The Good Design Award, created in 1957 as the Good Design Product Selection System by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, was initially limited to industrial products, as its main purpose was to promote the development of high-performance, high-quality, and non-imitative Japanese products. In 1997, a major turning point occurred when the Good Design Award was expanded to include other categories such as “Ecological Design,” “Universal Design,” and “Interaction Design.”

Furthermore, in the 2000s, “design thinking” began to be used in business and other areas. As a result, in 2008, the Good Design Award changed its “industrial perspective” to a “consumer perspective” (Good Design Award website). These changes in the Good Design Award, one of Japan’s leading awards, show how the subject of design has expanded from “objects” (物) to “things” (事). With the maturation of consumer society, traditional manufacturing based on industrial production power has reached its limits, and various industries have had to expand the scope of design in order to break through the stagnation and expand their industrial domains.

It can be said that design, which has been playing a role as a keystone of industry, is now required to play a role as a new method to cope with social changes in today’s uncertain world. The “method” of design that has been “adapted to industry” has been transformed into a “way of thinking that tries to adapt to various problem areas in society” and is now being applied in society.

The word “design” is often used in conjunction with the noun that precedes it. When we say “◯◯ design,” as in architectural design, product design, and graphic design, the “◯◯” is often the object of the design. However, since the last shift, “◯◯” has come to include not only the object of design but also its methods and concepts in a multilayered manner, as in “ecological design,” “universal design,” and “interaction design.” “Vision Design” also indicates the method and approach of design.

There is nothing special about the way design has been involved in shaping visions. While “there is no sin in design,” the methods of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and Mao have been shown to be “DICTATORS RULE” (Matsuda, 2019), showing the many relationships between propaganda and methods of design expression.

There was a vision called “the American way of life.” This term is mainly used to refer to the values of the United States since the Korean War in the 1950s. But behind it was the design strategy that has dominated the United States since the 1910s: “Big, strong, bright, and fun America.” This strategy was based on the values of a strong America, capitalism, liberalism, and justice for world peace, and was intended to convey such an “America” to the world. Such an “America” was spread through designs that evoked “consumption.” Convenient and automated home appliances, homogeneous and bright plastics, large and sturdy automobiles, houses with suburban gardens, system kitchens, disposables, frozen food, and fast food were designed one after another. Through family-oriented TV dramas, they were exported as designed visions of “America” not only in the United States but also around the world. In this way, the activity of design replaces visions as ideas, principles, and assertions with objects that can be consumed, and diffuses them throughout society. This is the method of vision design.

The “motor show” is a typical example of the mass consumption style of promotion that American design strategy has been involved in. Initially, it was staged in a typical American style, with the aim of attracting attention to the automobile as a product. Gradually, however, the eccentricities of the staging became a purpose in itself , and it became a “show.” Therefore, General Motors and other automobile companies developed various visions of the automobile as pre-development designs. Since then, automobile development has been pursued not only in terms of technological development, but also in terms of styling and consumption style. This approach has been continued continuously to the present day.

This is now known as advanced design. It is a method of proceeding with development based on the image, or vision, of the product prior to the examination of production methods and technological development. The purpose is to promote exploration based on open-minded ideas that are not bound by cost or technology, as a project before proceeding as a regular development project. In more recent terms, it is equivalent to a “moonshot.” It is a method of presenting an ideal image first, and then examining methods to realize it.

The purpose of a motor show used to be to learn about the reaction of users, the market, and other companies. Nowadays, however, it has become a place for companies to express their visions in terms of their social stance. The purpose of the show is to build a new design vocabulary and methods, and to open up the act of design from its conventional routine.

Automobile manufacturers were the first to take the lead in this kind of advanced design, but now a variety of manufacturers are following suit, including consumer electronics, optical equipment, and information equipment. Advanced design is often carried out by the design or advanced development departments of major companies, but outside design offices are often called upon to make such proposals. This is probably because manufacturers often rely on marketing methods based on the current needs of their customers and are not good at “vision design,” “advanced design,” “moonshot,” and other ideas that leap from the present.

P.F. Drucker, the inventor of “modern business administration” and “management,” discussed “mission, vision, and values” in his book Managing in The Next Society, and his ideas have been cited in many books and management education programs. According to Drucker, an important task for a company is to “demonstrate the significance of its existence and its social legitimacy.” First, “mission” refers to the “mission and purpose” of a company. By clearly stating this, the members will understand the mission and will be able to work on their own tasks. Next, “vision” refers to the future image of the company after realizing the mission. Drucker explains the importance of a company depicting an ideal image of itself after the realization of its mission and sharing this image with its members. Finally, “value” refers to the “company’s own value standard.” By considering and clarifying what value a company realizes for its customers through its products, it gives members an internal value standard to act upon as individuals. This management philosophy of Drucker is a true example of vision design.

In this way, the equivalent of vision design has been practiced as a method of industrial design and corporate management in many cases without having a name. However, in this day and age, it becomes problematic when the goal is to increase “consumption” and the means to achieve that goal are also limited to “consumption.”

What is important for the further construction and development of vision design in the future is to develop the methods and wisdom cultivated in the design of objects into the design of society by the efforts of citizens. Vision design is about organizations and individuals envisioning the future of the society they are responsible for, and it is about designing both the method of envisioning and the method of realizing the vision.

(OGATA Yoshito)

関連する授業科目

Design Futures Course Design Futures Methodology

References

• Drucker, F Peter (1994) Managing in the Next Society: Lessons from the Renown Thinker and Writer on Corporate Management, Truman Talley Books（P・F・ドラッカー（2002）『ネクスト・ソサエティ 歴史が見たことのない未来がはじまる』上田惇生訳、ダイヤモンド社）
• 柏木博（1992）『デザインの20世紀』NHK出版
• 亀井俊介‎ （1984）『文明としてのアメリカ（3）アメリカン・ウェイ・オブ・ライフ』日本経済新聞出版
• 松田行正（2019）『独裁者のデザイン』平凡社