Category Archives: article

CRITICAL MAKING / MATT RATTO

Open design can be employed to develop a critical perspective on the current institutions, practices and norms of society, and to reconnect materiality and morality. Matt Ratto introduces ‘critical making’ as processes of material and conceptual exploration and creation of … Continue reading

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FROM BEST DESIGN TO JUST DESIGN / TOMMI LAITIO

Can open design contribute to the world’s bigger problems, such as depletion and squandering of natural resources, population growth, consumerism and widespread poverty? In turn, can pooling knowledge and resources, re-evaluating the concept of time, and facilitating user participation help open … Continue reading

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DESIGN AND GOVERNMENT / BERT MULDER

Governmental institutions are challenged to use design and open design as a strategic tool. Bert Mulder addresses issues of participation and quality, and suggests how a government could develop a system that would include information, tools, methods and a set … Continue reading

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LEARNING BY DOING / MUSHON ZER-AVIV

Mushon Zer-Aviv describes his efforts to teach open source design as an attempt to investigate why collaborative work combined with individual autonomy has not been common practice in design, as it is in open source software development. He discusses whether … Continue reading

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TEACHING ATTITUDES, SKILLS, APPROACHES, STRUCTURE AND TOOLS / CAROLIEN HUMMELS

Taking a critical look at current educational models, open design will involve a shift in the relationship between designers and potential users in terms of attitude, skills and approach. Caroline Hummels discusses the consequences of open design for the educational … Continue reading

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DESIGN LITERACY: ORGANIZING SELF-ORGANIZATION / DICK RIJKEN

The position of knowledge and expertise is changing radically, particularly in relation to how design literacy is affected when confronted with digital tools and media. Dick Rijken analyses design literacy on three levels – strategic, tactical, and operational – and … Continue reading

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CREATION & CO: USER PARTICIPATION IN DESIGN / PIETER JAN STAPPERS & CO

The roles of the designer, the client (or producer, or manufacturer) and the user are being shaken up in industrial practices that have, until now, been oriented mainly towards mass production. Stappers and his colleagues illustrate the contemporary occurrence of … Continue reading

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DO IT WITH DROOG / ROEL KLAASSEN, PETER TROXLER

Renny Ramakers talks about Droog’s latest project Downloadable Design, about making money, designing for the masses, the development of the design profession, and Droog Design’s recent experiments and research in sustainability, local production, co-creation, upcycling and collective revitalization of the … Continue reading

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JORIS LAARMAN’S EXPERIMENTS WITH OPEN SOURCE DESIGN / GABRIELLE KENNEDY

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The mediocracy of the middle classes dominates the current mass production design. In a world less controlled by branding and regulations, a new breed of designers can contribute to an altered, more honest economy. An interview with Dutch designer Joris Laarman, … Continue reading

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THE BEGINNING OF A BEGINNING OF THE BEGINNING OF A TREND / PETER TROXLER

This portrait of open designer Ronen Kadushin reveals his vision of ‘opening’ industrial design and putting the designer firmly back in the centre of the design process. It tells of successful examples of Ronen’s design practice – the Hack Chair, … Continue reading

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