Neodesign: The Loss of Craft, Imagination and a Playful Attitude

Abstract

Since around the turn of the millennium, a “New Design” ethos gradually emerged. It is a reformulation of design entrenched enough to warrant a term of its own: Neodesign. Repackaged as a procedural, risk-averse, sandboxed version of the design process, aimed especially at non-designers, Neodesign has nevertheless come to be seen as the measure against which design practice is measured outside of design practice. In this paper, we argue that craft, imagination, and playfulness are crucial aspects of what makes design design and, arguably, one of the reasons why the discipline has been well-received in business circles. We further explore the paradox that, in dispensing with these components of design practice, the sandboxed version of design is threatening the pedagogical practices that make design unique and which inspired business organisations to adopt them in the first place. We take stock of the last three decades and discuss, sometimes polemically, what has been lost and added by this new design ethos and how the loss of craft, imagination and a playful attitude are affecting design education, as well as industry practice.