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Patrick Hosking warns the house bubble will burstSir Terence Conran, on last week's letters page, took me to task for my scepticism over the commercial value of good design. Of course, good design is important for business. But my definition of good design is probably different from Conran's. If he means products that function well, are user-friendly, don't go wrong, age well and can take the knocks of modern-day living, all for reasonable cost, then I agree. If he primarily means products that meet his personal views on aesthetics, I don't. There is a difference between good design and mere fashion.
It is because the design industry and the judges of design awards are too interested in appearance and other surface qualities, rather than substance, that the shops are full of overpriced tat. The problem is summed up by the industry's gushing approval for Philippe Starck's famous lemon squeezer - attractive maybe, but almost impossible to squeeze lemons with.
It gives me no pleasure to say so, but Conran's hero, Vittorio Radice, is already discovering that the British shopping public isn't so far buying in to his particular design revolution. Radice, the former Selfridges boss brought in by Marks & Spencer to head its homeware division, has produced poor sales figures - down every quarter in the past year and slump
more: www.newstatesman.com/site.php3?ne... (90)
April 25, 2004 | Viewed 20,722 time(s)
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