Can design remain exclusive?

Open design now is a new book by Creative Commons Netherlands, the Premsela Dutch design and fashion institute, and Waag Society from BIS Publishers. The book sheds light on the new movement and makes one thing clear: design cannot remain exclusive. Open Design Now is essential reading for designers, businesspeople, decisionmakers, students and anyone concerned with the future of design and society.

According to the authors design is undergoing a revolution. New technologies like 3D printers and accessible software mean anyone can be a designer today. Professionals and enthusiastic amateurs alike are using open design – the creation of products using publicly available blueprints and instructions – to share their work with the world. Consumers are designing cars, restaurants, even prosthetic legs.

On the other hand – let’s face it; design is now a major source of pollution, as process and a phenomenon, design has degenerated into a state of aesthetic proliferation that has reached accumulative and destructive levels, in terms of loss of meaning, value, and identity. It is not only about making Design better, but making Design matter. Make design inclusive – yes! But, maybe not everyone should be a designer…