WDCD hits New York Times

‘I’m so tired of design being considered decoration and cute objects, and things you can buy and consume,’ Paola Antonelli says in today’s New York Times. ‘A conference like this for me is fantastic because it shows that the whole realm of design can come together to improve society. So it’s not about people buying cute chairs but people thinking and living in a different way.’

In the same article Rachel Armstrong says she believes that it is particularly important for designers to have opportunities such as the What Design Can Do conference to ‘cross-pollinate’. ‘I think design meeting itself and interrogating its own capabilities and defining an agenda for itself to create a common purpose — even if it’s for the next year — is incredibly empowering,’ she said.