058 ∑
Almost five decades ago, the cabinetmaker,
designer, poet, educator and political
dissident Norman Potter set out to write
What is a designer, a definitive guide for
students and teachers of all design
disciplines. Noted for the lack of question
mark in its title, his book advanced a radical
vision of what design should be – an activity
rather than an end result, a verb rather than
a noun. Lofty ideas were followed with
down-to-earth advice, all presented in an
accessible format. What is a designer became
a staple of creative training, especially
during my time at London’s Central School
of Art and Design, studying graphic design
and typography. It made an instant impact
on me, and has been a constant source of
inspiration ever since.
In the past months, I have found myself
revisiting Potter’s book as we at Wallpaper*
gear up for our inaugural Brainstorm
Design conference in Singapore. Alongside
two of our sister titles, Time and Fortune,
we are putting together a conference like
no other. One that brings together the
world’s top creative minds with the world’s
best business brains with a proposition
that today, the world’s most innovative
operations, from Fortune 500 giants to
disruptive start-ups, must embrace design
as a key component of corporate strategy.
Currently, for the most part, business
executives and designers still speak different
languages. At many Fortune 500 firms, the
principles of design thinking aren’t well
understood. And too often designers view
large firms with suspicion and chafe at
executives’ constant carping about
measurable results and ROI. The global
conference scene does little to bridge this
cultural divide. There are innumerable
opportunities for designers to talk to other
designers, and still more for businessNewsstand cover
Photography:
Toiletpaper by
Maurizio Cattelan and
Pierpaolo Ferrari
‘Dance Floor’ rug, by
GGSV, for Disco Gufram,
see page 084Limited-edition cover
by Christian Boltanski
See our interview
with the French artist
on page 140
Limited-edition covers are
available to subscribers,
see Wallpaper.com
Wallpaper* is printed
on UPM Star, upm.comEDITOR’S LETTER
executives to talk to other business
executives – the dreaded echo chamber!
Brainstorm Design seeks to fill this void
and open a dialogue between those two
tribes, exploring the nexus of business and
design in the far-reaching manner the
subject deserves. We’re bringing together
design stars that already shine brightly in
the Wallpaper* world – among them
Thomas Heatherwick, Patricia Urquiola,
Tom Dixon, Paola Antonelli, Ole Scheeren,
Beatrix Ong and Daan Roosegaarde –
together with trailblazers of the sharing
economy such as Joe Gebbia of Airbnb and
Miguel McKelvey of WeWork, and captains
of the bluest of blue chips such as IBM,
PepsiCo and Johnson & Johnson. They are
joined by champions of design for social
good (among them Parley for the Oceans’
Cyrill Gutsch and author John Cary), the
CEOs of Singapore’s Changi Airport and
Denmark’s Design Centre, and leaders of
design education from the likes of RISD
and Stanford.
To give a taste of the conference’s
breadth and ambition, we asked one of our
speakers, and one of the most authoritative
voices in our industry, Alice Rawsthorn,
to consider the expanding role of design
in this issue. As she writes on page 137,
‘it is an agent of change that can be used
to interpret changes of any type – social,
political, cultural, economic, scientific,
environmental, technological or personal –
to help ensure that they will affect us
positively’. In the same way Norman Potter
established the relevance of design to the
world of the 1960s, Brainstorm Design will
stake out design’s claim to being a dominant
force in the 21st century. In Singapore we’ll
be hearing from and listening to all sides, all
tribes. Welcome to the anti-echo chamber.
Tony Chambers, Brand & Content DirectorWhat is a designer?