Jim Dawton gets a few things off his chest
We don’t take risks when it comes to design, says Jim Dawton – and the result of our caution is all around us. He points the finger at the worst offenders
Jim Dawton understands how design can improve our everyday lives and how disastrous bad design can be: ‘We must be ashamed of pointless products, excess packaging, unsustainable manufacture and shocking ergonomics. But sometimes you can see that the design process itself has gone wrong. That’s when we must really hang our heads.’
Dawton is especially worried about product design which is, he says, suffering an identity crisis as designers wrestle with changing roles, the relationship between products and services and increased competition.
But this should not diminish the quality of design: ‘It is the physical object that makes the statement.’ He has chosen six designs that make the wrong kind of statement – and one that was unjustly lambasted.
London 2012 Olympic logo
The Olympic logo is brilliant in its multi-format conception – by 2012, the world will have moved on with new media formats, new attitudes and new consumers. Sponsors are everything, so flexibility is a must. But the first time I saw the logo printed in a newspaper it didn’t look brilliant, it looked flat and inert. A logo like this must work now, not just in the future. With all the spin, I fear someone forgot to actually design it.
England 2007 Rugby World Cup strip
What was that about? It made Lawrence Dallaglio look like a morris dancer. It has got to be the most gratuitous piece of styling I have seen in years. There can be no excuse for such mediocrity...
Sandwiches
I blame the Government. As part of the National Curriculum, design & technology pupils ‘design’ a sandwich. How are clients supposed to understand what design is when it is fast becoming a generic term for anything?
How are clients supposed to understand what design is when it is fast becoming a generic term for anything?Jim Dawton
Meizu M8 phone
When the client demands copycat design, we have a decision to make. Imagine working for the Chinese electronics manufacturer Meizu and being asked to design an iPhone. Maybe it should be like drug-taking in sport: get found out and you’re banned for five years.
Ford Scorpio
Clients and design managers must take responsibility for bad design. Afraid to take risks, managers let someone else make decisions. Run a focus group! Share the responsibility! The Ford Scorpio, with, as one reviewer put it, ‘bug-eyed headlamps and a fish mouth of a grille,’ looks like it was designed by committee. It lives on, mainly in various ‘10 worst car’ lists.
‘Free’ design
I was once asked to design a vacuum cleaner over the course of a weekend as there was no budget for prototypes or development. Even worse, companies offer ‘free’ design to secure the manufacturing contract. The ‘no free lunch’ rule applies: you end up paying for it in the cost of the parts.
My favourite design is…
BA’s ethnic livery
Designers and clients should not be ashamed of a well-executed risk.
A favourite of mine is the infamous BA livery by Newell and Sorrell. Shame on you, Maggie! [Mrs Thatcher famously declared it ‘awful’.] Britain is increasingly far more colourful than the Union Jack.
Article first published in Design Council Magazine, Issue 4, Summer 2008