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Putting the Red Dot on design

prestigious design award in the world, says his position impacts greatly on the future of design. He says his selection has come at a complex turn of time, when design has to move out of catering to the western economies and synergise with the emerging markets.

An important part of his portfolio is to evolve ICSID attention giving it a global agenda, to mediate between the different ethnic groups and nationalities within their association giving it an international voice. "We have to pull together in future in order to advance design issues," explains Zec.

Having studied Media Science, Psychology and Art Science, Zec started out as a Professor in Business Communication and has been president of the Federation of German Graphic Designers (BDG) and the Association of German Industrial Designers.

His profound knowledge on the history and economic relevance of design makes him passionate and competent advocate of design. Zec spoke to City Times about the challenges for design faced by emerging economies.

What are the challenges you encounter at ICSID?

At ICSID we can really see the big gap between the two worlds, the desperate growth between the worlds needs to be balanced. With the opening up of Asia, Africa, Arabia we need to bridge this gap by bringing in their design icons, their designs into the global fabric.

What do you think are the largest challenges that emerging countries face in the area of design?

The most important one is education. Not just educating the creative talent but also the consumers, who need to have heightened awareness through media, awards and education on design and its importance in their everyday lives.

Particularly in the developing countries, design training is mostly about transfer of knowledge and the adaptation of existing ideas and design forms. The aim has to be, however, to bring up creative, independently thinking and courageous young designers who are able to find innovative design solutions for their own culture group, thus improving the quality of life in their countries.

What sort of design education do you recommend for this region?

Education in regions like Arabia has to be an amalgamation of international quality of education, done in respect to regional cultural values and local educational systems.

Globalisation has ripped away the parameters for discerning what is 'good design' what's 'bad design', how do you define it?

It's a complex phenomenon with socio cultural ramifications so it requires a multi-focal understanding which is a challenge in itself.

With rapid urbanisation in Middle East that is creating 'The tallest building', 'the first seven star hotel' etc. Can you pinpoint your favourite design icon that deserves a 'red dot' in the region?

Sadly none yet. Dubai is lucky; it starts with a carte blanche in more than one way. A virgin landscape, a pure space that can be developed as a miracle of the Middle East and set a 'benchmark for the world'; hopefully they will not go West and 'import the West'.

I can see that Dubai is a first to take on the challenge of understanding the principles of international designs in an effort to be a true leader with efforts like Moutamarat and IDF 2007. Learning from the principles of western design is good but applying it for your own eco and environmental needs is imperative; a great example is the traditional wind towers I see here - it's low tech, and high on art and design.