour has only grown since the age of web based social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Here people advertise themselves next to pictures of their prized possessions or in an environment they are happy to display publicly. ‘The Selby’ (2008, June. Retrieved September 9, 2010 from www.theselby.com) is a website founded by Todd Selby, a portrait, interiors, and fashion photographer and illustrator. The website began when Todd Selby uploaded photographs of his friends in their homes. The site quickly accumulated requests for consumer and professional collaborative projects. Today the website is a source of inspiration for the design and fashion industries as it is considered a grass-roots approach for market research. Such examples of design culture driven by individual personalities, nostalgic choices and the surrounding environment provide comprehensive criteria for an investigation into the potential of the craft mentality in professional practice. The negative effect conspicuous consumerism has had on the environment motivated green design, now referred to as ‘eco design’ to become and integral part of the modern design process. One challenge meeting the companies implementing eco designs such as the green bag is the consumer behaviour and attitude towards green living. Nolan ITU (2003) market research concludes that most shopping is done spontaneously, and while green bags are better for the environment in manufacture and re-use potential, they do not suit the current consumer lifestyle. There needs to be middle ground between the mostly profit driven eco product sector and the more radical approach of an ecological footprint free existence that is currently in opposition to comfortable western consumerism. Materials, manufacture processes and consumer attitudes towards commodities must be combined in any eco design product proposal. In 2006, Suzanne Loker and Nargis Kamali, Professors in the Department of Fibre Science and Apparel Design at Cornell University, conducted an online intervention /experiment of consumer participation during the design process of clothing. During the study, Loker and Kamali also found that the design of the website grew to be more user friendly thanks to suggestions from increased public involvement. “The study demonstrated that the Internet provides an
Methods in Design R & P
GRAP2225, Sem1 2010, Liam Fennessy
Sophie Bain s3195033
acceptable interactive platform and distribution channel for consumer design involvement and should be considered by e-tailers. Additional research directions are recommended.” (Loker, Kamali, 2006). As we can see, there is a genuine interest from consumer groups to get involved in design development. The retail sector is already implementing systems and infrastructure to allow this input based on the largely successful results of this research. Based on the success of such ventures, it would seem a natural and progressive step to gradually afford the consumer more control over available commodities, online communities prove to be a very useful tool in this endeavour. While there are many benefits to community and industry by inviting consumer involvement, there is no replacement for ‘educated’ design by professionals. Responsibilities of the designer include developing a recognisable aesthetic for a brand. Consumer groups follow trends in fashion, style and branding driven by peer group pressure and a desire to be perceived to have a fashionable lifestyle. Norman Potter, one of the earliest minimalists in design, and a designer /cabinetmaker by trade, discusses his observations of the multiple skills and emotions needed to practice good design... "An assumption that must never go unexamined - that the required tools of method and technique are more essential than spirit and attitude... (this) offers sterility that reduces the most 'correct' procedures to a pretentious emptiness..." (Potter, 1969) While we have proven it is justifiable and often beneficial to provide these tools of method to the community, we are assuming that the participants have a strong enough emotional drive and understanding of the product they are helping to develop to boost its success once released into a broader market. The emergence of modular or kit design companies such as Ikea offer a system where the consumer feels they have control over the outcome whilst being directed towards aesthetic and functional design through the carefully considered choice of available components. The success of Ikea is further proof of the potential of the consumer involvement trend in design, yet is lacking the reappropriation and recycling capabilities required of the modern eco-design process. As previously outlined, this is a proposal for a resource hub intended to re-direct consumer attitudes toward consumption, with a focus on modular furniture systems. The now obvious challenge is to combine the success of providing multiple component, modular furniture options and consumer input, with the strong eco design principles of reappropriation and environmentally friendly /sustainable materials, while maintaining style sensitive outcomes. Aside from the financial benefits to industry, consumer participation can also be seen as advantageous to our emotional connection to commodities, empower an individual’s creative abilities and engender brand loyalty. Similar to the
Methods in Design R & P
GRAP2225, Sem1 2010, Liam Fennessy
Sophie Bain s3195033
philosophies offered by Karl Marx in relation to anthropomorphic design referred to earlier, there are important emotional dependencies people place on commodities. By providing the opportunity for these dependencies to be controlled by the individual and nurtured by professional industry, emotional health can be directed away from a ‘retail therapy’ attitude towards commodities, into a more productive, developmental way to acquire possessions with a stronger nostalgic connection. Sue Crolick is the Artistic Director of Creatives for Causes, the company responsible for the Art Buddies program. This huge project pairs 30 - 50 creative people with low-income kids from south Minneapolis for 6 and 10 week workshops. Volunteers help kids create exciting and unique art projects, then celebrate the children's achievements at an art show or parade. There are many events of varying scale that have a similar focus and this only verifies its success and relevance today. (Baugnet, 2003). Ken Friberg of Buhn Friberg Design has spoken of his experience with reciprocal design and community input: "When he (Ken) takes on a pro-bono project, his relationship becomes a close connection to the organization and the people. This changes the environment of the work in a way that becomes more valuable and personal to him." (Baugnet, 2003) The environment in which an object is designed has an integral and permanent role in the final outcome. From the day a tree is cut down it absorbs the atmosphere and emotion of every designer, manufacturer and consumer it passes through. This is evident in the quality of the craftsmanship to the way the end user interprets its use. For example, emotional interaction between two people sitting on a park bench would not be possible without the park bench. The nature of this emotional interaction is controlled by the planned environment (the result of social interaction between the landscape architect and government body responsible for the park), and the design of the park bench (the result of the designers’ reaction to the environment). The relationship of the two people will then circulate back into the bench in the form of lovers initials engraved in a support beam or the peeling paint of a neglected bench. This is often referred to as material memory. I will conduct experiments of the consumer theories explored in this and future research investigations, to determine the potential of consumer participation at each level of the design process relevant as an invaluable insight to professional design, community and environmental health. My belief is that the subsequent relationship we develop with commodities will transform the way and rate at which we consume.
Methods in Design R & P
GRAP2225, Sem1 2010, Liam Fennessy
Sophie Bain s3195033