EXPERTS

“ We estimate the number of designers in France to be between 100,000 and 150,000.

Bruno LEFEBVRE, Vice-President of the Alliance France Design (AFD)

Founded in January 2003, the Alliance France Design (AFD) is a professional trade union made up of more than 2,100 members, that has a multidisciplinary approach to design, and that operates on a collegial basis. Its vice-president, Bruno Lefebvre, shares his vision of how the sector may evolve.

Graduate of the École nationale des arts décoratifs, then of the École nationale de création industrielle Les Ateliers, Bruno Lefebvre worked for some time with Philippe Starck and then at Allibert SA. More than 20 years ago, he co-founded C+B Lefebvre, a strategic design and product design agency located in Grenoble.

How does the AFD perceive the evolution of design?

From a historical point of view, the oscillation between ‘author’ design and ethical design (in the sense that Jean Baudrillard understands it in Le Système des objets) is a fairly old phenomenon. An object is perceived under several dimensions: use, symbolism, communication, emotion, aesthetics… In the 1980s, historically, the function of the designer was to embrace all these dimensions, it is a systemic profession. However, with regard to engineers, the designer is above first of all perceived as an artist. As a reaction, we took refuge in function, and then we witnessed a stylistic movement where emotion took precedence over function. This dimension is important for products; making pleasant and nice objects is one of the designer’s weapons. For example, packaging is the extreme point of seduction! Which is why, under the guise of aesthetics and elegance, we saw aberrations: lamps that did not light up, extremely polluting products. But if we forget about function, then products are obviously doomed to failure. Or they are produced for the purpose of communication only and not sales, which is also perverse.

This movement generated another reverse pendulum effect: we again started to talk about use, utility, function. Today, the focus is more on the social role of the designer. Even if the debate on the environment is quite old, and has been going on since 1970-1975 in Italy, there is a definite return to a design that has more meaning, more sincere environmental values, and less media coverage. In ten years’ time, design will become a committed design, we are not going to be asked to do something beautiful, but to do something real. We’re coming back to a global design approach, and the commitment that it involves, and to imagine projects in cycles.

And how will the designer’s work evolve?

Design, ultimately, will combine a work of observation, creation and sharing; fashion design, for example, does not integrate this reflection, emotion being only one part of design. And the idea of sharing will be strong: the designer is the leader, and by the end the project is a coherent entity but leadership is needed at the time of creation. The best adventures are those in which everyone is involved: one day, I was in a factory that produced large quantities of the products I had designed, and I heard a worker talking about «his» products! The designer’s position has evolved. Strategically, marketing, in a way, was «designing» by defining a product and its functions but without the creativity that goes with it. The profession of designer has become much more widespread: thirty years ago, there were about a hundred designers in France, currently, there are already a 500 in Isère! Designers must have expertise about function and about the importance of the brand environment : emotion and symbolism have taken over. In any case with CAD, the evolution has been remarkable, making it possible to visualize very early on both concepts and products. Technical development has been simplified: from the drawings, we obtain digital files, and this dematerialization is much easier for manufacturers.

What about the status of the designer?

At AFD, we have been working for a long time on the evolution of the status. We would like the designer to be recognized as an author and an expert in product development. It is easy to create a design agency. We didn’t benefit like the architects from a sort of revolution that led to the creation of a Society that everyone can benefit from. With design, it is much more difficult. As it is, design brings together three disciplines (message, product, space) with distinct skills and varied sectors. The common denominators exist, but there is never any real political will: in the economy, the weight of design has been light. Today, we can consider it a sector in its own right, because estimates show there are between 100,000 and 150,000 designers in France. And not everyone necessarily wants it organised into a society. And then, it’s true, you need to be a little rebellious as a designer, even if this prevents us from «showing a united front». But we’re going to get to something eventually. Setting up a quality charter is expensive, and every five years, with the change of government, we start again from scratch.

What kind of designer will mark the years to come?

It will be the ones who have a global approach to their work, even if it attracts less media attention than drawing a nice sketch… Other fields will be claimed, that of ethics, social issues, even humanitarian. What will also count is an awareness that goes hand in hand with a reflection on «deconsumption », even if we will still have to consume and equip ourselves. What does design mean in this context? The media will also have to adapt their discourse: when they speak of design, they generally evoke style. It is also necessary to address market value and the economic impact.

Nathalie Degardin

http://www.alliance-francaise-des-designers.org

“ The future of design will bring us things that will improve our lives.

Marva GRIFFIN, founder of SaloneSatellite

Appointed in 2016 as Italian Design Ambassador, Marva Griffin founded SaloneSatellite that has been discovering young talents at the Milan Furniture Fair since