100%Design asks Is Design Post-National?
Yesterday’s 100%Design festival kicked off with a press conference which posed the question of whether design has become “post-national”. The 17th 100%Design festival has 13 international stalls, including new country stands from Chilie, China and Greece, a fact which might suggest an ever stronger sense of national identity through design.
The panel brought together designers and architects, including Ben van Berkel, Kenneth Grange, Paul Kelley and Matthew Butcher as well as leading luminaries from the world of design commentary Graham Jones, Chairman of Design Guild Mark and Vice President of Knoll International, and chaired by award winning design critic Justin McGuirk.
McGuirk was quick to define, and expand, the parameters of this question, proffering that it is not a question regarding national characteristics of design but, as well as taking in this consideration, the question also considers economic and manufacturing matters.
At its foundation, this question must consider context and the extent to which any designer, or any anyone, designs within a context, whether that be the place in which they grew up, studied, the country of origin of the brief or the intended destination for the product, and in reality it is not a question of one of these contexts, but a tension between them all which imposes the creative context.
Take London as our context, the panel discussed the melting pot of ideas and practices which have characterised London the design-hub city. There was a feeling from the panel that “design from London” was very much of the moment and in the place. The influences of the designers working here exchanged in a kind of “economy of ideas”, with certain inherent British values, whether that be an accumulative British design tradition or methodological traditions casting a shadow across the work of young designers working within this city, or if there is something inherent about the city and the context which inspires a certain kind of design. Holland, too, was discussed, the support of the government having over time cultivated design, again creating a hub for designers. However, Ben van Berkel suggested that he at present felt that he was learning more from China, where UNStudio has just opened their second office, than from his native Holland, where he has worked for the majority of his career. The question then becomes one of knowledge creation and exchange, and the design and architecture market becomes a kind of network of knowledge. It is therefore the more common movement paths of the designers which propagate this knowledge exchange, meaning design is increasingly multi-national. But is this the same as post-national?
What came through the conversation was a certain sense of national pride, particularly exhibited by Matthew Butcher, who teaches and works in London. There is, he said, a lineage of design in London, and he is proud to be a part of that. However, this was not expressed in such a way that he resisted the concept of post-national design. Again and again the panel came back to this idea of an ideas exchange, and how designers were increasingly tending towards idea exchange and accumulation of transferable methodology from the countries in which they work, and the markets which they work for.
So, what would be the new context, if boarders and countries are becoming less relevant? This panel believes the attention afforded the environment, as well as “smaller matters” was increasingly producing a better quality of design because it, in turn, means a better quality of life. Therefore it is a total rethink of design, not just a collapsing of national boarders and boundaries, which is propelling design today. Rather than a post-national design tradition, there is an ever evolving design tradition motivated by ever intensifying localism. This loacalism permeates the entire process, from material sourcing to response, to how a design is marketed and results in final products which have an extremely strong attachement to their environment. As we talked to designers around the exhibition again and again when asked “do you feel like a British designer… is this a British design?” there was a resounding… “Yes, because I made it here, in London”. National identity is therefore not about a certain heritage, or characteristics, but rather a natural process of influence and sensitive absorption of and response to an environment. So, is design post-national? Perhaps, but only because what we used to understand by the notion of “national” characteristics (certain inherent values, schools of design structured around a country, etc) has been superseded by a new kind of regionalism has superceded that is transnational in its approach and shared values, but which produces design that is absolutely of its place and of its moment, wherever that may be, and wherever that designer may be from.
