2. What Design
Can Do
A conference about
the impact of design
dinsdag 6 september 2011
3. On 26 and 27 may 2011 What Design Can Do (WDCD)
took place in the Stadsschouwburg theatre in Amsterdam.
WDCD is initiated by De Designpolitie and realised in
close collaboration with a dedicated group of designers,
business leader Lisette Schmetz, producer Chris van
Bokhorst and editor Bas van Lier.
dinsdag 6 september 2011
4. What Design Can Do is about the impact of design
on society. Design as a catalyst of change and renewal.
This impact is shown and discussed with international
speakers and very tangable cases.
dinsdag 6 september 2011
5. Every edition of WDCD has an editorial theme.
For 2011 the theme was ‘Access’. ‘Access’ is a meta theme.
Abstract enough to look at it from different angles and
simple enough to explain the audience in a few words
and examples.
dinsdag 6 september 2011
7. Liu Xiaodu (China) M.P. Ranjan (India) Scott Stowell (USA)
The ‘activist’ character of the conference was very well
illustrated by the WDCD 2011 catalogue that was edited,
designed and printed on the site.
The book contains 4 essays, 4 interviews, all the speakers,
a report of the two days and a wrap up of all the break outs.
dinsdag 6 september 2011
8. Design, visual communication, identity, stage design, motion
graphics, signing and so on were developed from one strong
concept in collaboration with dedicated designers.
This created a coherent, communicative and very
clear visual identity, supporting the message about what
design can do.
dinsdag 6 september 2011
9. All these aspects led to an energetic, urgent, relevant, busy
and in the media very positively criticized event.
Per day 750 people visited WDCD, 1.000 unique visitors
over the 2 days. Visitors were designers, students,
companies, governments, nationally and internationally.
dinsdag 6 september 2011
10. (1) (2)
(3) (4)
WHAT DESIGN CAN DO FOR ACCESS 10 WHAT DESIGN CAN DO FOR ACCESS 11
WE MUST IT HAS NEVER BEEN IN
A MANIFESTO FOR TRUE AND
UNRESTRAINED CREATIVITY
Creativity is a surplus of intelligence and sensitivity. It is the op- MARKETING’S INTEREST
HAVE THE THAT WE ARTISTS AND
portunity that potentially lies between our heart and our brain.
The human race is divided into two classes, people who are crea-
tive and people who are not.
Truly creative people are rare. They are a tiny minority, op-
CONSUMERS SHOULD
COURAGE
pressed by false proponents of creativity and by everyone else.
Only truly creative people have no fear of creativity. Everyone else
is afraid of it. They, the non-creative people, oppose it and try to
curb it because they know that creativity gives rise to new ideas
BE ABLE TO THINK.
that sooner or later they will have to come to terms with.
TO RISK
The army of non-creative people is huge. It includes a mass of
bureaucrats who claim that their positions of power give them the
right to block creative processes. They exist to cut down to a level
of mediocrity every idea that is not stupid enough to gain consen-
BEING
sus. That’s why all newspapers are alike, all automobiles look like
one another, television programs are interchangeable, different AA’VK A G A EGAEOG AE G AE AE GPO
brands of clothing propose an identical style.
The economy is a pretext. Power’s lack of culture and lack of cour-
age to invest in ideas is a clear and undeniable sign of the agony of of encouraging it, are paradoxically responsible for working contrary of what every pre-established system wants you to do.
DIFFERENT
creativity. Paradoxically and ironically, creative people must con- against the very same economic interests they say they defend. To be creative means to try to do something that has never been
stantly defend themselves from the bureaucrats of power, those done before, to build out of nothing something that can have an
who never need to defend their own lack of creativity and courage, BURNING LOGO ON OUR BRAIN enormous value. Creativity requires a state of non-control, of lim-
but seem to identify solely with their role as accusers and censors. So most of the communication, like most of products, looks alike. itless courage. And that is why conformism is creativity’s worst
It is branded and conditioned by marketing that makes us feel enemy. Anyone who doesn’t have the courage to be able to take
FEAR CREATES MEDIOCRITY part of the herd, the vast global flock of livestock, where to be risks cannot be creative.
Art is the highest expression of human communication. And by different means to be alienated. Branding means exactly that, a
BY OLIVIERO TOSCANI Art I don’t mean only painting or sculpture or the ancient and burning logo of ownership stamped forever on our brain.
No one wants to be a black or a lost sheep, so we are all lambs in
WE CAN CHANGE THE MESSAGE
Communication in all it’s forms could really be at the service of
traditional arts, but above all the modern, mass arts, like: photog-
raphy, design, fashion, architecture, cinematography and so on. the slaughterhouses of communication, and especially that of the humanity. It could be a creative means of research into the new
Communication, like art, has always been at the service of one multinational brands. Brands do not nourish society; brands are language that we are searching for to symbolize and identify the
power or another – religion, politics, industry and production, or nourished by society. human condition and the exertions of society, to understand and
Creativity in communication today condi- as a counter power, but still a power. We think that the future is a place where scientific and technologi- explain the new world that is racing towards us with the speed of a
cal evolution, combined with branding and marketing, will give meteorite. It could be utilized to help enrich humanity in the labo-
tioned by an obsessive search for consen- But today the creativity of communication is conditioned by an ob-
sessive search for consensus, in the false belief that consensus is rise to a guilt-free, trouble-free, pain-free, shiny, sterilized virtual rious task of expressing itself better in this world, to connect with
sus, leading to the most banal mediocrity, success. Fear of failure always produces mediocrity, because the world – a world in which everything that is potentially ugly about the rest of society and permit a better future. This kind of media
human reality is excluded for fear of turning codes upside-down. and communication could challenge and provoke debate about
Oliviero Toscani says. At What Design chosen solution will always be the least risky and the most banal.
Modern creativity has been stripped of ideas and individual pas- While we try to reduce all of life to a set of patented codes, the ideas, it could break the rules, destroy the preconceptions and
Can Do! the Italian photographer, famed sions. It has been relegated to the role of a company servant. It worst risk is that of natural evolution. Difference becomes the the conformism that rule and condition us. This could give rise to
enemy of the state of things. true beauty, and give us the opportunity to create in a condition of
for his provocative advertising campaigns, has to be a vehicle for strategies that focus solely on raising the
market price of the company’s stock. free expression, communicating true and profound beliefs to the
condemned commercially driven fear and ARTISTS SHOULD BE FREE world around us without being conditioned by profit.
Today communication feeds on the people that it should feed, in- We have the creativity to change the messages, rearrange the
pleaded for creative freedom. ‘We have the CONDEMNED TO COMMERCE
The raw material of art are the artists, the communicators, the stead. Originally, it was thought to be a public service, the voice of entire image. We must have the courage to risk being different.
creativity to change the messages, rear- photographers, the designers, the writers, authors, musicians, ac- production and consumption the voice of culture. But now it has No one should be culturally, physically or spiritually starved.
degenerated, becoming an instrument of economic manipulation. Channels of distribution do exist. Creative people, and providers
range the entire image.’ tors, the image-creators; good sense would tell us they should be
protected, handled with the same care with which bakers handle Intellectuals, creative people and artists who produce communi- and creators of content, may have the keys to unlock real commu-
flour. cation are in the front line of this army of collaborationists. Artists nication, communication of real meanings that could change our
But this is something that is becoming more and more rare. The should have the power finally to free themselves of their fears. lives and the lives of others with creativity and respect. We need
artist who clings to his intents, his sensitivities, and his inspira- The future needs to allow the artist real power and responsibility to create a dialogue, not a monobrand, a monothought, a mono-
tions, to his visions rooted in his own insecurity – the essential in the world of communication. logue, a monoculture.
requisite for producing creativity – risks seeming narcissistic, Creative people should break these bonds and destroy these We should not only be survivors as a species, but we should
hysterical, or even presumptuous. codes, and help encourage free thought. prosper creatively and evolve dynamically, we must recognise
Creative people now are condemned to serve and work in terms It has never been in marketing’s interest that we artists and con- the whole human race as a brand, with all of it’s diversity, ethnics
of finance success and the stock exchange, while communica- sumers should be able to think, because anyone who thinks can and colours, it’s differences and sometimes it’s limits and vetoes.
tion concepts, ideas and scenarios are conceived and decided be creative, and creativity is always subversive. It’s about time to A human brand based on respect, not on power; possibility, not
WDCD also has an ‘afterlife’.
on by specialists in communication and in marketing, by market revolutionize this situation. We need creativity in communication. uniformity. Love, not fear.
researchers, and by levels upon levels of managers who make There have been and there still are instances when expression
sure the result is banal and stupid enough to satisfy the public has had the courage to risk being different: communication that Creativity is a surplus of intelligence and sensitivity. It is the op-
that they call the Target. takes risks and dares to go beyond profit and the requirements of portunity that potentially lies between our heart and our brain.
the clients. Our spirit needs that kind of creativity in modern communication.
De website (1) is regularly updated, 1.000 copies of the
Commercial success, not creativity, is what counts. Doing so
most of the images on medias are stupid, flat, costly, repetitious Creativity is a surplus of intelligence and sensitivity. It is the op-
and useless. Communication is a means of delivering messages portunity that potentially lies between our heart and our brain.
Creativity has to be always subversive. Unless it encounters an This is a shortened version of Oliviero Toscani’s speech
produced by an institutional and corporate power that is polluting at What Design Can Do! The entire text can be found at
our lives with this miserable level of culture and creativity. intelligent patron or institution, it is destined to remain outside
book (2), a 16 pages report of the event in design magazine
www.whatdesigncando.nl
In the world of communication – and not only in that world – the pre-established plans and bureaucratic authorizations.
OLIVIERO TOSCANI TELLING THE AUDIENCE HIS TRUTH. people who manage creativity, limiting and restraining it instead To be creative means to have no securities, it means doing the
Items (3) and a media partnership with Design Indaba in
South Africa (4). Design Indaba interviewed 6 speakers
and shared these talks with their 30.000 mail contacts.
dinsdag 6 september 2011
11. Visualizing
Democracy
dinsdag 6 september 2011
20. I think that as designers
we have a responsibility in translating
genuine stories from politicians
and political movements into clear
and honest messages to the people
of our countries.
dinsdag 6 september 2011
21. Groen Links
and the VVD
Two Dutch
political parties
dinsdag 6 september 2011
25. Regel 1:
Minder
Een
kredietcrisis
los je niet
op met nog
Regels
meer
krediet
NEDERLAND
NEDERLAND
ZEKER NU
OPNIEUW
ZEKER NU
OPNIEUW
dinsdag 6 september 2011
26. D
Statements
TERUG
Statements
ertype: Antique Olive Black
ergrootte: 100 pt
elafstand: 135 pt (135%)
Een
Lettertype: Antique Olive Black
r: Blauw
Lettergrootte: 100 pt
Regelafstand: 135 pt (135%)
ikte: 28 pt Kleur: VVD-Blauw
ten opzichte van de lettergrootte)
VV
and: 32 pt Lijndikte: 28 pt
ten opzichte van de van corpsgrootte)
(28% lettergrootte)
r: Oranje Afstand: 32 pt
(32% van corpsgrootte)
Kleur: VVD-Oranje
17
Letter
100 pt (100%)
Streep Afstand
32 pt (32%) Lijndikte
28 pt (28%)
17
er onder
Regelafstand
135 pt (135%)
Rationale Basis Kantoor Communicatie Campagne
Hiërarchie
dinsdag 6 september 2011 Kop / Titel
