The Designers Accord

In 2005 a new company named KOR Water founded by Eric Barnes and Paul Shustak handed their dream down to Sawhney’s team: It was an idea called “Water ReDesigned,” and their hope was that they could get people to stop using plastic water bottles by changing the way people drank water. After an analysis of the reusable water bottle market at the time, RKS believed the number of products hitting shelves was about to come to a head. “We predicted there would be a commodification of water bottles,” says Sawhney. “And there has been.” As the market flooded with bottles, they realized that no one was positioning their vessels of water as anything but utilitarian. They saw a competitive opportunity where they could position the act of eschewing disposable bottles as almost…virtuous.

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I promised that I would never hold a Designers Accord conference (because of the sheer numbers of design conferences, but especially because of the ever-promiscuous green conferences). However, it has become obvious that a significant part of the discussion about incorporating sustainability as a critical lens in design is missing. We spend so much time reworking our professional practice (or at least the rhetoric around it), but another major opportunity lies in shaping the value systems of the next generation of designers. What if the leading thinkers in design education came together to craft a new proposal for the future of the design?

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An economic downturn can be a boon for volunteerism. Not only are people more sympathetic to the needs of their fellow citizens, but thanks to a lightened workload–or, ahem, no work at all–people also might actually have the time to give. Acknowledging the fact that many designers might be using a slow year to build more meaningful connections with their own communities, and spurred by several service initiatives from local and federal government, a group of New York-based designers formed DesigNYC, a new way for New York designers to connect their creative skills with non-profits.

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Eco-practitioner Wendy Jedlicka has worked on the frontlines of sustainable design practice for 20 years and recently edited the new book Packaging Sustainability, but don’t you dare call her an eco-packaging guru. “If someone tells you they’re an eco-packaging expert, run screaming,” she says. “There’s no human being who has that much time to do all the research required for that.”

Start with all the different substrates for packaging, then add in the complexities of sustainable design, and you’ve got a nuanced study in systems thinking. Think of it like a computer keyboard, she says. It’s not a single button (everyone wants that “easy button”), it’s a combination of keys, and how you press them.

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As a graduate student at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, Robyn Waxman became fascinated with the next generation of designers’ role when it came to protest and civil disobedience, a place designers and artists have been focusing their efforts for centuries. Studying millennials, who are generally considered to be a group of participatory, positive, technologically-savvy 18- to 30-year-olds, revealed some interesting insights: This was a generation that had solid respect for the law and was reluctant to publicly criticize the status quo. “[They] are really concerned about defying authority,” says Waxman, who is 39. “They are looking out for their future.” As her thesis, Waxman proposed an intervention that helped redefine protest for the rising creative group–a form of engagement that would help educate and inspire them in how to take action.

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A few years back, Hulger gained gadget geek stardom with their line of phone accessories that turned wireless calls or Skyping into a classy, contemporary twist on the traditional telephone experience. After gaining worldwide attention for their sly cultural commentary on our relationships with our mobile phones, founder Nicolas Roope wanted to turn the firm’s attention to something more universal that could make a wider impact. You could say a lightbulb went off in his head: The Plumen Project was born.

Read the case study in sustainability on Fast Company