The Dichotomy of Design and Consumption

I’ve been thinking about something.  I posted previously about my personal disagreement with extreme consumerism, when the objects we accumulate in our lives get in the way of relationships and what’s really important.  However, even as I’m trying to avoid spending all of my money by purchasing a lot of things that will make my life more complicated, I’m working on designing items for people to buy that could make their lives more complicated.

Overall, that’s not my goal.  I don’t want to design things that people will buy and then be burdened by (that’s a lot of alliteration).  I simply want to make things that are clever.  In other words, I just want to be a good designer and make a good living instead of making things that people buy out of boredom or laziness or greed or any other foolishness.  Of course, I’m sure the creator of the Snuggie said something like that at some point as well.  The point is, I’ve got to overcome my fear that people might purchase my products for the wrong reasons.  I’ve just got to focus on making good things, and then they will sell for good reasons.

There’s always the possibility that I design products for the purpose that they consume less.  For instance, the person who designed those neat grocery tote bags had the idea in mind to get people consume less plastic and paper disposable bags.  Sustainability has been on the rise in design for awhile now, which makes designers think more about the products and materials that go into the design as well as the design itself.  There’s definitely a balance between design and potential consumption that is associated with products and markets, and I’m planning on finding that balance.