Design Beyond Consumption
Consume, buy, eat, indulge. ‘Tis the season.
As climate-minded people, this time of year tends to bring up complicated feelings around our role in consumption both personally and through our work as designers.
Avoiding consumerism during the holidays has been discussed ad nauseam, but bears repeating now more than ever.
Experiences are always more meaningful than stuff.
Billionaires don’t need our money. Support local businesses and artists. Or don’t buy at all.
Donate to mutual aid groups or causes that matter to you (like us!).
Putting the onus of change on us as “consumers” when we never chose that societal role is a misdirection of responsibility, yet how we spend our dollars does matter. It is a powerful form of collective action. Boycotts work. Have a party to cancel your Amazon accounts together, or host a re-gift exchange (and join us for one if you’re in the Bay Area!). We promise you’ll feel better for it 🙂
But as designers, the discomfort around consumption runs deeper. Our job is generally to design more consumer goods with short lives, more media capturing attention, more thirsty AI powered apps burning energy and water, more sprawling concrete development. While there are certainly worthwhile things being designed, the vast majority of what is created becomes waste within a few years.
In light of this and the planetary challenges ahead, what must the role of a designer become? We can design lighter, cleaner, with less embodied carbon. This is a step in the right direction, but incremental changes aren't enough if we continue to overuse our resources each year.
What are the transformative shifts that will allow us to design out more stuff entirely?
From stuff → systems
Replacing existing products with things that are more “sustainable” isn’t sustainable in our current growth model. We need systemic changes to infrastructure and business models that will allow us to stop extracting virgin materials at a rate that can’t be replenished. Circular transitions are a start, but regenerative systems that restore more than they extract are the north star.
From creator → facilitator
The biggest barrier to climate action is often the human element. The power of design becomes less about creation, and more about guiding the work that is uniquely human. Deep listening. Facilitating collaboration. Building community. Crafting meaningful experiences. Enabling intentional, thoughtful cooperation avoids wasted effort and resources across our companies and communities.
From manipulation → imagination
Media shifts culture and behavior. This is usually used in service of consumption. But particularly in an age where most people get their news from social, media may be the most powerful educational and inspirational tool we have. With effective behavioral design, media can inspire the collective imagination, shift the narrative, and with it build collective action.
While most of the design industry may still be operating under business as usual, these shifts are happening. The seeds of regenerative futures are scattered all around us, sometimes at a big systemic level, and sometimes through small projects in local communities.
Let the holidays be a time for us to re-imagine what we want our role in the future of design to be.
– Natalie Walsh
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