Design Beyond Aesthetics

Text by Maurício Azeredo, Adjunct Professor at PUC Goiás.

November 5th, Designer’s Day

Until the end of the 19th century, there was a sharp separation — a rupture — between the world of arts and the world of technology, dividing culture into two branches that were foreign to each other. As the philosopher Vilém Flusser wrote — whom I had the honor of studying under in the 1960s — culture was divided “on one hand, into the scientific branch, quantifiable, hard, and on the other, the aesthetic branch, qualifying, soft.” Flusser continues:

“The word design entered this gap as a kind of bridge between these two worlds. And this was possible because this word expresses the internal connection between technology and art. And therefore design means approximately that place where art and technology (and, consequently, evaluative and scientific thinking) walk together, with equivalent weight, making a new form of culture possible.”

This thought, from the 1980s, needs at least a complement today — because beyond establishing a bridge between art and technology, design has a new purpose that can be called survival. The survival of the planet, the environment, and the human species, without distinction of social strata, race, or creed.

Regardless of their area of practice, the designer now has a fundamental and new purpose: to work toward a necessary, urgent, safe, and responsible change of attitude — in their actions and projects — regarding the use of our natural resources, energy consumption, and the reduction of waste and of reckless, unnecessary, and unbalanced consumption. All of this aimed, without prejudice, at a better quality of life in human societies, regardless of geopolitical borders.

Beyond that, given the perverse income distribution and unequal access to the goods necessary for a dignified life for all citizens in our society, it is also the designer’s purpose to maintain permanent attention in their projects to all solutions that favor positive inclusion and the overcoming of unequal opportunities — ensuring that the achievement of coherence and decency prevails over mere appearance and stylistic superficiality.

For these reasons and for many others that can still be added, today — November 5th — we celebrate Design Day. We embrace and congratulate the design professional for their importance in the contemporary world. I am proud to be a designer and to contribute to the training of these indispensable professionals.

Originally published on Medium