Chapter 3 Design For Life or Consumption Designed?

Steven Miles

Chapter 3  Design For Life or Consumption Designed? 

This chapter looks at the role of design in contemporary society and raises the question 'do we as consumers design our own lifestyle or are those lifestyles designed for us?' 

Notes:

- In the text Sparke's (1986) thoughts on consumerism and how the widespread use of electricity resulted in a variety of consumer products to be available is discussed. Following on from this NAME states that because of this 'The second half of the nineteenth century was therefore a boom period in the history of consumption, and design became a legitimate means of sustaining and expanding markets.' 

- When discussing car manufactoring, the text presents arguments created by Whiteley (1993). Although not graphic design, it presents an interesting concept that developed from the manufactoring and economic benefit of car production...'By streamlining the cars they produced, manufactorers were matching consumers to products, rather than products to consumers.' This idea could be applied to other consumer products and is a direction of branding to explore further. 

- 'Compulsory obsolescence is the foundation-stone of the modern design industry and involves the intentional design of products for short-term use. In other words, designers ensure constant demand for new products by intentionally designing products with a limited life-span.' Through this discussion, it is evident that although the 'brands' are controlling the products they put out on to the market, if the consumer no longer 'desires a product he or she will not buy it' and this therefore will have an affect on the market. 

- In the late 1980's Britain was 'undergoing considerable social change' that was influenced by the consumer goods of the USA. Miles states that this was the time that 'consumerism became a way of life'. 

Is there such a thing as 'green design'?

- 'nowadays designers are finding themselves under more pressure to design things that will last and yet can also be recycled and reused'. 

- The Body Shop are an example of a company which produces environmentally and ethically green cosmetics. This is something that is integrated throughout the brand and is therefore key to the consumers that they attract. However, as Miles states the brand must 'to a certain extent, prioritise financial profits before ecological concerns'. This would suggest that, in this example, that some of the values that the brand have are to attract a particular audience and therefore used to increase sales of their products. Miles supports this by saying that a cynic may argue that companies such as The Body Shop 'have done nothing more that discover and exploit previously underexplored opportunities in the marketplace'.  

- 'The problem is that socially useful-design is not amenable to the imperatives of capitalism in that, as Whiteley notes, it is often the manufacturer and not the consumer that has the real power in the marketplace.