Vision: Rational Design in the Anthropocene

It took 15 years to formulate a vision for Solve Product Design. For most of my working career I focused on what most people focus on: paying bills, reducing debt, buying a home, raising kids, and working hard. My business was started as a means to an end, not some altruistic pursuit. Nor was it started with some grand plan of ballooning in size and making a fortune. But I’ve found amazing mentors. I’ve worked. I’ve studied. I’ve apprenticed. I’ve volunteered. And, of course, I’ve failed – more times than I can count. And after all that living, these five words bubbled to the surface: “Rational Design in the Anthropocene”.

Design is not a benign activity. Products I’ve worked on have been built and sold in the thousands. Resources were mined, oil was drilled, carbon was released, nature was destroyed. As Yvonne Chouinard writes, “Despite its immensity, the Earth’s resources are not infinite, and it’s clear we’ve exceeded its limits. But it’s also resilient. We can save our planet if we commit to it”. Design is not just a tool for generating wealth, consequences be damned. If done conscientiously it can improve quality of life without permanent detrimental effects elsewhere. Notice I use the word “permanent”, since all manufacturing has environmental effects. The trick is designing products that provide benefits long enough for the natural environment to recover. Which means quality, long-life, reliable, low impact products designed to blend with the natural environment. Products with timeless beauty and utility rather than short-lived fashion. Products that offer customers an ethical choice outside of the smorgasbord of dreadful options. I call it “planned contentment” as opposed to planned obsolescence. That, I believe, is a vision worth striving toward.