“[D]esign has become the most powerful tool with which man shapes his tool and environments…This demands high social and moral responsibility from the designer. It also demands greater understanding of the people by those who practise design and more insight into the design process by the public.”

Austrian designer Victor Papanek’s observation about the design industry may have been written more than fifty years ago, but it continues to resonate with many designers today. His 1971 publication, Design for the Real World, accused the industry of enabling “murder on a mass-production basis” by helping manufacturers create unsafe, wasteful and polluting products. Instead, Papanek advocated for a socially and environmentally responsible profession that designed not for consumerist fantasies but “real world” needs.

➜ Read the full essay in Emerge: Contemporary Southeast Asian Design and Beyond