Is Creativity the Answer?

Almost everyone living in today’s economic and social climate realizes that we are at the brink of a new era. As a whole the world knows that what we are doing is not working, but we are afraid of change, and afraid of losing the interactions and relationships we have with the things that surround us. In the face of change we have questions and concerns. Most people look to political leaders and scientists for answers, but Nathan Shedroff has a different idea.

Nathan Shedroff, an experience designer and expert in sustainability, is convinced that the answer to our problems lie in the hands of designers. Shedroff believes that designers are creative thinkers who are trained to look at the world in a different way than everyone else. Creative thinking is what is needed to change the way the world is run, and answer the questions that our world is faced with today.

Shedroff firmly believes that there is not one answer to our problems but many questions that will eventually lead to answers. During a recent presentation Shedroff asked the audience a series of three questions that he believed could help designers examine the interaction between content and form and work towards a more sustainable world.

The first question that Shedroff posed was, What's a more sustainable world look like? Shedroff’s answer was that sustainability is not the end result, but the answer to what is coming. Through the interaction of business, design, and sustainability solutions will be made. Shedroff used examples of other countries creative thinking to illustrate that everyday progress is being made toward a more sustainable future.

The second question that Shedroff posed was, What's a more meaningful world look like? As designers, Shedroff thinks it is important that we put forth realistic ideas that can hold meaning for people. Meaning can be found in personal items and in brands, and both are acceptable. Shedroff used the example of the Build A Bear Company to illustrate how a brand can create a meaningful experience. Even though Build A Bear is a chain store and may not lend itself to the idea of a more meaningful world it creates a meaningful experience for many children, and this is an important distinction for designers to make.

The third question that Shedroff posed was, What's a post-consumer world look like? As a consumer based nation we have relationships with the objects around us, and in a post-consumer world this will have to change. The relationship between form and function will change, and everything we own will become more useful rather than beautiful. In a post-consumer world people will be forced to closely examine the relationship of how things got to them. The world will become a place where the process is just as important as the end result.

Shedroff outlined that we have no actual vision of what is to come. We know that things have to change and that the relationship we have with design will shift, but many of the plans that we have for the future are unrealistic and based too firmly on the idea of a Utopian wonderland. The most important message that Shedroff delivered was not that we all need to work together to find answers, but that as a group it is important to remember that we have no idea what a post-consumer world will look like, we need to figure it out, and design is here so that we can find answers.

Image: From Nathan Shedroff's lecture on Sustainability, illustrating how Business, Design, and Sustainability can no longer work as separate entities.