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Abstract
Industrial design, through rapid technological developments and an increasing emphasis on aesthetics, has contributed significantly to our consumer culture producing a mass of superficial and transient products. This preoccupation with appearance and technical possibilities has distracted the designer from deeper human needs and from looking ‘beyond aesthetics’ (Walker, 2001).
We are witnessing a rapidly increasing interest in the developments of new technologies but we fear at the expense of more traditional craft skills, which have stimulated our senses since time began. There is evidence to support the fact that the eye may have taken over the hand as the worker's chief tool. As academics we are witnessing a great demise of practical skills within design education as CAD continues to be perceived by many as a more useful and cost-effective investment. David Pye over 30 years ago recognized the demise of interest in the craftsman. He stated, ‘In practice the designer hopes the workmanship will be good, but the workman decides whether it shall be’. He uses the analogy of designer as a conductor of an orchestra: ‘No conductor can make a bad orchestra play well…and no designer can make a bad workman produce good workmanship’. (Pye, 1968) Maybe we have now reached a point where the machine and control technology can allow the designer to make the decision ‘whether it shall be’, but this can only be if the designer has a working knowledge of the material itself.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Paul Chamberlain
Jim Roddis and Paul Chamberlain have collaborated extensively over the last ten years on practice-based research methodologies and applied design research projects, winning awards including the International Design Resource Award for sustainable products and Design Council Millennium Products Award.
Paul Chamberlain graduated from the Furniture Department at the Royal College of Art, London in 1984. He was co-founder and design director of London-based Flux Design Ltd. He has exhibited widely at significant international venues winning major international awards and has work in the permanent collection of twentieth-century design at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. His work has focused predominantly in the field of furniture and related products. He is presently principal lecturer and senior researcher in design at Sheffield Hallam University. Recent research has explored multi-sensory aspects in the design of furniture and systems for people with sensory impairment. Outcomes of the research are now placed within mainstream product applications.
James Roddis
Jim Roddis and Paul Chamberlain have collaborated extensively over the last ten years on practice-based research methodologies and applied design research projects, winning awards including the International Design Resource Award for sustainable products and Design Council Millennium Products Award.
Jim Roddis is is Head of Applied Research and Director of the Cultural Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam University. He has exhibited individual works internationally since 1972. More recently his research activities have focused on the role of design in the reconstruction of post-industrial regions and the role of craft practice related to industrial production. As well as international recognition for his work on the open-loop solutions for recycled glass waste, he has contributed to conferences on design throughout the world. Drawing on research with SMEs, he initiated the Advanced Product Development Centre in South Yorkshire - a collaboration between two universities and local authorities which applies industrial design to the needs of regional economic regeneration.