Sustainability in design is surely fundamental

It is remarkable that, after years of research into materials and processes, sustainability should still be considered a selling point by many product manufacturers. Like the tag “added bran” that helped to sell otherwise ordinary foods to health-conscious consumers in the affluent 1980s, adding with the extra roughage a couple of pence to the price, sustainability is too often portrayed as a fashionable option. The upshot of that is likely to be that, like bran, it will drop out of mainstream culture if times get tough and marketers have to use other ploys to tempt consumers.

Even more disturbing is the fact that, as with the US presidential elections, the success of campaigns such as the Design Museum’s Design Sense initiative towards holistic, responsible design and manufacture is likely to be determined by the lawyers as European directives and other legislation come into force. Yet sustainability is surely as fundamental to good product design as ease of use and customer appeal. We’ve come a long way since US-generated 1950s “space-age” styling, created to instill the idea of fashion – and, therefore, obsolescence – into household goods and cars.

Take the main criteria for the Design Sense prize – taking account of environmental, commercial, social and aesthetic impact of a product throughout its life. These should be basic requirements for any design. Yet we are told by Martin Charter of the Centre for Sustainable Design that European product design undergraduates receive hardly any education in environmental issues, while would-be employers maintain they also lack commercial understanding.

There is hope though, with the likes of the Ford Motor Company – soon to open a new design centre in London’s Soho – taking a lead in these matters ahead of legislative change and initiatives such as the Royal College of Art’s Helen Hamlyn Research Centre meshing broad social concerns with pure design at the heart of postgraduate courses. Let us hope such moves soon become the norm, rather than the laudable exception.

Deal close for Wolff Olins?

The odds must surely be shortening on the fate of Wolff Olins, the only major UK identity stalwart remaining independent. Reports of an imminent sale to US e-business group Scient have yet to be proved, but they have put the London-based supergroup back into the limelight. With news this week of Bamber Forsyth’s deal with Cordiant Communications, there are few merger options left for the UK’s key players.