o_19po8js951tvs1r0t1r8s4bb1vpla.pdf

Trends and anti-trends in
industrial design
Gui Bonsiepe
Designer, educator, researcher and author of works on design, he published in
Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Korea, Spain, Holland, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and
Switzerland. Graduated in Germany, he was a lecturer and researcher in HfG Ulm,
consultant and freelancer for international organizations, public institutions and
private companies in Latin America. He coordinated the Brazilian Industrial Design
Laboratory Florianópolis - SC (1983-1987) and the Master’s degree program in
Information Design at the Universidad de las Américas, in Puebla (Mexico). He was
a professor of Interface Design at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne
(Germany). He has four academic distinctions (Dr. hc in Brazil (2), Chile, Mexico) and
currently works in Florianópolis and La Plata / Buenos Aires.
gui.bonsiepe@guibonsiepe.com
In the catalog of a recent exposition of design in Vienna, with the title Design
4 Change, the editors identified three different tendencies of design:
- first, a explicitly new orientation, with the goal of “creating a better society”;
- second, the ecological design;
- third, the life-style design, which is limited, in a great part, to the issues of habitat
and personal presentation (equipment and furniture for houses or departments
of people of the middle class, and personal accessories also for people from the
middle class) what dominates the innumerable magazines of the sector (THUN-
HOHENSTEIN et al., 2012).
The preoccupation with the design effects to contribute to society improvement
is not new. It is as old as the history of design itself. We find it strange that it is
considered necessary to remind again this old dream that has been kept asleep by
the current hegemonic discourse. This does not hesitate in declaring obsolete the
simple desire of relating design with the social and political dimensions, and, even
Cadernos de Estudos Avançados em Design - design e humanismo - 2013 - p. 131-139
131