Viktor Papanek

Starting this unit, i would like to suggest to follow and learn about one particular designer, whose work somehow relates to the work we are doing.

So for this unit, we will learn a bit more abot Viktor Papanek.

Viktor Papanek was a controversial designer because he said things like:

“Advertising design, in persuading people to buy things they don`t need, with money they don`t have, in order to impress others who don`t care, is probably the phoniest field in existence today.”
― Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change

“Design must be an innovative, highly creative, cross-disciplinary tool responsive to the needs of men. It must be more research-oriented, and we must stop defiling the earth itself with poorly-designed objects and structures.”
― Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change

“The only important thing about design is how it relates to people.”
― Victor Papanek

His comments are, unfortunately highly relevant today. I spent so time today visiting a toy store and this is what I saw: rows and rows of plastic toys.

Papanek talked about the social resposibility of designers.

Here are some ideas on how his work relates to our unit;

1. Can we design games to teach kids about climate change made of plastic if we know how highly pollutant that material is?
2. what is our responsiblity as consumers? Are we going to be buying products that are not environmentaly sustainable?

Have a look at this video describing a recent retrospective of his work.