Haven’t we all been bad designers?

If you’ve ever pitched a product or sold a campaign, then chances are you’ve designed trash too. That’s what seven brilliant design thinkers are speaking out about, in What Design Can Do’s bold new video campaign for the No Waste Challenge.

A LOT OF BAD DESIGN

Around the world, landfills are growing by some 3.5 million tonnes of garbage every day. Every minute, the equivalent of a truckload of plastic enters the sea. Meanwhile, the same amount of clothing — much of it still good-as-new — is thrown out every second. Considering that waste is no accident, that’s a lot of bad design.

So much bad design, that we had to ask: have we all been bad designers? Knowing the creative industries’ track record of making things desirable one day, and disposable the next, the answer was glaring. Indeed, we have become a huge part of the problem.

A global campaign for a global problem

For WDCD’s co-founder and creative director Richard van der Laken, this admission was not an end to the conversation, but rather a beginning, prompting a series of opinion pieces and global video campaign. Published in Euronews, Dutch newspaper Trouw and Mexican newspaper Milenio, the opinion piece posed a question to audiences around the world: how can design be part of the solution to our massive waste problem?

Designers step uP and take responsibility

Venturing some ideas in the video campaign are seven renowned design thinkers — Alice Rawsthorn, Bruce Mau, Fernando Laposse, Fred Gelli, Nelly Ben Hayoun, Selly Raby Kane and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto — who weigh in on where design went wrong and what we can do to fix it.

Peppered with refreshing anecdotes and sharp insights, each video is a glimpse into what it will take to turn our relationship with waste around. By holding up a mirror to some of the most celebrated figures in our industry, this campaign is meant to spark an honest dialogue about the designer’s responsibility. On this, all seven thinkers agreed: it’s not just OK to be critical of design’s failures — at this point, it’s necessary. Are you ready to own up, step up, and lead?

CALLING FOR GOOD DESIGN

Will you join us? The No Waste Challenge is open for submissions until 20 April 2021, after which the winning teams will be awarded with funding and support to make their ideas a reality.