due to a number of factors i wasn’t able to attend the available two full days of the wdcd conference in amsterdam last week… on the other hand it forced me to be selective about what i did want to see, namely: daniel eatock & michael wolff, furthermore i wonder wether two whole consecutive days of designers attempting to demonstrate that design really is a good thing is such a healthy pastime… design has certainly has it’s moments of worth but i guess that one of my personal conclusions in the aftermath of this marathon design fest is that what was lacking for me was a resounding critical voice amongst the generally positive (perhaps even backslapping) congratulatory tone that i felt during the two consecutive days…
two memorable quotes i heard:
eatock – design less (or as little as possible)
wolff – design is the ability to have a vision
although michael wolff went on to say that almost any definition of design he has ever heard is true, which i agree with… oh wait… a third memorable quote came from the guru-like ‘lideweij edelkort’: yellow is the new pink for goodness sake… when will people stop treating trendwatchers like deities? it all just sounds like nonsense to me
and finally some minor points of criticism, which i hasten to add are made in the (personal) knowledge that these kind of events are really, really difficult to organise… and was indeed amazingly well organised as a whole
firstly i felt that allowing the speakers to show their own work tends to make these events rather tame (a crowd simply oohing and aahing at pretty work) if the speakers were pertinently asked not to show their own work (radical i know) it would force the discussion (and possibly even debate) towards what we really need to say about ourselves, our contribution to society & our work as designers, it’s usually too easy for us designers to hide behind our work instead of voicing a real message…
secondly the intention to hold a second event next year already, seems to my mind way too soon… wait a year and focus on a stronger range of speakers….
finally the moderator ‘lucas verweij’ was a bad choice i believe… he spent too much effort annoyingly, trying to convey his own kudos as a designer to the speakers and seemed to completely misjudge the appropriate tone of voice when approaching them to debate a subject, please guys find someone else next time…
