I believe the only people who will read this article are those who are passionate about design. Maybe you’re a designer or maybe you like design. How exactly does design exist in our surroundings?

I am Lance Han the founder and director of Dot Design, and I focus on sustainable design. I would like to share my thoughts and observations on design from the past few years with everyone. As we all know, the existence of design is inseparable from mankind. You can say that the world was created by God or Nature, but our lives and cultures are ultimately designed and created by people. The conditions we implement for creating objects through smart thinking and action are the best presentation of design. Yet, what is design’s responsibility in the world?

All design and creation consume and deplete resources. Even though we can create beautiful and outstanding objects. But in doing so, we must take more of the links and responsibilities into consideration so that a design or creation can be considered a good one.

Sustainable design is a topic everyone’s been focused on these past few years. But just what is sustainable design? Let’s dive into this question from two different perspectives. The first perspective is for us to consider the sourcing for the natural materials we adopt, such as materials made from bamboo fiber, paper pulp fiber, bamboo and wooden products, and metals. Generally, it’s easier for natural materials to decompose on their own, and they are less harmful towards the environment. The second is that we use single-material recyclable plastics such as No. 1 to No. 6 plastics. In principle, when we design works, we use a single material that’s easily disassembled and recycled. We shouldn’t use any processing method that makes the materials non-recyclable. We should even go as far as taking the recycling and classification systems of future products into consideration.

Caption: Disposable Bamboo Fiber Cup winning Golden Pin Design Award)
Disposable Bamboo Fiber Cup

Caption: Re-ing Bamboo Fiber Plate winning iF Design Award, Golden Pin Design Award and Taipei International Design Award
Re-ing Bamboo Fiber Plates

Caption: re-PET Bag winning Golden Pin Design Award

We often sink into the myth of how a material is used, but I believe that good design is the best bridge for communication and solution to issues of sustainability. Design presentation usually occupies the most important place for many topics and expressions; this is because there is a responsibility for design to make concepts concrete. Many enterprises and brands search for the presentation of sustainability to execute thinking when facing the market, but in the end, they often don’t achieve an ideal result. With respect to design, it’s undoubtedly very important to achieve the philosophy of design. However, design is often an action derived from needs, so it’s exceptionally important to adopt design methods that are flexible yet uncompromising and persistent, such compromises include mass production, costs, and brand principles. However, insistence on principles cannot be neglected, such as insistence on styles, the design, and quality. From certain perspectives, these two seem contradictory and opposing. At this stage, we have to use the “balance” of design. With this in mind, the task of design must build upon characteristics of flexible change for designed goods that follow along with the changes of time and fluctuations of space.

Caption: Photo of “Sustainable Power of Thai-design” hosted by the Taiwan Design Research Institute