Things That Last
Hi friends,
Are you suffering from designer’s guilt?
The feeling of existential dread that comes from knowing that the precious design you slaved over is only contributing to overflowing landfills, polluted oceans, and the ticking time bomb of global warming?
I often feel this acutely.
I don’t have a miracle cure, but I do have some thoughts that have helped me and reinforced my responsibility as a designer.
Maybe they’ll help you, too.
The first things that come to mind are two of Dieter Rams’ famous Ten Principles for Good Design:
Good design is long-lasting. It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.
Good design is environmental-friendly. Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
I looked around my apartment today for products that met these two requirements. I specifically focused mainly on technology products as they are the most prone to planned obsolescence and the annual replacement cycle. Here’s a few I found and their purchase dates:
15” MacBook Retina (2013)
This has been my main home computer for almost a decade. Despite some battery issues, it still works almost as well as the day I bought it. Of course, it’s not as fast as a modern MacBook Pro, but for 95% of my needs, it’s still perfectly capable.
Sonos Play:1 (2013)
My first wireless speaker. A punchy one for its size, this speaker still gets software updates from Sonos (at least for now).
Technics SL-1200 MK2 (~2008)
Easily the oldest thing I own. I bought a pair of these second-hand in college when I started DJing. I checked the serial number on them and one of them was made in the 70s. They still work flawlessly.
The Arrivals Haver Jacket (~2014)
This is the piece of clothing I’ve owned the longest and consistently wear. At the time, it was my most expensive clothing purchase ever, coming in at ~$500. It represents a conscious choice I made to invest longer-lasting staple pieces.
What’s special about these items is that their design is inherent to their longevity.
Each of them had designers and engineers behind them that made decisions about the form, the materials, and the manufacturing processes that has made them continually useful and beautiful for almost a decade, and in some cases longer.
While there is undoubtedly a dopamine hit that comes from buying something new that can be hard to beat, I find there’s a different but equally satisfying pleasure from continuing to get utility and joy from something you’ve owned for a long time.
These objects remind me that there is immense value and beauty in things that last, and that designers have an ability and a responsibility to fight climate change by making things that provide the user ongoing value and aren’t subject to a cycle of constant replacement.
Just as designing products to be made and sold for the lowest price possible is a challenge for today’s designers, creating things that can have long, useful lives is likely to be the defining challenge for designers over the next decade and beyond.
There is growing recognition in consumer goods industries, especially in technology products, that the only way to make a meaningful impact to climate change is to shift to a more circular system where a product’s end-of-life and potential refurbishment and remanufacturing are considered from it’s inception.
With regulators coming down on technology companies in favor of right-to-repair, designing products that last a long time and are easily disassembled and repaired to extend their useful lives may also become a competitive edge as users choose brands and products that serve them longer.
America and the world is waking up from the era of cheap, throwaway goods that came with the rise of globalization, with new generations that reject overconsumption leading the charge. A recent study showed that Gen Z shoppers preferred sustainable products, and were willing to spend 10% more on them.
With consumers today being more likely to make decisions based on how much a brand’s values align with their own, designing long-lasting, quality products that are better for the planet is an essential marketing and sales strategy, not just a nice-to-have.
As designers, we’re uniquely positioned to contribute and apply creative solutions to these shifts in our economy and society.
So whenever I’m feeling designer’s guilt, I remind myself that making things is not the problem. Humans have always wanted and needed things. It’s how we consume and discard things that is the problem.
Making beautiful, useful things that last is actually part of the solution.
See you next week!