UNIVERSITY OF WALES INSTITUTE, CARDIFF ATHROFA PRIFYSGOL CYMRU, CAERDYDD

CARDIFF SCHOOL OF ART & DESIGN

PRODUCT DESIGN PROGRAMME

ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET



STUDENT NAME:
STUDENT NUMBER:
COURSE: BA/BSc Product Design
LEVEL: 5
ACTUAL HAND-IN DATE: By 4pm Friday 25th March 2011

MODULE TITLE: Design in Context
MODULE NUMBER: PDM213
ASSIGNMENT TITLE: Manifesto
MODULE LEADER: Dr Stephen Thompson
ASSIGNMENT DUE DATE: Friday 25th March 2011 @ the iZone






Adam Jack Price ST09000918

The Future of a Product Designer in an Intangible Economy

Knowledge and qualitative experiences are going to be the main focus of income and
improvement of well-being in the future. Consumption and increasing our material wealth is no
longer a sufficient means of pleasure seeking. These motives have been proven to cause
emotional distress, alienation and can lead to use of mood changing drugs and habitual
intoxication.
Society has lost sight of the benefits of qualitative relationships and the pursuit of wants; prevail
over-catering needs a keeping up with the joneses culture.
We need to concentrate on the intangibles and pursue our intrinsic values and goals.
Globalisation has led to an increase in the level of transparency in government and business.
Allowing consumers to see through international corporations working practise; whether moral or
not. It does not matter whether we all agree with government policies as long we can see whats
going on, we can agree to disagree or we can make a stand and do something about creating
change. Our connectedness allows us to quickly come together and take an active participation
and make our voices heard.
With transparency brands have to earn theyre customer base through theyre working practise,
every step they make can be watched and monitored, they have to perform to an audience.
Being policed by the masses, brand value cant be gained through slogans and false claims
anymore.

Organisations in this society, rather than having a hierarchy of leadership and top down
management is lead towards achieving the ideals of everyone in the organisation. Everyone
works together often crossing disciplines but working towards the same common goal. A web
structure rather than a pyramid, bottom up leadership. No one part is above another. Like an
orchestra everyone works on specific individual tasks but together they harmonise, each
contribution adds up to the end result, creating a more egalitarian society.

Evidence of a need for an intangible economy from the real world

To gain a level of understanding of a future intangible economy its important to first understand
the current economic system and the meaning of it.
Economic - Concerned with worldly necessities of life (especially money)
Money is currently mostly generated by a system of production and management of material
wealth. This no longer makes sense, for a sustainable future. (Definitions, 2011 )
Consumerism- Is the theory that the increase in consumption of goods is economically
beneficial. (Wordnetweb, 2011 )
Material wealth is a common source of increasing our personal well-being but working towards
increasing that wealth is proven to increase our vulnerability to emotional distress.
When our physiological needs are catered for the next step is safety, wealth provides a high level
of security and safety but self-actualization which is the top step of the pyramid In Maslows
hierarchy of needs includes creativity, problem solving and spontaneity all of which are not
promoted in Adam Smiths division of labour which has underlined the government and economic
protocol up until now.
The dream of wellbeing dreamt until now by the few is not sustainable for all. We have to
change. We have to learn how to live better while consuming less environmental resources and
regenerating the contexts of life (Manzini, 2008)

(Hierachy, 2011)

The top of the pyramid here in Maslows Hierarchy of needs are intangibles, these arent easy to
measure in the conventional quantitative way. So how are these most valuable needs measured?

GDP is the value of total production of goods and services in a country over a specified period,
typically a year. How much GDP grows from one period to the next is an indication of a country's
economic health. (Waterhouse, 2011)

Economic growth in previous years has been measured by material worth and growth. It can no
longer continue in this way and the mistakes of the western world cant afford to be made again
by the developing countries. A new model must come to life.

If undeveloped countries consumed at the same rate as the US, four complete planets the size of
the Earth would be required. Americans constitute 5% of the world's population but consume 24%
of the world's energy.

On average, one American consumes as much energy as

2 Japanese
6 Mexican
13 Chinese
31 Indians
128 Bangladeshis
307 Tanzanians
370 Ethiopians

The population is projected to increase by nearly 130 million people - the equivalent of
adding another four states the size of California - by the year 2050.
Forty percent of births are unintended. (Ehrlich)

The old economic system was underpinned by the theory of the Newtonic clock. This theory
states that Gods only contribution to the universe was to set everything in motion. This belief has
underlined society and government, along with materialism and consumerism over the last few
decades.
This has led to human beliefs of being able to control nature and manipulate it for our own
benefit; we see ourselves as the masters of the universe and believe the universe is there for us.
This is based on the principles of Marxism who provided one of the first secular visions, being
heavily influenced by Darwin who work was forming in the 18
th
Century.
The future was predictably linear; we could keep filling it with more and more stuff.
These beliefs did use to make sense but now and into the future they are nonsense.
We.are as Gods we might as well be good at it; we are as Gods we have to be good at it.
(Rheingold)

GDP takes only one measure of progress into account activity. Economic activity. But what
sensible person would call the effects of an oil spill progress.
If prosperity is judged only by increase economic activity, then car accidents, hospital visits,
illnesses (such as cancer) and toxic spills are all signs of prosperity. (McDonough, 2002 )
Ants are a good example of a population whos density and productiveness are not a problem for
the rest of the world, because everything they use and make returns into the life cycles of nature.
(McDonough, 2002 )


Evidence of economic nonsense in historical context

Adam Smith 1723 1790 discovered how one country could be richer than another, he thought if
everyone pursued theyre own self enlightened interest to maximise the quality of their practical
use to gain maximum amount of wealth.
This selfish act, through the laws of unintended consequences by and large will lead to the
greater good of everybody. This will happen so long as there are no government constraint the
promotion of division of labour, what he calls skill will increase ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY, as
people seek to produce goods for the lowest possible price and to sell them for the highest
possible price.
Giving everyone a different skill would benefit everyone, but in reality it was very low wages and
people where very harshly treated. Even today this division of labour can be scene, in a food
production line you have people with absolutely no idea, where the food has come from where its
going they just do this thing and theyre bored out their mind, low paid their lacking skill and easily
replaceable.
Adam Smiths theory was unpopular in the 1930s due to being years of mass-unemployment-
classical economics general theory is that unemployment is impossible its a front of nature like
levitation is against law of gravity.
A common critique is that people end up with a very alienated existence; its a word that comes
back with Haggel and Marxs.
This historic evidence shows that times have changed these Polymath thinkers visions made a
lot of sense in the 18
th
Century and all the way through the 20
th
Century, but they are
progressively making no sense in the 21
st
Century particularly for future generations and times off
ecological crisis. Adam Smiths vision created a paradigm shift in history we are living through
another shift a change of age.

My Call to action

I am going to speed up the shift from the importance of tangible material wealth towards the value
in qualitative intangible experiences. By improving and re-designing infrastructure to allow the
shift of economic values, creating awareness of this shift and designing intangible solutions.

I aim to design unconventional, blue sky concepts that will increase awareness of these insights
into the future with aiming of make people think and start creating this paradigm shift in more
aspects of society.

I will start by designing half developed concepts that are adaptable and open for individuals
interpretation. Allowing shared creation to improve the implementation into context, adapting
them for the individuals, providing communities with the essential raw materials will allow them to
penetrate the upper realms of Maslows hierarchy of needs by creating and problem solving their
own problems after all they know what they need most.
I will design tools that allow mass creativity, with the belief that creativity can be taught.
Its not a God given gift that some people have and others dont the days of a single genius
locked away inventing things that they believe we need are over.
Increasing diversity allowing individuality through collaborative design, mass innovation with the
help of Web 2.0 is an opportunity that cant be missed.
The value of my design and other designers should lie in relationships, qualitative measures, and
abundance of information and transfer of knowledge.
We should design in a decentralised transparent way which promotes collaboration and mass
innovation.

We-Think is a rallying call for the shared power of the web to make society more open and
egalitarian. We-Think (Charles Leadbeater)




Luiz Arthur Leiro Vieira (Tuca Vieira)


Definitions, G. (2011 , March 27th ).
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=define%3Aeconomic&btnG=Search
&meta=.
Ehrlich, P. (n.d.).
Hierachy, M. (2011, March 21). http://dinamehta.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2007/10/800px-maslows_hierarchy_of_needssvg.png.
Manzini, P. E. (2008). Presentation to phillips. From the Polytechnic of Milan .
McDonough, M. B. (2002 ). Cradle to Cradle. In F. P. Edition, Re-making the way we
make things. (p. 186). London: Vintage Books.
Rheingold, H. (n.d.).
Waterhouse. (2011, April 13). www.tdwaterhouse.ca/pcs/pic/glossary.jsp. Retrieved
from tdwaterhouse.
Wordnetweb. (2011 , March 24th ). wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn.