Circular design, must, should, let’s but how?

Dear designer, I know that living in an era where we are constantly exposed to new discoveries is difficult and exhausting. Balancing your creative and conscious self is not an easy job. It requires a lot of merging, unlearning, curating, learning, redesigning, rediscovering, and requestioning. On the one hand, your inner aesthetic enthusiast provokes you to create pretty things; on the other hand, your conscious self whispers about societal injustice, environmental catastrophe, material innovation, and many more planet-scale issues.?

It is hard to unlearn what you learned at school. It is hard to stay focused while there is an expectation of using every new tool developed, an expectation to create authentic but something that needs to be liked by millions, and an expectation of designing with deep knowledge in every industry that you get a client. Like this wasn’t enough, does the world really need another cool-looking chair, they ask? Circular design, they say. Must, should, let’s but how??

According to Ellen MacArthur Foundation, over 80% of a product’s environmental impact is determined at the design stage. (I bet this quote is the most frequently used quote in the world on the role of design in the transition to the circular economy. And yet, here it is again.) While the circular economy notion is growing rapidly, soon, learning circular design principles will not be an option anymore.?

Dear designers, there is a new set of tools to learn, a set of values to understand, barriers to fight, expectations to manage, responsibilities to balance, and opportunities to discover ahead of us. But I promise, there are so many opportunities to discover ahead of us. Circularity word might be a temporary trend, but the mindset that we need to gain will be permanent. The holistic, planet-centric, relation-focused design mindset will be the MUST value that new generations will teach each other.?

Soon, you will have to learn to balance your client’s (and yours) aesthetic and promotional expectations with the planet’s real limitations. Soon, you will need to say more often NO because you will be accountable for your design solutions. Soon, you will need to learn how to prove the impact of your decisions to be able to say no more often. Living in an era where we are constantly exposed to new discoveries is difficult and exhausting. But you are not alone! All the industries around you also need to learn everything I listed above. There are (almost) only fresh examples walking down this path. None is an achiever. Everyone is a discoverer. Time to connect with your real strength and imagine how our planet and society might function if we design better.?

PS: I'll enroll this Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Approach course by Wageningen University. E-mail me if you'd like to have a course buddy.

Check out these newcomer design-driven solutions for inspiration:

Big news from the inventor of Fairphone ; Fairbuds! Innovation means changing the way things are done. Fairbuds is the first and only headphones manufacturer to integrate Fairtrade gold into our supply chain. Made from 100% recycled aluminium, 100% recycled tin solder paste, plus 80% recycled plastics, these headphones turn up the volume on what matters. And with vegan cushion comfort, you'll never want to take them off. On the rare occasion you do, you can store them in the 100% recycled textile pouch. Your Fairbuds XL headphones come together from 11 modular parts, so you can easily repair them yourself.?

Eco Wave Power is an innovative technology for the production of clean electricity from ocean and sea waves. They aim to generate clean & affordable electricity, using a simple but smart design, allowing their floaters to be attached to existing human-made structures, and thereby simplifying installation and maintenance as well as accessibility. They claim that they are changing the world one wave at a time.?

Meet Blast Studio and their extraordinary artifacts made by urban waste. The studio views cities as open-air quarries, where waste becomes a valuable resource. They collect materials like cardboard and sawdust through innovative processes, transforming them into a unique biomaterials. Utilizing 3D printing technology, they create one-of-a-kind furniture and architectural pieces. Redefining waste management and artistic design.

We are mapping impact-oriented designers and creative enterprises in Türkiye. Please click here to take your place on this map or to suggest an institution/designer you know.