1 00:00:08,447 --> 00:00:10,085 We're human beings. 2 00:00:10,127 --> 00:00:12,118 And human beings are not machines. 3 00:00:12,527 --> 00:00:16,486 Our first response to anything is emotionaI. 4 00:00:16,527 --> 00:00:18,518 Not inteIIectuaI, not functionaI. 5 00:00:18,567 --> 00:00:20,285 It's emotionaI. 6 00:00:20,327 --> 00:00:25,799 It's incumbent upon designers to make the through-fIow of work and communication 7 00:00:25,847 --> 00:00:27,838 as pIeasurabIe as possibIe, 8 00:00:27,887 --> 00:00:29,764 and as emotionaIIy rich as possibIe. 9 00:00:34,607 --> 00:00:36,598 Over the last 30 years, 10 00:00:38,167 --> 00:00:40,158 the world around us has changed. 11 00:00:41,127 --> 00:00:43,118 The crystaI speak even more. 12 00:00:43,167 --> 00:00:45,158 There is a message. 13 00:00:49,767 --> 00:00:52,406 ln an age of abundant consumer choice, 14 00:00:52,967 --> 00:00:55,162 design has shifted focus... 15 00:00:55,967 --> 00:00:57,878 ..from serving the collective good... 16 00:00:58,807 --> 00:01:00,684 ..to indulging individual desire... 17 00:01:02,127 --> 00:01:06,325 ..as designers have devised ever new and more sophisticated ways 18 00:01:06,367 --> 00:01:08,961 to fulfil our personal aspirations... 19 00:01:11,887 --> 00:01:14,685 ..and sell us more stuff. 20 00:01:15,447 --> 00:01:18,803 It's not enough that it Iooks weII and works weII. 21 00:01:18,847 --> 00:01:22,044 It has to be fIat and go into a brown box. 22 00:01:23,567 --> 00:01:24,556 (WhistIes) 23 00:01:24,607 --> 00:01:31,558 To Iet the bird sing when the water boiIs makes for the personaIity of this kettIe. 24 00:01:35,047 --> 00:01:38,039 We live in the ultimate designer age. 25 00:01:38,807 --> 00:01:42,243 But is this democracy or decadence? 26 00:01:43,327 --> 00:01:45,318 Can we have too much of a good thing? 27 00:01:49,407 --> 00:01:50,726 And finally, 28 00:01:50,767 --> 00:01:55,841 with the raw materials that have fuelled 200 years of industrial production running out, 29 00:01:56,847 --> 00:01:58,838 where next for design? 30 00:02:01,727 --> 00:02:03,797 The exciting thing about cradIe-to-cradIe 31 00:02:03,847 --> 00:02:07,237 is that things are designed to either go back to soiI safeIy, 32 00:02:07,287 --> 00:02:09,278 or back to industry forever. 33 00:02:09,327 --> 00:02:11,716 And so we can ceIebrate consumption, 34 00:02:11,767 --> 00:02:15,760 instead of as something that destroys the worId as something that enhances it. 35 00:02:44,807 --> 00:02:48,959 I started off designing things and buiIding them. 36 00:02:49,927 --> 00:02:53,966 I'd typicaIIy tend to buiId one or two or three, because that's aII I couId afford. 37 00:02:55,407 --> 00:02:59,525 But I aIways wanted to address mass production. 38 00:03:00,407 --> 00:03:04,844 That kind of is the uItimate goaI for a designer, I think. 39 00:03:07,327 --> 00:03:10,000 Shaping everything from aeroplanes to coat hangers, 40 00:03:10,607 --> 00:03:13,883 Marc Newson is one of the hippest designers on the planet. 41 00:03:18,647 --> 00:03:24,438 An artist reaping the rewards of an age in which the profile of design has never been higher. 42 00:03:27,167 --> 00:03:31,046 And today, seated on Philippe Starck designer chairs, 43 00:03:31,087 --> 00:03:33,521 sipping designer water, 44 00:03:33,567 --> 00:03:38,766 wealthy aficionados are about to do battle to own one of his first works. 45 00:03:41,807 --> 00:03:44,401 Now we come to Lot 72, 46 00:03:44,447 --> 00:03:46,438 Marc Newson, 47 00:03:46,487 --> 00:03:48,762 the rare and important Lockheed Lounge. 48 00:03:52,087 --> 00:03:57,002 And we wiII begin this at �300,000. 49 00:03:57,047 --> 00:03:59,038 300,000 to start this. 50 00:03:59,087 --> 00:04:00,361 I have 320... 51 00:04:00,407 --> 00:04:01,806 I was er... 52 00:04:03,167 --> 00:04:05,886 ..23, I think, or 24 when I did that, 53 00:04:05,927 --> 00:04:08,157 when I buiIt that, when I designed it and made it. 54 00:04:08,207 --> 00:04:10,641 480, seated on my right, at 480. 55 00:04:10,687 --> 00:04:12,279 500,000... 56 00:04:12,327 --> 00:04:15,285 I didn't have the money to go and get a manufacturer to do it. 57 00:04:15,327 --> 00:04:17,795 At 750, against you, madam, 750. 780... 58 00:04:17,847 --> 00:04:20,805 It was simpIy buiIding something in my back yard. 59 00:04:21,927 --> 00:04:25,078 At �950,000, then. 60 00:04:27,807 --> 00:04:29,798 SoId. Thank you so much. 61 00:04:29,847 --> 00:04:31,644 (AppIause) 62 00:04:42,807 --> 00:04:44,798 Do not adjust your sets. 63 00:04:44,847 --> 00:04:47,361 That'sjust shy of a million pounds... 64 00:04:47,407 --> 00:04:49,398 for a chair... 65 00:04:50,967 --> 00:04:55,245 ..making this probably the most desirable piece of furniture in the world. 66 00:04:58,847 --> 00:05:00,405 But don't panic. 67 00:05:00,447 --> 00:05:04,838 Marc Newson makes high street dish strainers as well as exclusive furniture. 68 00:05:08,087 --> 00:05:14,640 He's the latest in a line of high-profile, influential designers to confront a curious dilemma. 69 00:05:17,647 --> 00:05:20,115 ln the age of the individual, 70 00:05:20,167 --> 00:05:24,683 how can a mass-produced object feel like a desirable one-off? 71 00:05:27,207 --> 00:05:30,916 Theirs is the story of how design got personal. 72 00:05:31,847 --> 00:05:37,763 And it begins with a generation fed up with the dull and dismal world of the 1 970s. 73 00:05:43,527 --> 00:05:45,518 No-one seemed to reaIIy care... 74 00:05:45,567 --> 00:05:50,516 how...mass-produced products Iooked. 75 00:05:50,927 --> 00:05:56,285 And I was interested in having interesting and, in a way, aspirationaI possessions. 76 00:05:58,047 --> 00:06:00,925 And even though this was a four or five pound aIbum, 77 00:06:00,967 --> 00:06:07,566 I didn't see why it had to be in any way Iesser to a Iuxury item. 78 00:06:16,367 --> 00:06:21,805 For Pete Saville, that meant plundering a range of enigmatic and eclectic images 79 00:06:22,567 --> 00:06:27,402 to design record sleeves every bit as desirable as the music they concealed. 80 00:06:28,727 --> 00:06:30,126 I picked up this... 81 00:06:30,767 --> 00:06:34,237 weII, a postcard of this Fantin-Latour painting caIIed Roses. 82 00:06:34,287 --> 00:06:37,677 I picked it up because I Iiked the chintz-Iike quaIity of it. 83 00:06:38,287 --> 00:06:39,686 My friend was with me. 84 00:06:39,727 --> 00:06:43,083 She saw me hoIding the Fantin-Latour postcard, 85 00:06:43,127 --> 00:06:45,846 and said, ''You're not thinking of that, are you?'' 86 00:06:45,887 --> 00:06:47,878 And I said, ''No, of course not.'' 87 00:07:01,927 --> 00:07:04,999 I was interested in producing things that I wouId own, 88 00:07:05,047 --> 00:07:07,880 and that my audience wouId own. 89 00:07:07,927 --> 00:07:11,840 So not pictures of what other peopIe had, but actuaIIy things. 90 00:07:13,087 --> 00:07:15,885 In my home, in the earIy '80s, 91 00:07:15,927 --> 00:07:17,918 I didn't have a Fantin-Latour. 92 00:07:18,927 --> 00:07:21,395 I had a vase with some fIowers in it each week. 93 00:07:22,527 --> 00:07:25,644 And I quite Iiked the idea of having a Fantin-Latour. 94 00:07:25,687 --> 00:07:29,646 And I saw these, in a way, kind of pop products, as a way of having that. 95 00:07:34,727 --> 00:07:36,718 And it is about acquisition. 96 00:07:36,767 --> 00:07:43,559 It's driven by aspiration and a personaI desire to have some things. 97 00:07:43,607 --> 00:07:45,723 And foIIowing on from centuries of... 98 00:07:46,447 --> 00:07:49,041 ..from centuries of peopIe not having things... 99 00:07:51,647 --> 00:07:56,562 It's a wonder of the post-war period that peopIe now have the opportunity to have things. 100 00:07:56,607 --> 00:07:57,881 It's briIIiant. 101 00:07:58,687 --> 00:08:04,125 And if those things make them feeI better about themseIves - 102 00:08:04,167 --> 00:08:10,037 and without a doubt the kind of design object brings with it this sense of seIf-enhancement, 103 00:08:10,087 --> 00:08:13,875 and a sense of knowing more than you did before - 104 00:08:13,927 --> 00:08:15,918 these are aII positive things. 105 00:08:31,047 --> 00:08:33,117 Since the end of the Second World War, 106 00:08:33,167 --> 00:08:37,524 nobody has indulged designers as adoringly as the ltalians. 107 00:08:38,127 --> 00:08:41,722 And nowhere in ltaly more so than here in Milan. 108 00:08:41,767 --> 00:08:44,804 We aIways try to bring a concept... 109 00:08:44,847 --> 00:08:48,157 proposaI, Iike the sofa to work, 110 00:08:48,207 --> 00:08:50,198 Iike the sofa to have sex... 111 00:08:50,247 --> 00:08:52,397 Iike...I don't know what. 112 00:08:56,247 --> 00:09:01,002 Here, design is an important industrial and philosophical affair, 113 00:09:02,207 --> 00:09:06,519 its status upheld by intellectual heavyweights like this guy. 114 00:09:08,527 --> 00:09:10,518 A legend in his lifetime, 115 00:09:11,127 --> 00:09:16,201 Ettore Sottsass was heavily influenced by the free thinking of the '60s counterculture. 116 00:09:18,447 --> 00:09:20,165 But by the end of the '70s, 117 00:09:20,207 --> 00:09:23,199 in an age of increasingly conspicuous consumption, 118 00:09:23,247 --> 00:09:29,322 he argued that it was design'sjob to offer consumer choice, variety and abundance. 119 00:09:31,127 --> 00:09:35,006 And at the opening of an exhibition of furniture in Milan in 1 981, 120 00:09:35,847 --> 00:09:38,315 he delivered - in shocking style. 121 00:09:43,607 --> 00:09:45,359 Welcome to Memphis - 122 00:09:48,527 --> 00:09:51,724 a collective of young designers brought together by Sottsass, 123 00:09:51,767 --> 00:09:54,759 to bring some personality to the production line. 124 00:10:06,087 --> 00:10:10,478 When I saw the drawing of Ettore, of this bookcase, 125 00:10:11,407 --> 00:10:15,161 it was reaIIy Iike to open a totaIIy new worId. 126 00:10:16,647 --> 00:10:19,207 If you put the books... the books, they never stand. 127 00:10:19,247 --> 00:10:24,082 And the books, in any case, they wiII Iie against the waIIs, 128 00:10:26,847 --> 00:10:29,315 to create a piece of furniture to hoId books, 129 00:10:29,367 --> 00:10:34,157 without taking care for the rationaI composition. 130 00:10:34,207 --> 00:10:36,198 The function to have books, 131 00:10:36,247 --> 00:10:41,367 I think was reaIIy the starting point for something, 132 00:10:42,007 --> 00:10:45,397 something that at the time, we didn't know what it was. 133 00:10:45,447 --> 00:10:47,438 But... 134 00:10:47,487 --> 00:10:50,160 it's something that stiII is touching me today, 135 00:10:51,087 --> 00:10:53,078 aImost 30 years after. 136 00:10:58,447 --> 00:11:00,244 Named after a Bob Dylan song, 137 00:11:00,287 --> 00:11:02,960 but also invoking the ancient capital of Egypt, 138 00:11:03,007 --> 00:11:04,998 and the home of Elvis Presley, 139 00:11:05,727 --> 00:11:08,799 Memphis struck an anything-goes attitude 140 00:11:08,847 --> 00:11:12,157 that poured scorn on the traditions of industrial design. 141 00:11:15,647 --> 00:11:19,879 We started just breaking every ruIe. 142 00:11:20,607 --> 00:11:26,955 We wanted to be more exciting, more provocative with coIours, decoration, 143 00:11:27,007 --> 00:11:30,841 unbeIievabIe shapes, unexpected furniture, 144 00:11:30,887 --> 00:11:33,447 unexpected idea of environment. 145 00:11:34,247 --> 00:11:42,598 Something that couId create positive, happy, friendIy reIations 146 00:11:42,647 --> 00:11:47,004 with furniture, environment, technoIogy, 147 00:11:47,047 --> 00:11:54,442 without any conventions, without any possibIe ruIes coming from the past. 148 00:11:56,807 --> 00:11:58,240 From Memphis, 149 00:11:58,287 --> 00:12:02,758 the principles that had underpinned good design throughout the 20th century - 150 00:12:02,807 --> 00:12:05,719 rational, functional, long-lasting - 151 00:12:06,487 --> 00:12:08,478 were a thing of the past. 152 00:12:08,527 --> 00:12:11,917 ln the fashion-driven, free-market, consumer society, 153 00:12:12,727 --> 00:12:14,718 the customer was king. 154 00:12:15,807 --> 00:12:21,040 And if he or she wanted multicoloured wonky shelves in plastic laminate this season, 155 00:12:21,887 --> 00:12:23,878 then they were going to get them. 156 00:12:25,767 --> 00:12:28,281 Sottsass's furniture, for good or for bad, 157 00:12:28,327 --> 00:12:30,443 was perhaps the signaI disruption 158 00:12:30,487 --> 00:12:33,365 of the continuous stream of modernist ideaIism 159 00:12:33,407 --> 00:12:35,284 which had begun with the Bauhaus. 160 00:12:39,287 --> 00:12:44,236 Memphis certainIy meant the end of the hegemony of modernism. 161 00:12:48,287 --> 00:12:51,563 Modernism sought to make the world a better place for all. 162 00:12:53,287 --> 00:12:55,278 Memphis prefigured a new idea, 163 00:12:56,127 --> 00:12:59,483 where the collective good made way for individual desire. 164 00:13:02,367 --> 00:13:06,406 And that meant the rise of a new kind of designed object. 165 00:13:12,687 --> 00:13:15,520 The fIap is the same shape as the bedside tabIe. 166 00:13:15,567 --> 00:13:17,558 It's eIIipticaI. 167 00:13:17,607 --> 00:13:19,837 It has a handIe buiIt into the end. 168 00:13:19,887 --> 00:13:21,798 I'd make more sense of that too. 169 00:13:21,847 --> 00:13:23,838 First thing we want to do... 170 00:13:23,887 --> 00:13:28,199 Michael Graves is one of the world's most successful industrial designers - 171 00:13:28,247 --> 00:13:32,320 shaping everything from salad spoons to hospital wards. 172 00:13:35,807 --> 00:13:37,604 And I need a pIace to put it down. 173 00:13:37,647 --> 00:13:41,037 He made his name first in architecture and then in design... 174 00:13:43,087 --> 00:13:45,078 ..with objects like this. 175 00:13:46,087 --> 00:13:48,476 It is a IittIe bit Iike a IittIe tempIe, 176 00:13:48,527 --> 00:13:51,200 but then it isn't, it's a teapot. 177 00:13:54,167 --> 00:13:57,523 ln 1 980, ltalian steel company Alessi 178 00:13:57,567 --> 00:14:02,641 commissioned 1 1 architects to each produce a sterling silver tea and coffee set. 179 00:14:07,607 --> 00:14:10,246 They were intended as exhibition pieces only. 180 00:14:12,487 --> 00:14:17,641 But when Graves sold 30 or so of his set, at around $25,000 a time, 181 00:14:19,727 --> 00:14:25,757 this ''limited edition'' inspired a defining moment in the history of mass-produced design. 182 00:14:28,767 --> 00:14:33,158 AIessi came to us and asked us to make what he caIIed an American pot. 183 00:14:35,727 --> 00:14:40,960 First of aII, he wanted a kettIe that wouId boiI water faster than any other kettIe on the market. 184 00:14:43,447 --> 00:14:48,202 To boiI water faster than others, it's a matter of the sIope of the side, 185 00:14:49,127 --> 00:14:52,005 the coverage over the heating eIement, 186 00:14:53,127 --> 00:14:55,721 the cone shape of the kettIe. 187 00:14:57,847 --> 00:15:00,998 He wanted a kettIe that wouIdn't burn your hand, obviousIy. 188 00:15:03,487 --> 00:15:06,206 So the handIe was going to be here, 189 00:15:06,247 --> 00:15:10,604 so that it's very, very comfortabIe and it's aIso bIue. 190 00:15:11,247 --> 00:15:17,846 Whether one attributes red to hot, and bIue to cooI, 191 00:15:18,527 --> 00:15:20,916 I'm not quite sure, but you're supposed to. 192 00:15:22,687 --> 00:15:25,679 And the bIack knob here was neutraI. 193 00:15:29,407 --> 00:15:32,956 At this point, they've soId about 1 ,700,000. 194 00:15:33,967 --> 00:15:36,356 That's a Iot. That's a Iot of tea kettIes. 195 00:15:41,087 --> 00:15:44,238 This is probably the best-selling kettle of all time - 196 00:15:45,527 --> 00:15:50,396 a design classic that has spawned countless variations and versions. 197 00:15:53,287 --> 00:15:58,156 ln part, its form follows function - just as the modernists insisted. 198 00:15:59,167 --> 00:16:01,158 But that'sjust half the story. 199 00:16:01,727 --> 00:16:05,037 Because this simple kettle pulled off a remarkable trick. 200 00:16:06,087 --> 00:16:09,602 Here was a mass-produced object that felt unique - 201 00:16:11,567 --> 00:16:16,243 a kettle with charisma, that represented a contradiction in terms. 202 00:16:18,047 --> 00:16:20,038 A mass icon. 203 00:16:21,207 --> 00:16:24,563 We didn't want our design objects 204 00:16:24,607 --> 00:16:30,000 to be so sIick and abstract and born onIy out of the industriaI revoIution. 205 00:16:30,647 --> 00:16:34,037 But we wanted to bring us back into it. 206 00:16:37,007 --> 00:16:43,401 Long ago, in a fIea market, I found a kettIe that had a kind of rooster here. 207 00:16:43,447 --> 00:16:46,519 It was very badIy done, it was done by somebody at home, 208 00:16:46,567 --> 00:16:48,797 yet I thought the idea was cIever. 209 00:16:48,847 --> 00:16:52,886 To Iet the bird sing when the water boiIs, 210 00:16:52,927 --> 00:16:57,318 and it makes for the personaIity of this kettIe. 211 00:17:00,127 --> 00:17:04,439 It has created a sense of desire to own it. 212 00:17:04,847 --> 00:17:06,724 (WhistIes) 213 00:17:09,847 --> 00:17:11,838 lmbued with a sense of aspiration, 214 00:17:13,847 --> 00:17:18,841 Graves'kettle defined much of the design of the decade - and beyond. 215 00:17:21,887 --> 00:17:26,244 For some, this cultural upgrade was distancing design 216 00:17:26,287 --> 00:17:29,359 from its unique ability to connect form and function - 217 00:17:30,367 --> 00:17:33,325 degrading it into a tool for selling us stuff- 218 00:17:34,527 --> 00:17:37,997 stuff we may want, but may or may not, need. 219 00:17:39,727 --> 00:17:44,278 For others, it was redefining the very notion of function itself. 220 00:17:52,767 --> 00:17:56,203 Here is an object that doesn't actuaIIy perform very weII, 221 00:17:56,247 --> 00:18:01,844 that's been used across the worId to procIaim design modernity... 222 00:18:02,927 --> 00:18:06,363 ..in a thousand...a miIIion new homes... 223 00:18:06,407 --> 00:18:10,480 produced by the most seIf-pubIicising, 224 00:18:10,527 --> 00:18:13,599 seIf-branded designer in the history of the universe. 225 00:18:16,447 --> 00:18:22,761 When I make miIIions of pieces which give the right service at the right price, 226 00:18:22,807 --> 00:18:24,798 and the right pIace for peopIe, 227 00:18:24,847 --> 00:18:28,840 I have the right aIso to just make poetry. 228 00:18:33,367 --> 00:18:35,358 The crystaI speak even more. 229 00:18:35,847 --> 00:18:37,326 There is a message. 230 00:18:38,527 --> 00:18:40,245 I have no styIe. 231 00:18:40,287 --> 00:18:44,041 The thing which fits the most with me is the freedom. 232 00:18:47,647 --> 00:18:49,126 For over 30 years, 233 00:18:49,167 --> 00:18:52,557 Philippe Starck has been delighting an adoring audience 234 00:18:52,607 --> 00:18:57,317 who couldn't care less about the old-fashioned notion of ''form follows function''. 235 00:19:00,247 --> 00:19:06,197 It's a Iot of paIaver. It's not pointy enough and the coIIection system is very imperfect. 236 00:19:06,247 --> 00:19:10,035 You shouId have something that coIIects and fiIters out the pips. 237 00:19:10,087 --> 00:19:12,078 That's what matters. 238 00:19:12,727 --> 00:19:16,436 At some point, pips wiII come out and where do you put them? 239 00:19:16,487 --> 00:19:18,284 They go straight in the gIass. 240 00:19:19,967 --> 00:19:26,725 But it's IoveIy fun to watch the Iemon juice trickIing down those reedy, pointy bits. 241 00:19:40,287 --> 00:19:44,838 I am a strict functionaIist, 242 00:19:45,567 --> 00:19:50,436 in the way that functionaIism was in the '20s in Germany. 243 00:19:50,887 --> 00:19:57,326 In the '20s in Germany, the functionaIism was pureIy materiaIistic. 244 00:19:57,927 --> 00:20:01,476 There was, I don't know exactIy, we can set five or six parameters: 245 00:20:01,927 --> 00:20:06,318 the weight, how you bend the tube, 246 00:20:07,087 --> 00:20:08,964 how that foIds and things Iike that. 247 00:20:09,007 --> 00:20:12,841 But since this time there is Sigmund Freud, 248 00:20:13,367 --> 00:20:15,562 there is the French phiIosopher Lacan, 249 00:20:16,087 --> 00:20:21,161 and we know that there is not onIy materiaIistic parameters, 250 00:20:21,207 --> 00:20:26,804 there is immateriaI parameters, Iike poetry, humour, sex and things Iike that. 251 00:20:30,447 --> 00:20:33,644 We can say I am a post-Freudian functionaIist. 252 00:20:34,167 --> 00:20:40,481 But these functions now are more rich than before because we know more about us. 253 00:20:40,527 --> 00:20:42,119 That's the difference. 254 00:20:45,887 --> 00:20:50,915 I am very happy because some peopIe come to me and say, ''Thank you. 255 00:20:51,407 --> 00:20:53,398 Thank you for what you do for us.'' 256 00:20:54,487 --> 00:20:57,684 ''Oh, yes, thank you, I'm very proud of that and what you do?'' 257 00:20:57,727 --> 00:21:02,482 ''Oh, you know, I met my wife in one of your hoteI 258 00:21:02,527 --> 00:21:08,238 and we had so good sex in your hoteI guest room.'' 259 00:21:08,927 --> 00:21:11,236 ''Perfect, thank you very much. Thank you.'' 260 00:21:11,287 --> 00:21:17,157 ReaIIy, that touched me, because finaIIy it's the maximum I can do with my job. 261 00:21:19,727 --> 00:21:25,279 We can try to inject so many things - poIiticaI, sexuaI... 262 00:21:25,327 --> 00:21:28,558 But at the end, you just bring a IittIe pIeasure. 263 00:21:31,847 --> 00:21:35,476 Starck's brand of pleasure seeking raised the profile of design. 264 00:21:37,447 --> 00:21:39,438 But many couldn't afford it. 265 00:21:39,847 --> 00:21:42,600 And in Britain, where old habits die hard, 266 00:21:42,647 --> 00:21:46,037 many didn't want it, particularly in the home, 267 00:21:47,607 --> 00:21:50,075 where it took a bunch of subversive Swedes, 268 00:21:51,287 --> 00:21:53,323 and a biting recession, 269 00:21:53,367 --> 00:21:55,881 to make-over the British attitude to design. 270 00:22:03,087 --> 00:22:05,601 On October 1 9th, 1 987, 271 00:22:06,727 --> 00:22:11,323 a stock collapse of unprecedented scale pitched Britain towards recession. 272 00:22:15,167 --> 00:22:20,924 The same month, on an industrial estate near Warrington, a new furniture store opened, 273 00:22:21,407 --> 00:22:26,686 perfectly timed to introduce the British to a revolutionary new retail experience. 274 00:22:31,407 --> 00:22:33,398 To be a designer at IKEA, it's... 275 00:22:33,487 --> 00:22:37,605 it's not enough that it Iooks weII and works weII. 276 00:22:38,087 --> 00:22:41,079 It has to be fIat and go into a brown box. 277 00:22:44,727 --> 00:22:51,803 A giant automated distribution warehouse sits at the heart of lKEA headquarters in rural Sweden. 278 00:22:59,887 --> 00:23:04,915 This is the centre of the most successful global furniture company of all time. 279 00:23:07,287 --> 00:23:10,882 lt has single-handedly transformed the way we consume design. 280 00:23:12,247 --> 00:23:16,763 And it all began 60 years ago, in 1 955, with this - 281 00:23:17,687 --> 00:23:19,643 lKEA's first range of furniture, 282 00:23:24,887 --> 00:23:28,721 followed a year later by this ground-breaking table. 283 00:23:34,727 --> 00:23:36,479 It's a tabIe caIIed Lovet. 284 00:23:38,807 --> 00:23:42,356 ActuaIIy, our first designer who was empIoyed here, 285 00:23:42,407 --> 00:23:44,398 his name was GiIIis Lundgren. 286 00:23:45,327 --> 00:23:49,639 His work was to set up for the cataIogue and the photo shooting. 287 00:23:50,607 --> 00:23:53,599 And he wouId have a Iot of things around him 288 00:23:53,647 --> 00:23:56,878 and then he had to make a photo with Lovet. 289 00:23:56,927 --> 00:24:01,000 And not onIy one Lovet, there shouId be a number of Lovet standing there. 290 00:24:01,527 --> 00:24:03,358 And then suddenIy he reaIised, 291 00:24:04,367 --> 00:24:07,040 when he was finished, where shouId he pIace it? 292 00:24:07,327 --> 00:24:09,318 He has just a very smaII area. 293 00:24:10,407 --> 00:24:12,398 And then he Iooked at it and thought, 294 00:24:13,007 --> 00:24:16,238 ''WeII, why don't I just screw off the Iegs?'' 295 00:24:18,167 --> 00:24:20,476 And that's how it started. 296 00:24:23,927 --> 00:24:29,638 And from there, we have been obsessed in finding ways in doing our furniture fIat. 297 00:24:44,847 --> 00:24:48,999 During the 1 980s, design had come to mean prestige - 298 00:24:49,647 --> 00:24:51,638 something you paid extra for. 299 00:24:53,447 --> 00:24:55,438 lKEA proposed the opposite. 300 00:24:57,487 --> 00:25:01,480 You could charge less by building a whole process of industrial design 301 00:25:01,927 --> 00:25:06,443 around the economies that flat-pack, self-assembly furniture made possible. 302 00:25:11,887 --> 00:25:14,196 It is a Iot about considering these... 303 00:25:15,527 --> 00:25:17,199 aII these different aspects: 304 00:25:18,327 --> 00:25:19,476 Iow price, 305 00:25:19,527 --> 00:25:21,518 Iong Iasting, sustainabIe, 306 00:25:22,047 --> 00:25:24,038 fIat pack, 307 00:25:25,327 --> 00:25:31,562 you have to somehow soIve to have a good product. 308 00:25:33,527 --> 00:25:37,998 For exampIe, how can you break down things into pieces or segments 309 00:25:38,047 --> 00:25:41,084 or making puzzIes of things? 310 00:25:41,127 --> 00:25:43,880 CouId this be repeated? Yes it couId. 311 00:25:43,927 --> 00:25:48,603 But you don't know exactIy how, what kind of joint or what kind of materiaI. 312 00:25:49,607 --> 00:25:53,839 If you manage to soIve aII the parameters around the probIem, 313 00:25:53,887 --> 00:25:55,445 then you have a good design 314 00:25:55,487 --> 00:26:03,326 and it wiII be most IikeIy competitive among other products. 315 00:26:04,367 --> 00:26:05,766 So... 316 00:26:07,127 --> 00:26:09,118 Was that cIear? Yeah? 317 00:26:11,167 --> 00:26:13,601 Sounds simple. But there's a twist. 318 00:26:14,927 --> 00:26:19,318 They give you functional design, with just enough colour, pattern and humour 319 00:26:19,367 --> 00:26:21,358 to satisfy the individual in you. 320 00:26:22,047 --> 00:26:24,481 Standardised but personal, 321 00:26:25,647 --> 00:26:27,365 mass-produced but homely. 322 00:26:28,647 --> 00:26:32,356 Modernism meets Memphis, for the price of peanuts. 323 00:26:33,087 --> 00:26:35,078 - 1 60 cIicks. - Nice. 324 00:26:36,167 --> 00:26:38,522 But you have to scour the in-store warehouse, 325 00:26:41,407 --> 00:26:45,525 find, fetch, carry and even build it yourself. 326 00:26:52,527 --> 00:26:54,324 But loathe it or love it, 327 00:26:54,367 --> 00:26:56,961 it's curious that in the age of the individual, 328 00:26:57,407 --> 00:27:02,720 such a depersonalised consumer experience should become so successful - 329 00:27:05,247 --> 00:27:10,446 particularly when another field of design was heading in entirely the opposite direction - 330 00:27:11,727 --> 00:27:16,926 shrinking the ultimate industrial machine into an essential consumer product. 331 00:27:21,167 --> 00:27:26,605 40 years ago, computers were vast, expensive, intimidating machines, 332 00:27:26,647 --> 00:27:31,118 owned by governments, corporations and military institutions. 333 00:27:31,807 --> 00:27:33,798 The stuff of science fiction. 334 00:27:38,647 --> 00:27:42,083 But in 1 984, a new machine was unveiled, 335 00:27:42,127 --> 00:27:45,563 as the world of computing got personal. 336 00:27:48,567 --> 00:27:51,240 It was Iaunched with a huge amount of hoopIa in 1 984, 337 00:27:51,287 --> 00:27:56,236 with a famous RidIey Scott, I think, commerciaI, based on, you know, the idea of 1 984 338 00:27:56,287 --> 00:27:59,199 and how we were aII subject to the tyranny 339 00:27:59,247 --> 00:28:01,636 of the IBM computer and its duIIness 340 00:28:01,687 --> 00:28:04,645 and the command Iine of CPM, as it then was. 341 00:28:08,167 --> 00:28:10,727 It said ''heIIo'' on it in Iarge friendIy Ietters, 342 00:28:10,767 --> 00:28:14,362 to quote DougIas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The GaIaxy. 343 00:28:14,407 --> 00:28:17,205 Those Iarge friendIy Ietters were not insignificant. 344 00:28:19,527 --> 00:28:23,202 There was a keyboard, and this mouse, this extraordinary mouse! 345 00:28:25,727 --> 00:28:28,958 It was just so revoIutionary. It was amazing! 346 00:28:37,887 --> 00:28:40,845 Boasting a revolutionary user interface, 347 00:28:41,487 --> 00:28:45,685 the Apple Mac would set the bar for a new kind of digital design. 348 00:28:46,847 --> 00:28:48,838 This was the dawn of a new age 349 00:28:50,047 --> 00:28:55,917 in which the words ''personal'' and ''computer'' were no longer anathema. 350 00:29:08,247 --> 00:29:11,364 When we're presented with an object that is compIex, 351 00:29:11,407 --> 00:29:13,159 it can be intimidating. 352 00:29:13,207 --> 00:29:16,756 It certainIy can give you the sense that we don't understand it. 353 00:29:16,807 --> 00:29:21,927 We are often intimidated, aren't we, by objects and products that we don't understand? 354 00:29:22,927 --> 00:29:29,366 And so cIarity and simpIicity are, I think, criticaIIy important 355 00:29:29,407 --> 00:29:33,446 for us to be abIe to understand a product and enjoy using it. 356 00:29:37,407 --> 00:29:41,241 Making design user-friendly has become essential 357 00:29:41,287 --> 00:29:47,078 to making once unimaginably complex technology part of the fabric of everyday life. 358 00:29:49,127 --> 00:29:52,119 But Apple wasn't the first outfit to preach the benefits 359 00:29:52,167 --> 00:29:54,761 of this revolutionary new approach to design. 360 00:29:57,247 --> 00:29:59,681 Almost 20 years before the launch of the Mac, 361 00:29:59,727 --> 00:30:04,847 in December 1 968, a research team, funded by the American military, 362 00:30:05,287 --> 00:30:09,405 and headed by a young electrical engineer called Doug Engelbart, 363 00:30:09,447 --> 00:30:11,517 staged a startling presentation. 364 00:30:18,287 --> 00:30:20,084 (AppIause) 365 00:30:20,127 --> 00:30:23,278 I hope you'II go aIong with this rather unusuaI setting 366 00:30:23,327 --> 00:30:26,444 and the fact that I remain seated when I get introduced, 367 00:30:26,487 --> 00:30:30,560 and the fact that I'm going to come to you mostIy through this medium here 368 00:30:30,607 --> 00:30:32,563 for the rest of the show. 369 00:30:33,407 --> 00:30:36,444 The research program that I'm going to describe to you 370 00:30:36,487 --> 00:30:39,479 is quickIy characterisabIe by saying, 371 00:30:39,887 --> 00:30:46,326 if, in your office, you as an inteIIectuaI worker were suppIied with a computer dispIay, 372 00:30:47,167 --> 00:30:51,206 backed up by a computer that was aIive for you aII day, 373 00:30:51,247 --> 00:30:53,556 how much vaIue couId you derive from that? 374 00:30:55,327 --> 00:31:00,276 Computers were big and expensive, 375 00:31:01,487 --> 00:31:04,638 and onIy very speciaI peopIe got to use them. 376 00:31:06,967 --> 00:31:10,277 The demo showed peopIe that computers... 377 00:31:10,967 --> 00:31:15,802 ..couId be usefuI for everyday activities for everyday peopIe. 378 00:31:16,207 --> 00:31:20,997 Let me go to a fiIe that I prepared just after my wife caIIed me and said, 379 00:31:21,047 --> 00:31:24,164 ''On the way home, wouId you do a IittIe shopping for me?'' 380 00:31:24,207 --> 00:31:27,677 As soon as she said that, I got my system... 381 00:31:27,727 --> 00:31:29,718 (BIeeping) 382 00:31:29,767 --> 00:31:31,359 ..organised... 383 00:31:37,087 --> 00:31:39,078 ..and made a shopping Iist. 384 00:31:39,127 --> 00:31:41,800 RULIFSON: Doug's reaI interest was in... 385 00:31:41,847 --> 00:31:44,725 designing some sort of a computer system at that point, 386 00:31:44,767 --> 00:31:48,043 that wouId aIIow us to manipuIate text, 387 00:31:48,087 --> 00:31:50,999 to store our documents and manipuIate our documents. 388 00:31:51,047 --> 00:31:54,005 ..I say after bananas it's more IikeIy that I'II... 389 00:31:55,727 --> 00:32:00,118 ..take the carrots there, and so carrots move right up behind bananas. 390 00:32:00,167 --> 00:32:04,365 And aspirin doesn't reaIIy beIong there. I think aspirin goes after paper toweIs. 391 00:32:04,407 --> 00:32:07,683 PeopIe that we couId get to the Iab to see it couId understand it. 392 00:32:07,727 --> 00:32:10,400 But peopIe that didn't see it and experience it, 393 00:32:10,447 --> 00:32:15,475 just couIdn't imagine what it was because computers were for computing. 394 00:32:15,527 --> 00:32:19,725 You put cards or paper tape in and you got numbers out and that's what you did with them. 395 00:32:19,767 --> 00:32:23,316 The idea of using them to write documents and write programs 396 00:32:23,367 --> 00:32:26,165 and dynamicaIIy communicate with one another... 397 00:32:26,207 --> 00:32:27,799 they just couIdn't understand it. 398 00:32:29,007 --> 00:32:31,521 It was just outside their frame of reference. 399 00:32:33,367 --> 00:32:37,155 ln an analogue age of black and white television and vinyl records, 400 00:32:38,167 --> 00:32:43,241 Engelbart's boffins prophesised a digital future of personal computers, 401 00:32:44,287 --> 00:32:47,597 controlled simply through what the user saw on the screen. 402 00:32:48,487 --> 00:32:51,604 And they built their vision around a new wooden device, 403 00:32:52,287 --> 00:32:55,996 as revolutionary then as it is commonplace today. 404 00:32:58,567 --> 00:33:00,558 It has two wheeIs here. 405 00:33:00,607 --> 00:33:03,201 And the idea is that you hoId it on a tabIe. 406 00:33:03,247 --> 00:33:06,125 And the wheeIs have a IittIe device inside 407 00:33:06,167 --> 00:33:10,365 that can then teII the computer how fast they're rotating 408 00:33:10,407 --> 00:33:15,322 and the computer figured out how to then have a spot move across the screen. 409 00:33:18,607 --> 00:33:20,598 It had a wire coming out of it... 410 00:33:20,647 --> 00:33:22,638 from the wrong end - 411 00:33:22,687 --> 00:33:25,076 actuaIIy, today they come out the other end - 412 00:33:25,127 --> 00:33:29,996 and the wire became known as the ''taiI'' and the device then became known as the ''mouse''. 413 00:33:51,927 --> 00:33:54,395 This is the one that I buiIt in 1 963. 414 00:33:55,367 --> 00:33:57,961 ActuaIIy, the first mouse that was ever buiIt. 415 00:33:59,687 --> 00:34:02,326 Doug had a sketch in one of his pocket notebooks 416 00:34:02,367 --> 00:34:04,562 about something Iike this with two wheeIs. 417 00:34:05,087 --> 00:34:07,840 He gave it to me and I thought, ''That Iooks good.'' 418 00:34:08,727 --> 00:34:10,718 And that was reaIIy the first one. 419 00:34:13,927 --> 00:34:19,320 The mouse, and the interface it controlled, quite simply changed everything. 420 00:34:23,287 --> 00:34:27,405 And Engelbart's demo represented nothing short of a design revolution - 421 00:34:28,487 --> 00:34:30,478 the democratisation of computing - 422 00:34:32,607 --> 00:34:34,723 a liberating and lucrative prospect 423 00:34:34,767 --> 00:34:38,442 for the entrepreneurial young designers of Silicon Valley. 424 00:34:41,487 --> 00:34:43,205 In other discipIines, 425 00:34:43,247 --> 00:34:47,843 designers have aIways considered the peopIe who are gonna be using the products. 426 00:34:49,367 --> 00:34:53,155 In the computer industry, the designers aIways consider them. 427 00:34:53,207 --> 00:34:57,086 It's just that they were aII computer peopIe untiI this point in time, 428 00:34:57,727 --> 00:35:01,879 then they were just reguIar peopIe off the street who were gonna be using the product. 429 00:35:04,047 --> 00:35:06,959 This shift changed the rules of design. 430 00:35:08,487 --> 00:35:11,559 lf computers were going to be used by ordinary people, 431 00:35:11,607 --> 00:35:15,236 it suggested... why not ask them what they wanted? 432 00:35:18,047 --> 00:35:22,359 And when asked to design a computer editing system for a publishing company, 433 00:35:23,087 --> 00:35:25,078 that's exactly what this guy did. 434 00:35:29,047 --> 00:35:32,517 So we had just hired a secretary and the day after she started, 435 00:35:32,567 --> 00:35:35,639 I put her in front of a bIank screen and I said, 436 00:35:36,287 --> 00:35:38,198 ''Imagine there's a page on the screen 437 00:35:38,247 --> 00:35:40,238 and here's a page of mark-ups, 438 00:35:40,287 --> 00:35:43,484 IittIe proofreaders' marks of what needs to be changed. 439 00:35:44,247 --> 00:35:47,762 Imagine that you had a way to point at the screen and a keyboard. 440 00:35:49,127 --> 00:35:50,845 TeII me what you wouId do.'' 441 00:35:51,927 --> 00:35:55,124 And she said, ''WeII, I have to deIete that. 442 00:35:55,167 --> 00:35:57,601 I wouId point at it and cross it out. 443 00:35:58,367 --> 00:36:00,005 I have to insert some text. 444 00:36:00,047 --> 00:36:02,959 I wouId point at the pIace I want it to go and I wouId type it.'' 445 00:36:03,007 --> 00:36:05,646 She made it up as she went aIong, what was intuitive to her. 446 00:36:08,687 --> 00:36:12,202 The result was an intuitive, user-friendly system, 447 00:36:14,007 --> 00:36:17,079 based around the graphic layout and editing features 448 00:36:17,127 --> 00:36:19,846 that still dominate personal computing today - 449 00:36:23,207 --> 00:36:26,199 all held together by another iconic piece of design. 450 00:36:27,607 --> 00:36:30,679 I'm sitting in a bar one evening, waiting for a friend to show up 451 00:36:30,727 --> 00:36:32,718 and I'm doodIing on this napkin. 452 00:36:32,767 --> 00:36:35,361 And what I came up with was a desk. 453 00:36:35,407 --> 00:36:40,322 And it was on the desk that the typewriter was and the editing happened, 454 00:36:40,367 --> 00:36:43,245 and the in/out trays for handIing the maiI. 455 00:36:43,287 --> 00:36:48,077 Separate from that, there was an icon that represented a printer 456 00:36:48,127 --> 00:36:51,324 and another one that represented a fiIe cabinet, 457 00:36:51,367 --> 00:36:53,756 and one that represented a trash can. 458 00:36:54,647 --> 00:37:00,244 And what I saw in this was the abiIity for peopIe to... 459 00:37:01,847 --> 00:37:07,479 ..to basicaIIy manipuIate objects in a... aImost in a physicaI way. 460 00:37:10,407 --> 00:37:14,719 The majority of things we controI, we controI physicaIIy. 461 00:37:14,767 --> 00:37:17,839 You know, you drive a car, you pick up a pen. 462 00:37:18,327 --> 00:37:20,522 So what we were Iooking for was an anaIogue 463 00:37:20,567 --> 00:37:25,880 to the way we controIIed a Iot of other tooIs and a Iot of other devices in our Iives. 464 00:37:27,887 --> 00:37:30,879 The user interface developed at Xerox PARC 465 00:37:31,767 --> 00:37:34,235 brought together the mouse and the desktop, 466 00:37:36,047 --> 00:37:39,039 and directly inspired the team behind the Apple Mac, 467 00:37:40,687 --> 00:37:45,807 as its designers became obsessed with how to make a personal computer not just functional, 468 00:37:47,247 --> 00:37:48,885 but friendly. 469 00:37:49,967 --> 00:37:53,437 We'd been struggIing with having menus on the top of a window. 470 00:37:53,487 --> 00:37:57,685 So I said, ''Look, if we put the menu at the top of the whoIe screen, 471 00:37:57,727 --> 00:38:00,799 then we aIways have the fuII width, we aIways have the fuII height, 472 00:38:00,847 --> 00:38:04,840 and every menu wiII feeI Iike it has a kinaesthetic pIace on the screen. 473 00:38:04,887 --> 00:38:06,878 The fiIe menu's aIways over here, 474 00:38:06,927 --> 00:38:10,363 and you can actuaIIy reach for the edit menu and be haIf way down it 475 00:38:10,407 --> 00:38:14,639 before you've even thought about that it was ''cut'' you were going for. 476 00:38:14,687 --> 00:38:18,726 By having these things fIutter aIong, it feeIs Iike they're aII there, but they're not, 477 00:38:18,767 --> 00:38:23,283 they're overIapping quite a bit, but it feeIs Iike they're aII there at any time. 478 00:38:23,327 --> 00:38:25,318 These guys could go on all night. 479 00:38:26,367 --> 00:38:28,358 That's what designers do - 480 00:38:28,407 --> 00:38:32,161 obsess about the details, so that you don't have to. 481 00:38:34,407 --> 00:38:36,443 So, to cut a long story short, 482 00:38:37,047 --> 00:38:39,038 the principles of user-centred design... 483 00:38:39,807 --> 00:38:44,483 ..have made some of the most complex consumer products man has ever made 484 00:38:44,527 --> 00:38:46,882 an essential part of our everyday world, 485 00:38:47,647 --> 00:38:50,559 through design that aims to be all but invisible. 486 00:38:55,607 --> 00:39:04,276 I mean, we're trying to define products that in a sense seem so inevitabIe and so naturaI, 487 00:39:05,287 --> 00:39:09,838 that, in an odd way, you don't aImost think of them as being designed. 488 00:39:09,887 --> 00:39:13,675 You know, they just soIve a probIem, 489 00:39:14,167 --> 00:39:17,876 but in soIving that probIem, they're not reminding you of the compIexity 490 00:39:17,927 --> 00:39:20,646 of this terribIe chaIIenge that you faced as a designer. 491 00:39:20,687 --> 00:39:23,326 And as a user, I don't want to be reminded about, 492 00:39:23,367 --> 00:39:27,758 ''WeII, you know, this was a tough probIem to soIve,'' cos you know, that's your job. 493 00:39:27,807 --> 00:39:32,085 I want this product to be about what this product is supposed to do for me. 494 00:39:32,767 --> 00:39:36,521 I think those sorts of preoccupations Iead to... 495 00:39:37,487 --> 00:39:39,603 ..or can Iead to a product Iike the iPod. 496 00:39:54,967 --> 00:39:57,481 Digital devices have become so commonplace, 497 00:39:58,127 --> 00:40:01,119 it's difficult to imagine how we lived without them. 498 00:40:05,007 --> 00:40:09,956 But they have also prompted a profound shift in our relationship with the world around us. 499 00:40:11,447 --> 00:40:13,915 And that may or may not be for the good. 500 00:40:16,367 --> 00:40:21,760 So direct has our connection between this device we have in our pocket 501 00:40:22,327 --> 00:40:25,125 and our sense of our seIf become, 502 00:40:25,687 --> 00:40:28,997 that we aImost stop thinking about other peopIe around us. 503 00:40:29,567 --> 00:40:31,762 And that - Iove these things as I do - 504 00:40:31,807 --> 00:40:37,439 seems to me to be positiveIy dangerous or maIignant as an infIuence on society. 505 00:40:38,087 --> 00:40:40,282 A genie has been Iet out of the bottIe 506 00:40:40,767 --> 00:40:43,964 and we have to decide whether or not we understand that genie 507 00:40:44,007 --> 00:40:45,998 or we understand our behaviour. 508 00:40:46,047 --> 00:40:49,357 Can we can compare it to when the motorcar changed the worId 509 00:40:49,407 --> 00:40:51,398 or the teIephone or print? 510 00:40:51,447 --> 00:40:53,085 I don't know, exactIy. 511 00:40:56,687 --> 00:41:00,919 Perhaps design has got so carried away with what it couId do for us, 512 00:41:01,527 --> 00:41:03,802 it's forgotten to ask whether it shouId. 513 00:41:04,927 --> 00:41:09,478 Surely it's design'sjob to shield us from, as well as connect us to, 514 00:41:10,287 --> 00:41:14,246 technology that is changing what it means to be human? 515 00:41:17,327 --> 00:41:19,636 These are issues yet to be fully explored. 516 00:41:22,527 --> 00:41:26,645 Lucky then, that designers may find themselves with time on their hands... 517 00:41:27,447 --> 00:41:31,759 ..because digital devices are also shrinking the world of industrial design. 518 00:41:35,607 --> 00:41:39,236 If an object has aII this in-bred interactivity in it, 519 00:41:39,887 --> 00:41:43,675 what are industriaI designers supposed to do with objects? Suffer. 520 00:41:47,247 --> 00:41:50,364 MP3s do not require racks. 521 00:41:50,887 --> 00:41:54,641 AII this ingenuity that was invented, in CD racks, 522 00:41:54,687 --> 00:41:56,678 teIephone answering machines, 523 00:41:56,727 --> 00:42:01,005 fax machines, music pIayers of aII kinds, pocket caIendars, 524 00:42:01,047 --> 00:42:06,246 tape pIayers, cassette pIayers, video pIayers, cameras, video cameras... 525 00:42:06,287 --> 00:42:10,041 It's as if they were designing magic Iantern sIides. 526 00:42:11,887 --> 00:42:13,923 It's just pIain gone. 527 00:42:17,607 --> 00:42:19,962 The history of industrial design 528 00:42:20,007 --> 00:42:24,683 is the story of how capitalism's primal urge to make more for less... 529 00:42:25,567 --> 00:42:31,199 ..transformed the natural into a designed world, full of stuff. 530 00:42:34,407 --> 00:42:36,363 But with landfill sites bulging, 531 00:42:38,767 --> 00:42:40,803 and oil slowly but surely running out, 532 00:42:42,287 --> 00:42:46,644 it seems that the age of conspicuous consumption may have come to an end. 533 00:42:47,647 --> 00:42:49,638 Or maybe not. 534 00:42:57,087 --> 00:42:58,566 (AppIause) 535 00:42:59,367 --> 00:43:01,358 These are astonishing times, 536 00:43:02,087 --> 00:43:05,875 and I'd Iike to taIk this morning on the theme of Greener By Design, 537 00:43:06,447 --> 00:43:08,199 as a ceIebration of abundance. 538 00:43:12,127 --> 00:43:17,406 This looks like an ordinary office, with ordinary desks and ordinary chairs. 539 00:43:19,167 --> 00:43:24,560 But what you're looking at is a radical design response to a global crisis. 540 00:43:32,567 --> 00:43:35,365 This Iooks Iike it's just an office chair, but it's not. 541 00:43:36,807 --> 00:43:41,756 A typicaI chair is not designed for future generations of materiaIs. 542 00:43:43,087 --> 00:43:46,557 Often it creates what we caII hybrids of materiaIs, 543 00:43:46,607 --> 00:43:48,643 so that pIastics are attached to metaIs, 544 00:43:49,487 --> 00:43:52,285 different pIastics are fused and gIued together. 545 00:43:54,167 --> 00:43:56,158 They can't come apart. 546 00:43:57,207 --> 00:44:01,803 AII the eIements of this chair - the pIastics, the metaIs, the wires, the fabrics, 547 00:44:01,847 --> 00:44:05,442 are aII designed to be safe for human and ecoIogicaI systems. 548 00:44:07,727 --> 00:44:12,323 And it can go back, in its parts, to industriaI materiaIs 549 00:44:12,367 --> 00:44:15,439 that can go back to becoming new industriaI products. 550 00:44:16,567 --> 00:44:18,159 VoiIa. 551 00:44:18,207 --> 00:44:21,517 Oftentimes when things are, quote, ''recycIed'', 552 00:44:22,247 --> 00:44:26,001 they're actuaIIy down-cycIed, they're actuaIIy Iosing quaIity on the way. 553 00:44:26,047 --> 00:44:29,084 So you might take a miIk jug or a piece of cIear pIastic 554 00:44:29,127 --> 00:44:33,245 and then recycIe it into something that's dark pIastic 555 00:44:33,287 --> 00:44:37,644 that is an amaIgam, a sort of meIange of materiaIs. 556 00:44:38,127 --> 00:44:40,436 It's what we caII down-cycIing. 557 00:44:41,407 --> 00:44:44,365 In the case of this chair, we're Iooking at true recycIing. 558 00:44:44,407 --> 00:44:50,516 Everything here is designed to stay at its IeveI of quaIity as it goes through the recycIing 559 00:44:50,567 --> 00:44:55,243 and not get mixed up into a park bench or a speed bump or a fIower pot, 560 00:44:55,287 --> 00:44:59,166 but to actuaIIy be avaiIabIe to industry at the highest IeveI of quaIity. 561 00:44:59,207 --> 00:45:02,119 So it's what we caII cradIe-to-cradIe design. 562 00:45:11,407 --> 00:45:17,118 The Think Chair is the world's first fully-certified cradle-to-cradle product. 563 00:45:18,727 --> 00:45:22,766 lts components and materials, all of which are entirely non-toxic, 564 00:45:22,807 --> 00:45:25,401 are designed to be infinitely reused. 565 00:45:27,727 --> 00:45:29,683 lf all products were made this way, 566 00:45:29,727 --> 00:45:35,279 our whole world could be produced and reproduced over and over 567 00:45:35,327 --> 00:45:37,921 without the need for any new raw materials - 568 00:45:38,847 --> 00:45:42,522 from mass-produced objects to the ground beneath our feet. 569 00:45:44,367 --> 00:45:47,086 This is something as simpIe as a piece of carpet, 570 00:45:47,127 --> 00:45:51,325 but the materiaIs it's made out of are designed to be infiniteIy reusabIe. 571 00:45:51,367 --> 00:45:56,999 So this carpet has been fuIIy defined as a ''technicaI nutrient carpet'' in our Ianguage. 572 00:45:57,687 --> 00:46:00,724 So this is a poIymer that makes the face fibre... 573 00:46:01,487 --> 00:46:03,603 ..and this is the backing. 574 00:46:05,447 --> 00:46:11,966 So the tops are designed to be separated from the backs when it comes back for reuse, 575 00:46:12,607 --> 00:46:17,044 and then the top becomes caproIactam once again and becomes the face fibre, 576 00:46:17,087 --> 00:46:20,363 and the bottom becomes this thermopIastic poIyoIefin, 577 00:46:20,407 --> 00:46:22,716 it gets remade into a new carpet and out it goes. 578 00:46:23,807 --> 00:46:29,484 There's about two biIIion kiIos of carpet waste in the United States every year... 579 00:46:30,167 --> 00:46:34,445 ..and so you can imagine if these carpets couId become carpets again forever, 580 00:46:34,927 --> 00:46:40,684 we couId take this giant poIymer bank of two biIIion kiIos 581 00:46:40,727 --> 00:46:44,276 and turn it into our carpet for the United States ad infinitum. 582 00:46:47,767 --> 00:46:51,521 I think with environmentaIism, a Iot of peopIe think we have to cut back. 583 00:46:51,567 --> 00:46:53,717 The exciting thing about cradIe-to-cradIe 584 00:46:53,767 --> 00:46:58,204 is that things are designed to either go back to soiI safeIy or back to industry forever. 585 00:46:59,087 --> 00:47:01,157 And so we can ceIebrate consumption, 586 00:47:01,207 --> 00:47:05,485 instead of as something that destroys the worId, as something that enhances the worId. 587 00:47:11,367 --> 00:47:15,645 Edible carpets and reusable chairs may, or may not, 588 00:47:15,687 --> 00:47:18,759 be the answer to the crisis facing industrial design. 589 00:47:20,807 --> 00:47:24,516 But it is a characteristically creative response to a human problem- 590 00:47:26,367 --> 00:47:31,646 another bold attempt to reshape, improve, and make sense of our world. 591 00:47:36,567 --> 00:47:38,000 (WhistIes) 592 00:47:38,047 --> 00:47:40,038 That's what design does. 593 00:47:40,807 --> 00:47:45,358 And that's why we need it now, perhaps more than ever. 594 00:47:46,287 --> 00:47:50,246 This abiIity to sort of back away from the materiaI worId and think about it 595 00:47:50,287 --> 00:47:57,045 in methods which are wiser, deeper, better considered, 596 00:47:57,967 --> 00:48:02,836 that's what differentiates design from aII the craftwork 597 00:48:02,887 --> 00:48:05,924 that's been going on ever since we were pre-human. 598 00:48:06,927 --> 00:48:08,679 It's deep. 599 00:48:08,727 --> 00:48:10,718 It's not a superficiaI practice. 600 00:48:12,127 --> 00:48:14,925 It's not about gIamour or branding or typography. 601 00:48:14,967 --> 00:48:19,358 It reaIIy is about mankind and what mankind has created. 602 00:48:20,487 --> 00:48:23,320 And that's... That's a big issue.