Comments on: Design and Class http://www.creativeclass.com/_v3/creative_class/2007/01/31/design-and-class/ The source on how we live, work and play Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:10:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Richard http://www.creativeclass.com/_v3/creative_class/2007/01/31/design-and-class/comment-page-1/#comment-614 Richard Thu, 01 Feb 2007 16:48:27 +0000 http://zstation/creativeclass/v3/creative_class/2007/01/31/design-and-class/#comment-614 Jonathan - Very nicely put. It seems to me that with all the talk of fracturing and niches, consumption patterns still follow broad and coherent social patterns. There may be more indie bands out there for example, but the person buying this stuff may be buying stuff from lot's of bands, and lot's of bebop, and lot's of sengalese music.... And like you say, Simmel and Veblen explained this a long time ago. Actually, Jon Seabrook's recent take on this "Nobrow" ain't bad either. Your stuff is terrific too. Jonathan – Very nicely put. It seems to me that with all the talk of fracturing and niches, consumption patterns still follow broad and coherent social patterns. There may be more indie bands out there for example, but the person buying this stuff may be buying stuff from lot’s of bands, and lot’s of bebop, and lot’s of sengalese music…. And like you say, Simmel and Veblen explained this a long time ago. Actually, Jon Seabrook’s recent take on this “Nobrow” ain’t bad either. Your stuff is terrific too.

]]> By: Jonathan http://www.creativeclass.com/_v3/creative_class/2007/01/31/design-and-class/comment-page-1/#comment-613 Jonathan Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:08:54 +0000 http://zstation/creativeclass/v3/creative_class/2007/01/31/design-and-class/#comment-613 I disagree with the final sentence 'Like it or not, we're creating an unnecessary class system in design. One design is not in a higher social class than another any more than Dijion is in a higher social status than yellow mustard. They are just computers with different strengths and weaknesses' This is one of the roles of design, to act as a means of signalling personal taste, values and need to belong to (or stand out from) the crowd. It has nothing to do with the designer (except that of they understand it, they can enhance the effect) - if we really did do as this writer suggests, it wouldn't change a thing. Design has long been seen as a marker of class, from Simmel and Veblen's analyses of fashion and taste (the concept of 'conspicuous consumption', for example, whereby purchasing expensive clothes made of fragile material was the only way to signal that you had money and didn't have to work for a living - that's what drove fashion, not designers). Pierre Bourdieu analysed the role that design has as a marker of class in 'Distinction', while in 'From aesthetic principles to collective sentiments: The logics of everyday judgements of taste', Ian Woodward and Michael Emmison suggest taste is more a means of managing relationships (Poetics 29 (2001) pp 295-316 - I have a PDF if interested) I give a quick overview of some of these theories in the second chapter of my own book, 'Visual Communication: From Theory to Practice' (apologies for the plug - details on my home page). I disagree with the final sentence ‘Like it or not, we’re creating an unnecessary class system in design. One design is not in a higher social class than another any more than Dijion is in a higher social status than yellow mustard. They are just computers with different strengths and weaknesses’

This is one of the roles of design, to act as a means of signalling personal taste, values and need to belong to (or stand out from) the crowd. It has nothing to do with the designer (except that of they understand it, they can enhance the effect) – if we really did do as this writer suggests, it wouldn’t change a thing.

Design has long been seen as a marker of class, from Simmel and Veblen’s analyses of fashion and taste (the concept of ‘conspicuous consumption’, for example, whereby purchasing expensive clothes made of fragile material was the only way to signal that you had money and didn’t have to work for a living – that’s what drove fashion, not designers).
Pierre Bourdieu analysed the role that design has as a marker of class in ‘Distinction’, while in ‘From aesthetic principles to collective sentiments: The logics of everyday judgements of taste’, Ian Woodward and Michael Emmison suggest taste is more a means of managing relationships (Poetics 29 (2001) pp 295-316 – I have a PDF if interested)

I give a quick overview of some of these theories in the second chapter of my own book, ‘Visual Communication: From Theory to Practice’ (apologies for the plug – details on my home page).

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