A Great Debate - Designer of the Year
June 16, 2005, Jude
There is loads of stuff flying around about the Designer of the Year award. In a press release David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council, said "Designer of the Year is an important national prize awarded by a distinguished jury as well as a public vote. Their choice of Hilary Cottam celebrates the important role design and designers can and must play in advancing new solutions to some of our thorniest social problems."
But the response to the award has been varied and at times, critical..... The Observer, Core77, Spiked Online, But certainly not all bad.....John Thackara, Noise Between Stations, The Times
We'll keep these links updated as the debate continues. If you'd like to comment please do so here or register your opinion on
The Observer's poll
CATEGORY: RED TEAM
Yanki Lee
, August 8, 2005
Dear all members of design community (specially to those designers who are working in the traditional sense),
I am very grad that the award committee and the public who voted for the Design Museum's 2005 Designer of the Year award gave the prize to Hilary Cottam. As the chair explained that they chose Cottam because of her innovative way to use design as a strategic tool to modernise schools, prisons and other critically important areas of our lives. In other words, the award is for the new 'design skill' of Cottam to set up the platform for designers and users to meet. "I am a facilitator", Cottam expressed and reflected the new role of designer she is working on which cannot be understood by many of our fellow members.
Among all the complaints, I dispute some of the comments especially the one from architect of the Kingsdale School, Alex de Rijke. De Rijke was quoted in the Observer (June 12, 2005), 'She (Cottam) worked on fundraising, lobbying and consultation for the project, But she has not been to the school, which is only halfway through reconstruction, for three years." The Designer of the Year award is not for a project but to a designer and her contribution. If De Rijke requires Cottam to share the money with the team, why did he tell me to visit Cottam's 'School-work' website and refused to talk when I asked him to talk about his design process with the users in the Kingsdale School. It seems that he didn't considered Cottam as part of the team to design his project. He even hadn't mentioned in his presentation to many architects and designers in the seminar organised by the Architecture Foundation (10 March 2004, Museum of London) about his collaboration with Cottam.
However, I think there are also mistakes by the organiser, the Design Museum and the award committee. First, the mainstream designers in UK are always against design dealing with social issues and working with users. This can be proved from my own experience working at the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre where we aim at transferring the idea of inclusion design to the design community. It needs hard work! The design community and even the general public are not ready to accept this new role of designer. I know this is not a new idea. From the Community Architecture to people-centred design, there has been a long debate since then.
Second, as one of the key design promoters in London, Design Museum's exhibitions haven't stressed on social issues to arouse the importance of user participation or social interaction between designers and users. Therefore, this may be a shock for everyone about the nominee list and the chosen winner.
It is not appropriated to use architectural drawings to present Cottam's work. I would suggest to use photos from the workshops she 'designed'.
Anyway, I am fully supported the decision but hope the debate can transform the existing practice. Need a lot of rethinking!
Add your comment
Dear all members of design community (specially to those designers who are working in the traditional sense),
I am very grad that the award committee and the public who voted for the Design Museum's 2005 Designer of the Year award gave the prize to Hilary Cottam. As the chair explained that they chose Cottam because of her innovative way to use design as a strategic tool to modernise schools, prisons and other critically important areas of our lives. In other words, the award is for the new 'design skill' of Cottam to set up the platform for designers and users to meet. "I am a facilitator", Cottam expressed and reflected the new role of designer she is working on which cannot be understood by many of our fellow members.
Among all the complaints, I dispute some of the comments especially the one from architect of the Kingsdale School, Alex de Rijke. De Rijke was quoted in the Observer (June 12, 2005), 'She (Cottam) worked on fundraising, lobbying and consultation for the project, But she has not been to the school, which is only halfway through reconstruction, for three years." The Designer of the Year award is not for a project but to a designer and her contribution. If De Rijke requires Cottam to share the money with the team, why did he tell me to visit Cottam's 'School-work' website and refused to talk when I asked him to talk about his design process with the users in the Kingsdale School. It seems that he didn't considered Cottam as part of the team to design his project. He even hadn't mentioned in his presentation to many architects and designers in the seminar organised by the Architecture Foundation (10 March 2004, Museum of London) about his collaboration with Cottam.
However, I think there are also mistakes by the organiser, the Design Museum and the award committee. First, the mainstream designers in UK are always against design dealing with social issues and working with users. This can be proved from my own experience working at the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre where we aim at transferring the idea of inclusion design to the design community. It needs hard work! The design community and even the general public are not ready to accept this new role of designer. I know this is not a new idea. From the Community Architecture to people-centred design, there has been a long debate since then.
Second, as one of the key design promoters in London, Design Museum's exhibitions haven't stressed on social issues to arouse the importance of user participation or social interaction between designers and users. Therefore, this may be a shock for everyone about the nominee list and the chosen winner.
It is not appropriated to use architectural drawings to present Cottam's work. I would suggest to use photos from the workshops she 'designed'.
Anyway, I am fully supported the decision but hope the debate can transform the existing practice. Need a lot of rethinking!