I’ve just discovered a new favorite design writer. His name is John Thackara and he’s been tagged as a design thinker/critic/futurist. He’s not a product reviewer or tastemaker. He’s not even a “designer”, in the loose product or service sense of the term. Perhaps it could be said, half-jokingly, that he is a non-objectivist. Recently I took a swing at the idea that in the end objectivity is quite subjective based on the commonality of presumptions; what are the foundational assumptions underlying a thought process and its conclusion?

 

There are internalized mindsets brought to bear when any situation in life presents itself, from walking down the sidewalk to applying for a job. Think: cultural mores, religious proscriptions, childhood memories. We’re talking about design in general here, which has its own worldview and implicit gospels. These unseen parameters form the starting point and framework within which a project may be construed and pursued. They are the systems that inform the process 

Thackara is a systems thinker. What I find so refreshing is the depth of assumption to which he seeks to plumb. He asks more questions than he has answers, but that is the valuable and fertile soil which germinates the better design achievement. The deeper the cultivation of inquiry, the more likely the ideas planted will thrive and become fruitful. The effort is sustainable (an abused word, if there ever was one).

The agricultural analogy is natural and intentional. You may have heard of the “Slow Food” movement. John Thackara is a champion of a “Slow Design” approach. He follows in the footsteps of thinkers such as Buckminster Fuller. He tries to ask the deeper questions, the answers to which may inform the systemic design approach affecting much of our lives. My promise: I’ll be taking a look at some of these questions and assumptions in further posts. They’re definitely not going away—rather they’re beginning to loom larger! We do, indeed, live in interesting times.