They've got the whole world in their plans; ethical design takes on real-world problems

Salt shakers
October 23, 2007

They've got the whole world in their plans;
ethical design takes on real-world problems
Industrial designers create stuff that people use in their everyday lives. More significantly, however, they create solutions, and this is a skill that some in the field would like to harness for the good of the world.

Design for the Majority, a professional interest section of the Industrial Design Society of America, is encouraging industrial designers to take on projects that benefit the 5 billion people that don't have access to the material wealth of the developed world.

Gone are the days, says Kevin Henry, vice-chair of Design for the Majority, when designers can ignore larger, global problems. "Ethics are now entering into design."

The trend started more than 30 years ago, with the book Design for the Real World , by Victor Papanek. While some are already putting Papenek's theories into practice, Leslie Speer , who teaches at San Jose State helped start Design for the Majority two years ago, along with fellow educators Henry (Columbia College Chicago) and Glen Lewis (North Carolina State), to spread the ideas in the industry.

Individual designers have worked with artisans to develop products for local and international markets through non-profit Aid to Artisans . Others have taken on projects independently, tackling issues such as potable water.

At the 2007 IDSA conference last week, the group discussed a case study of Philips' first "Philanthropy by Design" project , which aimed to create stoves for India that would eliminate indoor pollution. Smoke from indoor cooking fires kills more than 1.6 million people worldwide, 25 percent of whom are in India, each year.

Philips designers held meeting, observations, and interviews with families and learned that the chimney they designed had to be easy to use, clean, and transport, or it wouldn't be used at all.

"The typical scenario in the West is 'Get out of your way and we'll solve the problem for you,'" says Henry. But for designers it must be a bottom-up process. Field work and research are necessary before a solution can be determined. "You are playing half anthropologist, half designer."

While Philips maintains the intellectual property rights for the stove, the company gave those rights to local businesses to manufacture and distribute the stoves, stimulating entrepreneurial activity in India.

"Not only does it help many people living at very low income, it is also very beneficial for us," says Simona Rocchi, Director of Sustainable Design at Philips Design in Eindhoven on Philips' website. "It develops brand equity and trust; it is good for employees' motivation and can act as a source of inspiration."

Large corporations like Philips can afford to make no money from such philanthropic projects, and while entering into emerging markets also makes business sense, Henry says, most corporations and individuals take these projects on from an altruistic standpoint.

As an educator, Henry hopes to foster this altruism in the next generation of designers through a curriculum focused on ethical design and through student projects in Chicago and eventually around the world. In the industry, he also hopes increase awareness by bringing together corporations, individuals, governments, NGOs, and design schools to share ideas and encourage new projects.

With countless ways to bring designers' skills to the developing world, philanthropic design projects will require collaboration across organizations, cultures, and disciplines.

"We don't live in these little isolated vacuums," Henry says. "Good work might prove to be horrible work if you aren’t looking at the broader context—social, cultural, or economic."

Read about other social design projects:
Pierre-Yves Panis
William Faxon Gordon’s work with the government of the Phillipines
Mimi Robinson
Sergio Palleroni
AID to Artisans

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