IF TIME were a true test of anything, then objects may matter more than we do. We would be long dead and gone, but the objects we would have acquired through the years will still be gathering dust by the time we would have turned into it.
The International Design Conference was held on Sept. 20 in Makati, staged by the Design Center of the Philippines. The conference saw the culmination of the IDC Pitching Session, in which four teams of young, bold thinkers presented their best ideas on how to use design as a force for good. In front of a powerhouse panel of industry leaders and the Conference audience, Greg Balondo (arkayv.com), Gerome Sta.Maria (Diwata), Dean Cuanso (Bespoke Forever Wedding Bouquet), and Marthy Angue (Catwander) pitched how they intended to innovate to change the world. Diwata emerged as the winner for a collection of women’s footwear and other fashion accessories using marine plastics.
Among the speakers at the conference was Jacob Jensen Designs Shanghai Chief Operating Officer Manuel Veiga Aldemira who discussed the design principles that guide their institution.
The design studios, with a presence in Denmark, Shanghai, and Bangkok, were founded by Jacob Jensen, a leading designer of the Danish Modern period and the last of his generation, dying in 2015. Jacob Jensen’s imprimatur can be found in television sets, mobile phones, household goods, and even coffins.
THE TEST OF TIME
Mr. Aldemira noted the importance of sustainable design in the forefront of the fourth Industrial Revolution, marked with advances in digital technology. “A big part of sustainable design is actually durability: to create goods that are not made to be disposed of, products that have intrinsic quality, and that withstand the test of time.”
Mr. Aldemira said that part of the late Jacob Jensen’s principles included that good design should be different, but not strange. Good design is innovation, but not innovations for its own sake, rather innovation that exists to improve existing products. “Innovation for the sake of innovation often shows that it’s rejected to a certain degree by the audiences it’s presented to.”
Because the fourth Industrial Revolution rests on our reliance to information technology, with a nexus to it usually in our very own hands, perhaps it’s time to accept certain things. “Gadgets are a part of our life,” noted Mr. Aldemira. “We build relationships with them.”
“As such, design should trigger certain emotions for those that hold them,” he said. This rests on three categories: distance, closeness, and touch. Really, by the way he talks about it, it sounds like a courtship or a seduction, hammering home the point of emotive design. “Good design should attract you from a distance,” he noted. “There has to be a different element that is appealing.”
In approaching the object, you discover more appealing elements to it, and then, “When you interact with it, that’s when you discover the, say, magic of it.”
In accepting that objects are extensions of ourselves, we begin to see that design is less a frivolous pursuit but a serious discipline aimed at building ourselves and the world. As such Mr. Aldemira talked about the values instilled in good design. He said that design should include contrasts, because it communicates with you, and makes you more intuitive to the needs of the end-user. Good design should also be honest, meaning things are not added for the sake of it, or because they are, as he phrases it, “cool.”
“Everything is to have a purpose. Everything needs to be there for a reason.”
“Good design is value-based,” he said. “When everything that you do [depends on] a very strong, solid foundation, and a personal set of values, it withstands the test of time.” — Joseph L. Garcia
