Defining Design on a Changing Planet:
Icograda’s Seattle Design Week

We have just returned home and begun an intensive recovery that is befitting of the work hard / play hard ethic with which we tackled these past four days at ICOGRADA’s Design Week in Seattle. The news has been on the television all evening: looping footage of the escalating tension between Israel and the Hezbollah; of blown out Lebanese neighbourhoods and clips of Anderson Cooper chasing after the next ground zero. After dinner, we rent Syriana, remembering its scenes of a claustophobic and heavily armed Hezbollah-occupied Beirut; trying to make some sense of it all; but, of course, it only serves to underline the point that there are no simple answers, no defined lines that clearly separate right from wrong, the good guy from the bad guy; and a harsh reminder of what we are up against as we return from this conference back to reality with our heads full of optimism and ideals.

We live in a fast paced and ever-changing world. This statement has become ubiquitous to the point of cliché in the post 9/11 21st century. It is often used as an excuse or as a dismissive explanation for the chaotic state of our existence. But what we were repeatedly told during the conference, the theme of which was “Defining Design on a Changing Planet”, was that as designers, we possess the skills and ability to create an order to our surroundings, to facilitate conversations with others and among others as well as the ability to inspire. What it all comes down to is that this ever-changing world is not an excuse for us; it is a challenge. One for which we need to make some commitments.

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