Tracking the impact of design

On the wake of the third edition of What Design Can Do — one of the northern hemisphere’s most interesting design events — conference director Richard van der Laken expands on the project's evolution and future ambitions.

What Design Can Do
Now in its third edition, the What Design Can Do (WDCD) conference explores the worldwide impact of design, bringing to central Amsterdam, over the course of 16 and 17 May, an impressive and geographically diverse array of speakers — artists, designers, architects, urban planners, educators and researchers — from a wide range of fields. Its multidisciplinary character and experimental program — with workshops, breakout sessions, lectures, live catalogue construction and multiple events around the city throughout the duration of the event —, alongside a self-described “activist” dimension, turn it one of the northern hemisphere’s most interesting design events. Domus spoke to the conference’s general director, Richard van der Laken — who also runs graphic design studio De Designpolitie —, in anticipation of the 2013 edition later this week.  Among the speakers in this year’s edition are Mexican artist Pedro Reyes, head of design at Twitter Mike Kruzeniski, Indian designer Kiran Sethi, and Wired Italy editor in chief Carlo Antonelli.
What Design Can Do
Top and above: scenes from the 2012 edition of What Design Can Do

Vera Sacchetti: In a world filled with design conferences and events, what lead to the creation of WDCD — and what makes it different?

Richard van der Laken: After having visited many conferences and events all over the world, we realised that the Netherlands was lacking a multidisciplinary design event in an international setting. As a nation well known for its design — and with events such as the Dutch Design Week, the International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam and others —, we thought it would be quite logical to create a yearly event in Amsterdam to discuss urgent questions of our time, and realise what we — as designers — can contribute to these questions.

Following the idea, we wrote a very simple plan on a few sheets of A4 paper, discussed it with a small group of designers, architects and creatives, and it was extremely well received. You could really feel the energy — we felt an urgency to do it. This kind of genesis makes this event different from others: it was initiated by Dutch designers themselves — and I think if we had had zero euros we would still have done it.

What Design Can Do
The 2013 What Design Can Do launch event, at the Droog Hotel, Amsterdam

From one night of brainstorming to the first event in 2011, how did things evolve?

I introduced the concept to a few people, and a lot of organisations liked it. At first they thought the scale was out of reach, but we were adamant about the message: we are here to stay, and we cannot drown in the many small initiatives that already exist. Our goal is to be the biggest multidisciplinary design conference in Europe, with an international audience. It started in a very simple way, with our own network, and the next step was to reach out to new people. We are constantly building this network.

What Design Can Do
The 2013 What Design Can Do launch event, at the Droog Hotel, Amsterdam. The audience greets one of the conference speakers as they show up on screen

From the first edition, you have always had a very international pool of speakers. In 2011 it wasn’t common to have as a main speaker an Indian or Brazilian designer. Was this in your original plan?

We’ve always had speakers from different countries — last year we had speakers from Colombia, Nigeria. These people are invited because they work in very different circumstances, difficult contexts, and even there they show what design can do, where it can make a difference, whether you are a graphic or fashion designer. Initially I had this idea that we as Dutch designers are very developed, and there is a lot of awareness in the Netherlands. But as a Dutch designer you can become a little bit blasé. It is important to hear what people on the other side of the world are doing: it is what we need now, otherwise Dutch design can become very self-indulgent.

What Design Can Do
The 2013 What Design Can Do launch event, at the Droog Hotel, Amsterdam. Mexican artist Pedro Reyes speaks to Richard van der Laken

It seems WDCD has evolved from a social-design focused event to tackling other topics, such as food and technology.

Every design act is a social act. You are always working in context in which other people are involved. There is always some sort of social interaction or relevance. After the first edition, I was surprised that many people pinpointed it as a social design event, and the second edition we had some designers who could fit into this social design field — Marcelo Rosenbaum, Cameron Sinclair, Febrik. But that’s not what WDCD is about, it is about the impact and relevance of design, also at a societal level.

 

So it’s more about the impact that design can have in as many different scenarios as possible.

Yes, culture, economy, society at large. It always has some sort of a social component. In different ways we have evolved. We have a sort of editorial board, and with each edition we focus on different topics. We now have a pretty strong focus on the digital, new media and technology, and the impact it has on our society. We also focus on things like food, and then more topical issues: this year we’re focusing on publishing.

The conference is also a vehicle — we want to tell a story about the relevance of design. For us it is very important to launch a call to action to designers themselves: what is your relevance as a designer, what do you bring to the table? After the early 20th century functionalism, design evolved in a very extreme way. We had the roaring 1990s and the early 2000s, when designers were making unique pieces that were then sold for exorbitant prices, and then the crisis hit: and whether you were a banker, a butcher, a journalist or a designer, suddenly everybody was aware of the fact that something changed, and we need to do things in a different way. So what can designers add to this context? That is our call to action.

What Design Can Do
Head of design at Twitter Mike Kruzeniski, one of the speakers at the 2013 edition of What Design Can Do

You’ve described the conference as an activist conference, and I think there is an important component of it — a real-time aspect, as participants "get their hands dirty" by participating in workshops and breakout sessions, and a book is created as the conference unfolds.

This component gives the event an immediate sense of activity. The word activist is a little bit problematic, as people perceive it as related to protest. What we actually mean is being active, doing something. We find it extremely important, that is one of the reasons why on the coming edition we are focusing much more on the so-called breakout sessions. The conference is about seating in your chair, listening to what people have to say. These breakout sessions, however, are there to dive deeper into all kinds of topics, and hopefully come to answers or new questions. Last year we had around 5-6 per day, and this year we have around 12, so it’s almost going to be an event in itself. We are doing things outside the main conference venue — developed with partners such as the Design Academy Eindhoven, the New Institute —, around the corner in the Apple Store, in another the De Balie debate centre, and also in the square in front of the Stadsschouwburg theatre, which makes it accessible for everyone. If you can’t pay a whole day, you can still join us outside.

 

For a conference that started as a grassroots effort, it is interesting that you managed to connect to many national agencies and institutes.

This was something I worked very much on. This is a conference for everybody, and we should help each other. We’re in this together, as a Dutch design community, and we are trying to create a relevant design event.

What Design Can Do
Urban-Think Tank, speakers at the 2013 edition of What Design Can Do
From 16 to 17 May 2013
What Design Can Do
Stadsschouwburg Theatre
Leidseplein 26, Amsterdam 

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