Nathan Shedroff

Today, Nathan Shedroff lectured at the UC Davis campus. I was in the audience (1).

He has a BS in Industrial Design, with a focus on Transportation Design, and an MBA in Sustainable Management. He has written several books, including Design is the Problem. He refers to himself as a “serial entrepreneur” and as “one of the pioneers in Experience Design, an approach to design that encompasses multiple senses and requirements and explores common characteristics in all media that make experiences successful, as well as related fields, Interaction Design and Information Design” (2).

Because of his background, much of his lecture was built around Sustainability. It used to be that an individual could operate singly in the fields of Design, Sustainability, or Business. Now, though, all three overlap with central aspects requiring ‘meaning and experience’ and ‘systems and services (3).’

Shedroff mirrored several of the tenets of Objectified, one of which was a statement that most of what’s been revered as great design is probably bad for the world. He also mentioned that Sustainability is a charged word, often associated with ‘Green’ (which he said one should try to avoid using); sustainable design (4) is just another way of saying, “Don’t design things today that make tomorrow worse.” He went on to describe what sustainability is by talking about Sustainability Principles, Frameworks, and Tools (all of which can be seen on the slideshow from his website (5)).

Shedroff’s parting words of advice were to, one, ‘learn as much as you can about sustainability,’ two, ‘apply it, but don’t sweat it’ – because, he said, about 70% of the environmental impact comes from the manufacturing side – and, three, ‘do what you can where you can.’ However, to wrap up this entry, I want to mention one point that resonated with me, as a design student: design is everywhere in society, as we’ve been “discussing (6),” and our society cannot function without design; according to Shedroff, “The future of design is business and the future of business is sustainability.” You do the math.

(1) Obviously. Or I probably wouldn’t be blogging about him now.
(2) http://nathan.com/me/index.html#biography
(3) His example was that the iPhone is popular at least in part because of the services that it provides.
(4) Sustainable design doesn’t technically exist, but there is such a thing as more sustainable design, according to Shedroff.
(5) http://nathan.com/thoughts/DesignIsTheProblem.pdf I especially recommend slides 5-7 and 31-32 which provide diagrams that explain the Then vs. Now concept and Sustainability, respectively. Basically, though, it was all worth looking at. Maybe if you don’t have enough time to watch Objectfied…
(6) We haven’t really been discussing anything. I’ve been doing all of the talking – or writing, really – in this relationship, and if we’re going to stay together, then… just kidding. (Laugh out Loud)

Images are some of Nathan Shedroff’s examples of sustainable design:
Curitiba, Brazil’s above ground subway: http://citytransport.info/NotMine/U1997_0991a.jpg
Rickshaw Zero bag, designed for disassembly: http://www.treehugger.com/zero-waste-rickshaw-bag.jpg