Victor Papanek: Design for the Real World
Chapter 4: Do it Yourself - Social and Moral Responsibilities in Design
In the opening of the chapter Papanek talks about him attending school part time to have a radio design brief brought to him, something that filled him with dread as it was the 1st model to be in the post war market. The client highlighted the responsibility of creating this radio to which Papanek replied about customer satisfaction; whilst that was important that was not on the clients mind.
'Just think what making your radio entails in terms of our workers. In order to get it produced, we're building a plant in Long Island City. We're hiring 600 men. Workers from many states. They'll form a whole new community of their own. Their kids will be jerked out of school and go to different schools. In their new subdivision supermarkets, drugstores, and service stations will open up just to fill their needs.'
He also goes on to discuss what if it doesn't sell in the same fashion, showing Papanek the enormity of his radio on people's livelihoods and the local economies and societies. This made him think that a designer must think further than about how well their product will be received but also about their social and moral judgement which he concludes to a social good product.
'Food, shelter and clothing; that is the way we have always described mankind's basic needs. With increasing sophistication we have added tools and machines to our list because they have enabled us to produce the other three items.'
He also discusses how it is possible to construct a belief system through a communication of an idealist environment, here he gives an example of America being perceived by film viewers as a 'fairyland.'
'The designer/planner shares responsibility for nearly all of our products and tools and hence nearly all of our environmental mistakes.'
Through this he is trying to say that being designer isn't just about the aesthetics but a consumers needs and social good, a factor he believes many don't pay attention to and don't see the 'bigger picture.'
He also discusses that something that once held so much benefit to someone i.e. a car allowing a human to go faster than their legs has now done a 180 - it is seen as a status symbol rather than a commodity, one that kills people and uses up too much rare material and in actual fact it's sole purpose of going faster is not always true when a quicker route could be walking instead of rush hour traffic.
How does this link?
It shows to me that manufacturers must be selfless; not only consider their profits but the effect of the food industry in a whole. The introduction of new regulations helped this but due to the idealism of a 'normal diet' for so long, partly due to the advertising of lead brands for years it is hard for others to see other diets as normal and therefore allows room for judgement. I believe that all manufacturers should be doing it for the social good and realising the impacts of their products.
In the opening of the chapter Papanek talks about him attending school part time to have a radio design brief brought to him, something that filled him with dread as it was the 1st model to be in the post war market. The client highlighted the responsibility of creating this radio to which Papanek replied about customer satisfaction; whilst that was important that was not on the clients mind.
'Just think what making your radio entails in terms of our workers. In order to get it produced, we're building a plant in Long Island City. We're hiring 600 men. Workers from many states. They'll form a whole new community of their own. Their kids will be jerked out of school and go to different schools. In their new subdivision supermarkets, drugstores, and service stations will open up just to fill their needs.'
He also goes on to discuss what if it doesn't sell in the same fashion, showing Papanek the enormity of his radio on people's livelihoods and the local economies and societies. This made him think that a designer must think further than about how well their product will be received but also about their social and moral judgement which he concludes to a social good product.
'Food, shelter and clothing; that is the way we have always described mankind's basic needs. With increasing sophistication we have added tools and machines to our list because they have enabled us to produce the other three items.'
He also discusses how it is possible to construct a belief system through a communication of an idealist environment, here he gives an example of America being perceived by film viewers as a 'fairyland.'
'The designer/planner shares responsibility for nearly all of our products and tools and hence nearly all of our environmental mistakes.'
Through this he is trying to say that being designer isn't just about the aesthetics but a consumers needs and social good, a factor he believes many don't pay attention to and don't see the 'bigger picture.'
He also discusses that something that once held so much benefit to someone i.e. a car allowing a human to go faster than their legs has now done a 180 - it is seen as a status symbol rather than a commodity, one that kills people and uses up too much rare material and in actual fact it's sole purpose of going faster is not always true when a quicker route could be walking instead of rush hour traffic.
How does this link?
It shows to me that manufacturers must be selfless; not only consider their profits but the effect of the food industry in a whole. The introduction of new regulations helped this but due to the idealism of a 'normal diet' for so long, partly due to the advertising of lead brands for years it is hard for others to see other diets as normal and therefore allows room for judgement. I believe that all manufacturers should be doing it for the social good and realising the impacts of their products.
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