Cher Professeur Giard, and others,
Yesterday, Dec. 14, you wrote:
"...in the end business people and industrialist have told
me more often than once, "Call yourselves whatever you want. It doesn't
matter. Just get the job done." And as crass as this statement may sound
isn't that the point? Does the title actually matter? Does it make a
difference to society that the artifact was designed by an industrial
designer or a product designer or a craftsman or the shop steward? I do not
think so."
To be a little more precise, I suspect what those business people were and are still telling you and all of us is to get the job done, but most importantly to get it WELL done! And this is what the entire society does really care about, to have in our daily lives WELL designed artifacts: that is, GOOD products.
Then, in my view, prior to titles and nomenclature (that subsequently may be needed for institutional purpose), the two following questions should be answered first:
1. which are the characteristics of (specifications or criteria for...) a "GOOD" product?
2. who is the best habilitated to deliver GOOD products? An artist designer in her/his studio? Any artisan-bricoleur around the corner? A graduate from a technical school? A university graduate? At which level? BA? Master's? PhD? All these individuals do claim to be involved in designing artifacts, but are they providing society with GOOD products?
I guess our focus should rather be on more conceptual work that needs to be done in order to clarify all those the terms of: "GOOD" products, "design" (over 500 sub-families, according to Ken and Terry?), and "designers".
François
Montréal
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