Good design starts in bed, and everything we use should serve for a better life
Beautiful materials and aesthetically pleasing forms have their place but there’s so much more to design than just good-looking objects. And it’s something that shapes our lives from our earliest moments.
“You were conceived in a bed that was designed – and probably born in one too,” Marva Griffin cheekily reminded me when I met the founder of SaloneSatellite, one of the world’s most significant showcases of emerging design talent, over lunch in Milan. “Design is really the oldest industry in the world because everything has been designed. I always say that [the purpose of] good design is simple: it’s for a better life. That is all.”
Her saucy reminder of my start to life has been a helpful jumping-off point for my own assessments of the quality of design. It’s easy to be distracted by beautiful materials and flashy forms without truly interrogating whether a design does more than simply look good. Examining things through Griffin’s lens, I have been inspired to seek out products and design approaches that might, indeed, encourage a better life.
Projects that have jumped out at me in recent months include a sleek, new camera by Japanese brand Sigma, aimed at making it easier to document the world around us. Fellow Japanese retailer Muji created an inspiring pop-up home using upcycled furniture and homeware that highlight potential ways to reduce environmental impacts, without the “hippy” look so often associated with repurposed furniture. UK-born Lulu Harrison has created beautiful glasses from waste products, cleaning up the local ecosystem and making smart pieces in the process. Meanwhile, Milan-based designer Keiji Takeuchi has curated a collection of walking sticks that, rather than taking the usual clinical or medical forms, are crafted from high-quality materials and feature distinct details that give dignity to the user – from hand grips made from woven rope to in-built baskets for carrying objects.
These works show that products that encourage a good life are rooted in serving users and making them more comfortable. It’s a vision that sums up what designers, from developers to architects, should be attempting to achieve in their work – and what everyday punters should be looking for. The best works of design – whether a sofa, a home or even the bed in which you were conceived – are uncompromising in their quality while putting service at their core.
