Author Archives: remko
DESIGNSMASH / ENLAI HOOI
AN OPEN DESIGN BUSINESS MODEL. Enlai Hooi It is still somehow an unusual thought that open design might be considered a viable, possibly even beneficial, strategy for business. The product design industry has been slow to move on the issue … Continue reading
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
JORIS LAARMAN’S EXPERIMENTS WITH OPEN SOURCE DESIGN / GABRIELLE KENNEDY
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