Indesign Publisher and Managing Director, Raj Nandan, talks about design

What is design? Having spent 20 years in the design industry looking at design, talking about design and publishing design magazines, this is still a tricky question to answer. What might be easier is to say what it isn’t. Walking through the Milan Furniture Fair earlier this year, which was nearly 150,000 square metres of new design, it would be easy to think that design is just the latest products by Patricia Urquiola, Karim Rashid, or Philippe Starck, or the Bouroullec brothers.

But design isn’t just about stuff. Many designers dedicate their lives to reducing waste, not creating it – by creating objects with extended lives so they don’t have to be replaced so often – or by creating objects that give an object a second life – or by making sure that they can be properly recycled afterwards.

Design also isn’t just about pretty things. Bringing out an old object in a new colourway is not design. Design is about making life better – about creating objects that make life easier to live, make things run more smoothly – or about creating things that people will cherish their whole lives and pass onto future generations.

At Indesign, we’re more interested in the people who save their money for years to buy that perfect design piece, than in those who replace their furnishings every season to fit in with this year’s trends.

Because design is not about trends, it is about quality and longevity, and about creating a life that is better in design.

RAJ NANDAN
Indesign Publisher and Managing Director - www.indesignlive.com