In 2013 I defended PhD thesis titled ‘Chosen issues of social design.’ In this lecture, I present my views on social design. The presentation begins with several points which I believe to be the essence of design work and which constitute a kind of ethos to serve as a starting point for deliberation on product design as well as the creation of one’s environment in a broader context. Arising in the presentation are topics like: the Bauhaus curriculum, the anthropomorphic shapes of Henry Dreyfuss, the educational program of the Ulm School, and the work of the A&E Design studio and Ergonomi Design Gruppen. I also discuss the work of Buckminster Fuller, Krzysztof Wodiczko and the IDEO studio, as well as the publications of Victor Papanek and Victor Margolin. I end with the conclusion that ergonomics and human oriented design can go hand in hand with minimalism, endowing a product with a timeless quality. Citing the ideas of Thomas Maldonado, I believe that industrial design ought to embrace every aspect of the human environment. In the second part of the presentation, I focus on my own work in the area of social design.
