In the course of my career, I have seen a lot of design talks. But none have shaken me quite like Indy Johar\u2019s presentation at yesterday\u2019s World Design Congress in London.<\/p>\n
It all started innocently enough, as the architect joked about the challenges of keeping people\u2019s attention in the dreaded pre-lunch speaker slot. Pleasantries duly dispatched, Johar went all-in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to look the future in the eye in a much more realistic way,\u201d he said. Climate change is here, and it\u2019s happening. If, as current projections predict, we end up with a planet that is about three degrees warmer, \u201cthe cascading effects are numerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Johar did, with a precision that was paradoxically even more terrifying, was show how a hotter planet will fundamentally change society. It goes so far beyond people having to move away from coastal areas.<\/p>\n
And I know that for many people closely, deeply engaged with the climate crisis that isn\u2019t news. But Johar brought it to life with chilling reality. Crime, health, inequality \u2013 everything changes when the world heats up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rest of us are at the mercy of what you decide to do with your imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are practical consequences \u2013 did you know, for example, that our railway network here in the UK buckles at 39 degrees? But more than infrastructure challenges, the pillars we count on as humanity, without even realising it, start to crumble. \u201cYou lose predictability,\u201d Johar warned.<\/p>\n
And again, maybe it\u2019s just me, but I feel like I don\u2019t come across this brutal brand of honesty enough. Much of the discussion at the conference, which was convened and hosted by the Design Council, focused on solutions, tactics, optimism.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s great. But Johar set the stakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need ideas and practices that change how we, as humans, relate to the world,\u201d he told the audience. Ignoring the climate crisis, he warned, \u201cmeans you\u2019re an active operator in the genocide of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t get much starker than that.<\/p>\n
And yet, there was hope in his talk, and his vision of the future where designers can, must, should, get to work tackling this existential threat.<\/p>\n
Design\u2019s role, Johar believes, is \u201cdesire manufacturing,\u201d not just creating a greener and more sustainable world, but rewiring society to want and expect that version of the future. It will be hard. It will require radical thinking. But that\u2019s the work that needs doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are beautiful and interesting and dangerous and clever questions we\u2019re going to need to engage with,\u201d Johar said.<\/p>\n
Designers, he believes, \u201cneed to break away from legacy institutions and languages, and embrace a really incredible world that is waiting to be built.\u201d<\/p>\n
He ended with an invitation, couched in a critique. Designers must not just embrace \u201cPost-it workshops\u201d but develop \u201cnew competencies\u201d that shape the future.<\/p>\n
At a panel discussion later in the day, COLLINS co-founder Leland Maschmeyer picked up the theme. He argued compellingly for design to up its ambition. \u201cI think we fundamentally misunderstand design,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the icing on the cake \u2013 it is the cake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aesthetics, he argued, is just one strategy for designers to employ \u2013 \u201cA very powerful strategy, but just one of many.\u201d<\/p>\n
Design, he suggested, is about, \u201cWhat do we want to do? What do we want to become? How do we get there?\u201d<\/p>\n
And picking up the baton so thrillingly thrown down by Johar, Maschmeyer said we should be thinking more about \u201contological design\u201d which he defined as \u201cfacilitating the jump from one fishbowl to another.\u201d<\/p>\n
We name and define the times we are living in, he pointed out. So design\u2019s role should be shaping what we want the world to become.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to make another reality as real as possible,\u201d he said, \u201cinspired by new context and the potential that holds.\u201d<\/p>\n
His fellow panellist Sarah McCullough, who led Selfridges\u2019 huge sustainability commitments, added a neat analogy. When we want our kids to eat more vegetables, do we put up posters admonishing them for the dietary choices? Or do we try and make vegetables fun and interesting?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need more joy,\u201d McCullough said.<\/p>\n
Closing the conference, Design Council CEO Minnie Moll quoted two speakers who encapsulated the opportunity, and the responsibility, facing the design industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a phenomenal time to be a designer,\u201d Kate Raworth said.<\/p>\n
But as climate activist Tori Tsui said, \u201cThe rest of us are at the mercy of what you decide to do with your imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Challenge accpeted?<\/p>\n