The Culture of Design

The Culture of Design by Guy Julier

After reading chapter 4 (The consumption of Design) for the first time I was very confused in how it related to my area of design and how it related to me at all, but after the seminar last Friday I got a better understanding of the chapter. It actually raised a lot of questions and is very inspiring to see the link to my discipline. In this chapter Julier talks about Consumption in society culture and how all this relates to design. In the seminar we had a brief discussion on what discussion is we said it is the 'use of something', and is 'traditionally exchanged with money' We also said that consumption has a lot to do with Identity as we buy (meaning we consume )usually to 'fit in' to a group or society. I consume from a day to day basis which means I play a role of consumption. I buy things as my group of friends buy things and we are all similar in personality, this could also happen in other groups which make like a big consumption boom. I feel that society plays a big part in consumption as they tell the public 'we need this' and this is the best and newest thing which makes people want to buy. When people start to buy in this way, its never going to be enough and people start to buy and buy and buy like a vicious circle. In this Chapter Julier referred to this consumption circle as desire which means to 'need' or to 'want'. So what does consumption have to do with design? how does it relate to textiles? is design the problem for consumption? Design effects consumption as it is the designers who design either posters or objects such as clothes, homeware to attract people to buy things. Before reading this book I didn't think consumption related to my discipline at all but looking into it further and being a victim and provider of consumption I understand how this relates to Textiles. The discussion in the last seminar made me think about what I buy and if what I buy is disposable such as buying from Primark and how I would buy an excessive amount of garments and accessories which are thrown out a couple of months down the line when it is 'out of fashion' I do believe that as a Textile designer, that designers do play a big part in consumption as we make and design these garments which follow a trend 4 times a year means that fashion/trend followers will have to buy the new and latest fashion piece. Things which designers could change to reduce consumption could be thinking up different ways in recycling material or designing a dress which will change and manipulate to look like a dress with lots of different looks. This idea of manipulating could be applied to many other things such as bags or accessories. Maybe in the future Consumption caused by design could be reduced if designers come up with a design solution for this problem. I also feel that if consumption dint exist then there wouldn't be a point in having designers as a lot of designers would be out of jobs so in a way I feel consumption helps the economy going and more design jobs are available.