Social Design II

Local markets serve the community better than export I dare say. Except for products that are best made in those countries. From materials we don’t have here. Or techniques we don’t have. Trade is best if you trade each other’s quality products. That’s true fair trade.

Besides that these small businesses can improve more if they make useful products rather than decorative. Decoration has an end, neccessary products will always remain. Ther’s no ban on decoration, but then the 3 questions raised above should be answered first.

Do we really need this? Does it add to the quality of our daily lives and how? What is the footprint and can we reduce it?

I do believe it’s important to train people in developing countries in market opportunities, but why not locally? Is it the vanity of the designers here who like to get the credits for doing good? It’s easier to show you’re doing good when fancy products lie on shelves here.  And of course some products are wonderful and clever, such as the recycled car tyre baskets, or the bamboo textiles sold by Yumeko through Fair+Fair and others. Many, maybe most lorries and vans end up in developing countries so at the end of the line it’s good to make something useful out of the tyres. Bamboo doesn’t grow here and is more sustainable than cotton, so it’s wonderful to use it for textiles all over the world. Hurray for those products. And of course some products are symbolic such as bracelets to raise awareness. But garlands or small boxes? What about recycled glasses? Why don’t we support makers in developing countries to sell recycled glass locally? And recycle local glass here to make these products? Less transport, and a challenge for a much larger market for the makers there.

So every designer must look in the mirror, and then to the outer world. How social is the design you’re doing? I believe design can play a key role in development if the aim is to be useful and to optimise the opportunities for people involved.

With the projects I’m doing with women in Malawi we’ve also made the choice to develop the local market. They make hand-knitted products as well as baskets. I could take them with me and sell them here in a fancy shop. But now the women work locally, buy or harvest their material locally, trade themselves locally, and the money flows directly into their own pockets. The only role I play is to develop the concepts with them and accelarate their skills. A very satisfying role I must say. I think that’s more useful in the long term. For they become more independent.  Stronger. And a role model for others. Like this a small project can be the pebble in the water, the seed in fertile soil. Growth is what's developed by people themselves.