TED’s Ten: 7 - Design for Ethical Production*
HYPOTHESES IN WOOL
2018

The relation between Designer and Artisan: how does it contribute for innovative solutions in design areas?

This text suggests an open discussion between the Crafts and Textile Industries. It evolves around highlighting different aspects present in the crafts and design world, and the possibilities behind the combination of the two. It also speaks about how globalization is an influencing factor on the products resulting from this relationship.

Design is never disconnected from tradition as it is always concerned with improving human way of living. Aesthetics and Functionality are communal aspects in both Design areas and crafts history in every culture, as it is its principles of existence and precisely why they a matter of importance, W. Nigel (1993) points:

 

*This is about design that utilises and invests in traditional craft skills in the UK and abroad. It is about ethical production which supports and values workers rights, and the sourcing of fair trade materials. It questions what ethical production means, and how it differs for each scale of production and manufacture.

The design profession needs to be both introspective and outward-looking. It must look at its practices and values, and their implications; and it must look at the condition of society and the world. (…)

Designers can no longer take refuge from responsibility for their actions and continually repackage the same old type of consumer goods at a time when issues about consuming and its relationship to the world’s resources and energy need urgently to be acted upon.

TED's Ten_Maria Appleton Wool


For full research click here.