Designers will take over the world

So pretty big call for a heading. But I truly believe as we move into a world of product and service parity, as well as issues with climate change and overconsumption. It will be the designers that will take over and save the day. I went to the Design Festival in London last year and most of the major exhibitions were around climate change and new recyclable materials. Which is becoming even more important

I was reading in Wired the other day about the CEO of Nike in fact being a designer. Not an ex finance guy that loves to cut costs and drive efficiencies. A designer.... someone who believes in innovation. Someone who has claimed that by 2011 Nike will use all recyclable materials on a large percentage of its shoes.

Look at the ad for the new MacBook Pro. Not only is the design aesthetics and power etc awesome but they are moving into a similar vein to address our over consumptive ways. I have written about the difference in innovation and invention and my views on the difference between Mac and Microsoft.

What will be interesting now is with the backlash of the economic crisis. Will the audit of our over consumptive behaviour start to change the way we develop products. We can see a trend in the UK of people limiting their wastage of food and other products already. People taking old clothes to tailors to bring them new life...families using every last bit of meat or not wasting veggies. Will this continue when the economy stabilises ?. Is constant growth of everything a long term strategy for all of us.... I think the designers might have something to say about this... Interesting times