Task 2d - Ethical Design Issues

The series of short films, Design For Life made in 2009 feature Philipe Starck in his quest to find a young designer to take on for a 6 month work placement. In episode 6 the final two novice designers are forced to design a product to meet the exacting standard of Philipe.

It is interesting to follow these two young designers as they are guided by professionals through the entire design process. From conception all the way through to a final product. As a young designer myself it is both interesting and reassuring to take note of how these people develop in such a short period of time.

It brings to light that there is no substitute for hard work and that if the initial concept is rubbish the best thing to do is to scrap it and start over. In my opinion I think that this is something people find difficult to do as they take it personally. As if this was undermining their skills which is not the case but rather one always has good and bad ideas. It's knowing which are worth pursuing that is difficult.

Task 2c - Climate Change- Who Killed the Electric Car

Who killed the electric car is a documentary on the General Motors EV1. This was an electric car produced by general motors in the 1990's and leased to people to use as their vehicle. They were never sold as this way ownership always remained the right of GM. As it turned out greed and unethical business practices on GM's part saw the demise of the EV1 and in fact all vehicles were crushed.

The EV1 proved to be a perfectly viable vehicle for clients and in fact people loved their EV1's and fought to keep them. As a designer one has mixed emotions about this scenario. As the design/engineering team did an extraordinary job of producing a vehicle way ahead of its time. Not that these were the first electric cars. In fact electric cars date back to the 1920's or before. So should designers not push boundaries, but rather keep within what consumers expect and will bring maximum profits for the business. I guess it comes down to human nature, where greed rules over all. Where it is hard to put the environment or ethics above money.

On the contrary if GM persuade this electric car perhaps today they would have been a completely different company. A leading force in the electric vehicle market... Perhaps if karma exists in business GM's current financial issues would be bad karma for their lack of environmental concerns with the EV1's.