Design is more than just the creation of a physical object. Design is a process that ideally makes our world a little bit better. Today this idea seems perfectly normal, but it owes much to the influence of Victor Papanek. Now on display at the Vitra Design Museum, the exhibition ‘Victor Papanek – The Politics Of Design’ presents the work and legacy of a man who was more than just a designer.
‘Be it an automobile jack or space station, it has to work, and work optimally at that.’ Victor Papanek wrote this statement for a 1968 essay in the magazine of the Scandinavian Design Students’ Organization (SDO), and subsequently included a slightly modified version in Design for the Real World, the book that established Papanek’s reputation as one of the most important designers of the twentieth century. The statement may seem like a platitude, but it isn’t. First of all, each of us has encountered products that do not last long. The electric kettle whose handle breaks off after just one year. The cell phone cable that doesn’t charge anymore. Even more consequential is the fact that design so often fails to meet human needs. The mug with a handle so small you cannot even hold it. The plastic packaging that can only be opened with brute force. The airplane seat which is an instrument of torture for anyone over 1.75 metres in height. Papanek penned another statement that also comes to mind here: ‘There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a few of them.’