To be satisfied with that is an incredible waste, a refusal to have an identity and, very often, the choice of a fairly short career for the product. And it means that a new product has to be brought out quickly to try and fill the space already crowded by the competition.
15/n

In the audio business, small table-top boxes with 6 potentiometers and a dozen buttons are coming out four a day (at least). There are only so many ways of arranging them to make them practical, so the choice of colour makes all the difference.
14/n

This difference would be to their advantage. Not only does this difference capture users who don't want yet another standard object, it's also a marketing tool already financed by the design budget.
13/n

And that's why, when I talk to them, I try as hard as I can to make them understand that it's not a good thing to make choices similar to those of the big companies that produce incomparable quantities. It means refusing to be recognisable and to make a difference.
12/n

The industry has neither the capacity nor the vocation to produce typical objects. This is the domain of small manufacturers.
11/n

We could try to sum up the phenomenon with a simplistic equation: industrial need for standardisation + multiplication of uses + globalisation of the customer base + habit of visual simplification = boring design.
It's a very short and concise way of putting it, but the essence is there.
10/n

Compromise on form: ergonomics. Jack of all trades, master of none. Of course, it's possible to make up for the disaster with a few accessories to improve ergonomics and try to encourage certain uses that you consider more important than others. But there's only so much you can do.
9/n

We're (finally) in the age of efficient multi-functional objects, and that's a good thing. It means that one tool can perform several tasks, which is good in terms of saving raw materials. But it also means that its ergonomics cannot be as specific as we would like. We have a middle ground.
8/n

He's dead but still stirring.
We have a form of zombie design, theoretically ultra-functional but, in fact, perfectly ineffective in many respects. The first aspect, and by no means the least, is identity.
An object has a function, a morphology and a construction.
7/n

The tendency nowadays is to smooth things over so consensually, so as to work with all cultures, that we could say with some sadness that yes, design is dead.
6/n

Design deserves the same precautions. However, while an architectural project is generally a unique work that is not designed to be replicated, the design of an object is often intended to enable mass production.
5/n