Design(ers) Beyond Industrial. From Dissociation to Reassociation Through Craft

Abstract

Towards the end of last millennium, cultural and technological development allowed humanity to severely alter the way we live, the objects of everyday life and how they were made and used. The advent of industrial production made it possible, for it contributed the rise of the Design professional, responsible for the ideation and project of products, filling the recently created gap between intent and machine production. For decades the seeds of post-industrial design have been identified by researchers, their bloom is now shown evident by growing number of people that try to avoid industrial goods. This has made the non-industrial market to become multimillionaire, attracting an increasing number of people to make products. Craftsmanship holds the roots of cultural variation and carries a long tradition of using sustainable materials and processes, values with increasing acknowledgement by the market. Recent events will be reviewed, which show that the present state of affairs combines both increasing market opportunities and communicational abilities for designers to develop products for non-industrial means of production. This study concludes that within this perspective, designers and craftspeople collaborations have an option to successfully develop sustainable products, while contributing for a more thoughtful and sustainable world.