Buried under all that stuff?

I was going to post something fun about Halloween, however I think I may leave that for a later point. I also realise that I often neglect to post to my own blog for one reason or another so its been some time since theres been anything new.

Part of that is being able to find suitable inspiration when it comes to writing these things and I’ve often been too busy to be ‘inspired’.

However when I was browsing around the internet I discovered an article on The Guardian website by Charlie Brooker about how he thinks the world is now too full of things. And something in his article struck a chord with me.

“I’m fairly certain I recently passed a rather pathetic tipping point, and now own more unread books and unwatched DVDs than my remaining lifespan will be able to sustain. I can’t possibly read all these pages, watch all these movies, before the grim reaper comes knocking. The bastard things are going to outlive me. It’s not fair. They can’t even breathe.”

I started watching a programme on BBC starring design guru Philippe Starck I found him endlessly annoying in the traditional art school sense of spouting arty bollocks to make a flowery point. However underneath all that rubbish was an actual genuine point, that some things which are designed and produced are pointless.

When your a designer its important to think about who your designing for and what your product is intended to do, how its going to fit into their lives rather than just producing more ’stuff’.

I’ve often thought that when we die all we’ve left behind is the accumulated possessions of our life on earth and what is your nearest and dearest going to do with your DVD collection in the future? Quite a grim thought perhaps but maybe its those intangible things we leave behind which are really valued the ideas and shared knowledge rather than the here today gone tomorrow stuff.

Although just watch Dragons Den and you’ll see people trying to make careers out of useless gadgets and gizmo’s. I’m pretty confident theres some money to be made but perhaps we should think more about the purpose of our designs and what happens to it once it lands in the bin.

On a slightly related note the North East’s design festival called ‘Design Event 09′ is taking place this October. As part of it the Tyneside Cinema http://www.tynecine.org will be showing Objectified, a film about the relationship between people and the objects they use, the NGCA is running a design event called Think Tank.

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