Touched by a Star

Let’s conduct a simple test. Raise your hand if live in a house designed by a famous architect like Rem Koolhaas or Frank Gehry? How many of you wear a piece of clothing designed by Miuccia Prada or John Galliano? Hands up, please. I would suspect that there are a few raised hands out there but not an overwhelming majority.

Anyone listen to an iPod or drive a Mazda? I would venture that there are a lot more of you now reaching for the ceiling. If you did, congratulations, you are the proud owner of an MP3 player designed by perhaps one of the most talented industrial design studios on the planet or the driver of an automobile conceived by one of the leading automotive design teams in the industry.

While more people recognize architecture or fashion design as professions, few people own things created by the superstars of these vocations. I guess that makes industrial design one of the most democratic design disciplines. What other industry gives the general public so much access to products by its top practitioners? Visionary companies utilize industrial designers for their product development. Industrial designers have designed almost everything you use in your daily lives including even the most inexpensive items.

Take a company like Method Home. Their packaging is exquisite not to mention the great scents and cleaning products they manufacture. In 1983, the great Italian designer, Giorgetto Giugiaro, even designed a pasta for Voiello called Marille. So for around a dollar one could purchase a designer object by a hall of famer. How democratic is that?

In today’s celebrity obsessed world, I believe that a lot more people would really get into design if they knew that some of the everyday products out there were designed by the stars of this industry.