The Bird's View

Industrial designers have skill and power to change people’s lives. We think, we create, and we solve problems to improve the world. Designs are mainly focused on consumer goods: enhanced transportation and communication device, better entertainment goods, and variety of self satisfaction products. However, in terms of designing, we need not to be a man of limited scope, but man of broad scope. I learned that there are only 10 percent of people who lead a productive life where one possesses home, healthy family, car, and money. The other 90 percent are in desperate need. In many countries, people are suffering with natural or man-made disasters such as war, famine, or civil unrest. The world is so big, and we have so little knowledge of what is occurring around the world.

There are myriad of design opportunities out there that can associate design and issue of social and humanitarian importance. In the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, they had an exhibition about the “Other 90%.” The designers addressed the solution for the most basic need in suffering countries. The basic human need consists of shelter, health, energy, and transportation. Looking at products that could impact and improve lives of others, preserve local cultures providing hope for the future, I was bewildered. I had been confused and having doubts about industrial design at times, so then I would ask myself, “Why produce more products when we have enough already? Are we only redesigning to make things pretty?” But the answer lies in looking at design in different perspective. Humanitarian designs displayed in Cooper-Hewitt Museum were not luxurious or aesthetic, but they were certainly functional. With low cost approach, products reflected on the consideration of people and culture in that specific country.

Over this summer, I had a mission trip to Camalu, Mexico. Trip to Camalu was different experience for me where it was my first time to encounter new environment and acquiring eye to see the world in a larger perspective. I spent time with native habitants of Camalu who were rejected from society and often lived in a mountain. I noticed the native habitants’ desperate need for better home, food, clothes, and water. Children were running around in bare feet, seeking for someone to love them. At their homes, large family was living in a room that was the size of my single dorm room. In addition, our mission team had an opportunity to build houses for two families. It was a very simple structured house constructed out of plywood, nails, and some protective rooftop sheets. It was directly built on a Camalu soil. Our team had finished constructing and painting the house in approximately 7 hours. The house was not sumptuous, but it definitely served purpose of a shelter for the family to be protected from outside world. The house cannot be compared to homes we live in. However, the tears in their eyes for thankfulness, the happiness we were able to deliver were priceless.

This experience in Mexico has given me a vision and an urge to make a difference. Design matters for those who are in need and suffering. Indeed, a Link between design and issue of humanitarian importance will become a powerful tool. Speak up through design; let our voice be heard across the country.