1 00:00:06,407 --> 00:00:07,999 TANNO Y: Attention, pIease. 2 00:00:08,047 --> 00:00:13,997 At 1 :30 Mark & Living Showcase is being heId in the centraI feature 3 00:00:14,567 --> 00:00:21,439 with aII the Iatest innovations for saving money and energy for each room in your home. 4 00:00:23,447 --> 00:00:26,245 At the ldeal Home Exhibition in London 5 00:00:26,287 --> 00:00:28,198 people come and go, 6 00:00:28,247 --> 00:00:30,715 dreaming about new labour-saving devices, 7 00:00:30,767 --> 00:00:32,519 new possibilities, 8 00:00:32,567 --> 00:00:34,558 new designs for living. 9 00:00:34,847 --> 00:00:36,997 It's a fantastic product. 10 00:00:37,047 --> 00:00:40,164 OK. And then you Iean on it and you get your French fries. 11 00:00:40,887 --> 00:00:43,879 Not everything here is a design classic, 12 00:00:43,927 --> 00:00:48,796 but everything here has been designed to meet a need, fulfil a desire, 13 00:00:48,847 --> 00:00:51,964 or simply to raise a cheer at the breakfast table. 14 00:00:57,207 --> 00:01:00,995 The people who worry about this kind of stuff are called designers. 15 00:01:02,047 --> 00:01:06,199 They worry about stuff, not in general, but in particular 16 00:01:06,247 --> 00:01:08,636 the fine detail of stuff, 17 00:01:08,687 --> 00:01:11,326 the stuff we build our lives from. 18 00:01:11,367 --> 00:01:15,076 They worry about it, so that we don't have to. 19 00:01:17,247 --> 00:01:21,479 Our mission, our reason to be doing what we're doing, 20 00:01:21,527 --> 00:01:24,599 is to make a... 21 00:01:26,087 --> 00:01:29,875 make a better worId for the smaII things. 22 00:01:32,007 --> 00:01:34,919 They're not scientists, they're not engineers. 23 00:01:34,967 --> 00:01:36,958 They're certainIy not writers, 24 00:01:37,487 --> 00:01:42,083 but they're doing work which is extremeIy criticaI at the function of our society. 25 00:01:42,527 --> 00:01:45,439 If design has got anything to offer us, 26 00:01:45,487 --> 00:01:49,924 it ought to be that our reIationship to objects becomes more thoughtfuI, 27 00:01:49,967 --> 00:01:53,596 wiser, deeper, better considered. 28 00:01:57,607 --> 00:02:01,805 You can be a pIumber or you can be a journaIist, you can be a designer, 29 00:02:01,847 --> 00:02:03,678 it's exactIy the same thing. 30 00:02:03,727 --> 00:02:07,197 A cIear way for me to deserve to exist is to serve. 31 00:02:09,647 --> 00:02:12,400 You don't think about your toothbrush being designed 32 00:02:12,447 --> 00:02:15,484 untiI you put a badIy-designed toothbrush in your mouth. 33 00:02:15,527 --> 00:02:17,518 FIamenco 34 00:02:28,407 --> 00:02:30,398 So where does design come from? 35 00:02:31,567 --> 00:02:33,797 What does it mean to be a designer? 36 00:02:38,927 --> 00:02:44,718 What is the special nature, the genius, of this thing that we call design? 37 00:02:46,727 --> 00:02:49,400 This series sets out to answer those questions, 38 00:02:49,927 --> 00:02:55,320 and along the way will tell the story of the world that the designers have made for us. 39 00:03:41,127 --> 00:03:44,563 The world can be a hostile place for us human beings. 40 00:03:45,207 --> 00:03:47,323 But frail and fragile as we are, 41 00:03:47,367 --> 00:03:49,358 we've managed to survive it, 42 00:03:49,407 --> 00:03:51,443 and even thrive in it, 43 00:03:51,487 --> 00:03:54,399 thanks to our innate skills as designers. 44 00:03:56,927 --> 00:03:59,043 Starting from the simplest stone axe, 45 00:03:59,407 --> 00:04:02,126 we've developed tools of increasing sophistication 46 00:04:02,167 --> 00:04:06,285 that offer a handle on the most unpromising environment. 47 00:04:16,847 --> 00:04:20,283 ln fact, our design skills have reached such heights 48 00:04:20,687 --> 00:04:24,077 that these day we even manufacture facsimiles of environments 49 00:04:24,127 --> 00:04:26,925 which were once all too real and threatening. 50 00:04:36,447 --> 00:04:38,199 As for the modern city, 51 00:04:38,247 --> 00:04:43,162 the sheer density of design here reaches an almost organic level of complexity. 52 00:04:48,647 --> 00:04:51,684 The modern city is a new kind of nature - 53 00:04:52,567 --> 00:04:54,558 man-made nature. 54 00:04:54,607 --> 00:04:58,839 lt reflects back an image of ourselves through the things we have designed. 55 00:05:05,767 --> 00:05:08,804 But, for the designer, the world is not enough. 56 00:05:09,687 --> 00:05:13,885 Plans for a new, improved version are always on the drawing board. 57 00:05:15,407 --> 00:05:19,241 I think designers aIways imagine 58 00:05:19,287 --> 00:05:21,198 that something couId be better. 59 00:05:21,247 --> 00:05:23,886 That whatever it is now, 60 00:05:23,927 --> 00:05:29,047 rethinking, taking advantage of new technoIogies of production, 61 00:05:29,087 --> 00:05:33,956 aII of that, I think, drives them on to the idea that they're making a better mousetrap. 62 00:05:35,367 --> 00:05:37,323 This is a standard measuring cup, 63 00:05:37,367 --> 00:05:43,124 but the key thing is, is that it's made to be so that you can read it from above, 64 00:05:43,207 --> 00:05:45,926 and it's resting on the tabIe top and it's stabIe. 65 00:05:45,967 --> 00:05:50,882 How many of us, when you put a Iiquid in a measuring cup, you have to then hoId it up. 66 00:05:50,927 --> 00:05:54,078 And if it's a Iiquid, then it gets disturbed and you can't quite teII. 67 00:05:54,127 --> 00:05:57,722 And it's this kind of thing, by the way, that I Iove about design, 68 00:05:57,767 --> 00:06:02,557 because some of the probIems of the worId are so difficuIt to soIve - 69 00:06:02,607 --> 00:06:04,996 probIems of disease, of poverty. 70 00:06:05,047 --> 00:06:08,437 My gosh, how we gonna soIve those probIems? 71 00:06:08,487 --> 00:06:13,356 And so it's inspirationaI to see somebody actuaIIy soIve a probIem. 72 00:06:14,047 --> 00:06:18,199 It's not a huge probIem in the worId, but at Ieast it was soIved. 73 00:06:33,407 --> 00:06:35,841 This is Dieter Rams. 74 00:06:36,087 --> 00:06:40,558 ln a 50-year career, he can claim to have solved his fair share of problems, 75 00:06:40,607 --> 00:06:45,886 with products you may well have switched on or washed up at some time or other. 76 00:06:46,887 --> 00:06:50,436 lf you didn't notice them, Rams would be pleased. 77 00:06:50,807 --> 00:06:55,403 ''Design, '' says Rams, ''should be as discreet as an English butler. '' 78 00:06:57,727 --> 00:07:03,279 What I have in my mind is to make the things more quieter. 79 00:07:06,847 --> 00:07:09,281 That I aIways had in my mind. 80 00:07:11,327 --> 00:07:16,685 Rams is in Tokyo to oversee the opening of an exhibition dedicated to a lifetime's work, 81 00:07:16,727 --> 00:07:21,118 and, as ever, to make sure things are just so. 82 00:07:24,727 --> 00:07:26,718 You see... 83 00:07:28,567 --> 00:07:30,558 this is more correct now. 84 00:07:30,607 --> 00:07:33,997 He's also on hand to explain his Ten Commandments, 85 00:07:34,687 --> 00:07:37,679 as authoritative and compact as the original. 86 00:07:39,647 --> 00:07:43,481 The first is that good design is innovative. 87 00:07:47,087 --> 00:07:51,046 The second, weII, good design makes a product usefuI. 88 00:07:54,687 --> 00:08:02,367 And, of course, the third is good design is aesthetic design. 89 00:08:05,847 --> 00:08:10,762 Within the design worId there has Iong been a controversy of whether a designer is an artist 90 00:08:10,807 --> 00:08:12,638 or the designer is an engineer 91 00:08:12,687 --> 00:08:16,521 or the designer is a servant of the corporate worId. 92 00:08:17,007 --> 00:08:19,840 For me, the designer is aII of those things. 93 00:08:19,887 --> 00:08:24,403 They've got to worry about the economy on the one hand and art on the other. 94 00:08:25,407 --> 00:08:29,082 They're the nexus, they're the bridge, they're the crossroads. 95 00:08:31,047 --> 00:08:33,038 Good design is honest. 96 00:08:34,847 --> 00:08:36,838 Honest. 97 00:08:37,207 --> 00:08:39,084 What's a dishonest design? 98 00:08:39,127 --> 00:08:40,560 Lying. 99 00:08:42,487 --> 00:08:49,438 And ten, good design is as IittIe design as possibIe. 100 00:08:50,007 --> 00:08:51,998 That's what I Iike expressing. 101 00:08:59,367 --> 00:09:02,086 But Rams is only one voice in the world of design. 102 00:09:02,767 --> 00:09:06,282 There are other gurus following other commandments. 103 00:09:08,247 --> 00:09:10,761 J Mays is Ford Motors'global Head of Design. 104 00:09:12,207 --> 00:09:14,482 Oklahoma-born and London-based, 105 00:09:14,887 --> 00:09:20,405 Mays is ultimately responsible for the look of around 80 million Ford cars on the road today. 106 00:09:22,167 --> 00:09:25,398 For me design is nothing more than a communications tooI. 107 00:09:25,447 --> 00:09:29,156 It is a way to bend the sheet metaI in such a way 108 00:09:29,207 --> 00:09:33,200 that it communicates the vaIues of the brand and puIIs the customers in, 109 00:09:33,247 --> 00:09:36,876 makes them reach in their waIIet, puII out the money and pay for the car. 110 00:09:36,927 --> 00:09:39,646 And design is not an anaIyticaI process. 111 00:09:39,687 --> 00:09:41,518 It's an emotionaI process. 112 00:09:41,567 --> 00:09:43,762 I aIways say if you Iook at the customer, 113 00:09:44,287 --> 00:09:46,676 go into the customer's home, as an exampIe, 114 00:09:46,727 --> 00:09:48,638 and you wiII see who they are. 115 00:09:48,687 --> 00:09:52,726 See that same customer driving around in their car and that's who they want to be. 116 00:09:55,687 --> 00:09:57,678 The probIem with peopIe-movers generaIIy, 117 00:09:57,727 --> 00:10:00,878 is that I aIways think they Iook as though they smeII Iike diapers. 118 00:10:00,927 --> 00:10:03,885 It's essentiaIIy a very functionaI object. 119 00:10:03,927 --> 00:10:09,365 So the goaI with this vehicIe back in about 2004, when we started designing it, 120 00:10:09,407 --> 00:10:13,366 was to introduce a new design Ianguage into the Ford of Europe products, 121 00:10:13,407 --> 00:10:15,967 and we caII that design Ianguage ''kinetic design''. 122 00:10:16,007 --> 00:10:20,285 Now, kinetic design is a design Ianguage that shouId visuaIIy communicate 123 00:10:20,327 --> 00:10:24,206 the idea of the vehicIe reaIIy moving even when it's standing stiII. 124 00:10:24,927 --> 00:10:27,487 A Iot of peopIe ask me if kinetic design has a function. 125 00:10:27,527 --> 00:10:30,837 Yeah, the function of kinetic design is to put a smiIe on your face. 126 00:10:35,407 --> 00:10:37,125 However you define it, 127 00:10:37,167 --> 00:10:41,604 whether you're from the Church of Rams or the School of Mays, 128 00:10:41,647 --> 00:10:47,199 we are now in the position of being able to take good design more or less for granted. 129 00:10:53,407 --> 00:10:56,285 Well designed, well made and affordable products 130 00:10:56,327 --> 00:10:59,956 have become the givens of advanced capitalism... 131 00:11:00,007 --> 00:11:04,717 along with democracy, wireless lnternet access and skinny lattes. 132 00:11:06,607 --> 00:11:10,566 But good design is the product of a complex, rich history 133 00:11:10,607 --> 00:11:16,079 in which the definition of design, and the role and status of the designer, have changed, 134 00:11:16,647 --> 00:11:21,357 as the tectonic plates of economics, politics and society have shifted. 135 00:11:25,567 --> 00:11:27,398 Capitalism, industrialisation, 136 00:11:27,447 --> 00:11:30,564 mass production, miniaturisation, 137 00:11:30,607 --> 00:11:32,916 new materials, new technologies, 138 00:11:33,407 --> 00:11:35,602 consumerism, globalisation, 139 00:11:35,647 --> 00:11:37,365 environmentalism, 140 00:11:37,407 --> 00:11:40,558 war and peace, fads and fashion - 141 00:11:40,967 --> 00:11:44,243 the design world has mirrored every move we have made. 142 00:11:45,007 --> 00:11:49,797 ln fact, the story of design offers an alternative history of the modern world 143 00:11:50,567 --> 00:11:52,558 told through stuff, 144 00:11:52,607 --> 00:11:56,759 and the players in this version of history aren't politicians or revolutionaries, 145 00:11:56,807 --> 00:11:58,798 artists or philosophers, 146 00:11:58,847 --> 00:12:02,999 they're the cups and chairs, appliances and vehicles, 147 00:12:03,047 --> 00:12:06,517 the tools, gadgets and gizmos of everyday life. 148 00:12:18,127 --> 00:12:20,595 But before all that, there was this. 149 00:12:22,007 --> 00:12:25,079 ln the story of design, this is the Garden of Eden, 150 00:12:25,767 --> 00:12:28,440 before industrialisation and mass production 151 00:12:28,487 --> 00:12:31,797 divided the designing of things from the making of things. 152 00:12:33,687 --> 00:12:37,680 Before the lndustrial Revolution, this is how stuff got made - 153 00:12:38,447 --> 00:12:42,725 by craftsmen and women operating out of small workshops, 154 00:12:42,767 --> 00:12:46,157 turning out a limited range of products in small runs. 155 00:12:47,247 --> 00:12:50,159 Each piece could be made broadly to the same design, 156 00:12:50,807 --> 00:12:53,799 but each was a little bit different from its siblings, 157 00:12:54,087 --> 00:12:56,726 the result of its own moment of creation, 158 00:12:57,127 --> 00:13:00,517 the latest expression of the workshop's collective skill. 159 00:13:03,447 --> 00:13:06,837 Though you may be producing dozens of pieces, 160 00:13:07,367 --> 00:13:11,042 there's stiII an individuaIity to the pieces. 161 00:13:11,887 --> 00:13:13,718 They don't need to be exactIy the same, 162 00:13:13,767 --> 00:13:17,840 but as Iong as each one has a bit of a Iife, has a fIavour, I suppose, 163 00:13:17,887 --> 00:13:20,924 that's the important thing, 164 00:13:20,967 --> 00:13:22,958 that each piece speaks. 165 00:13:23,967 --> 00:13:28,882 Part of what the cIient, the customer is Iooking for, is that essentiaI part of the maker, 166 00:13:28,927 --> 00:13:33,205 and that's what they're buying reaIIy. 167 00:13:33,287 --> 00:13:35,278 It's not just the object, 168 00:13:35,327 --> 00:13:38,478 it's everything that's gone into the making of that piece. 169 00:13:40,007 --> 00:13:42,157 GIass can be a IittIe surprising at times, 170 00:13:42,207 --> 00:13:46,200 so you think it's going to do one thing and it does something sIightIy differentIy. 171 00:13:46,247 --> 00:13:50,525 And peopIe can't reaIIy teII you what it wiII do, you've got to feeI it 172 00:13:50,567 --> 00:13:52,558 and you've got to be abIe to do it. 173 00:13:52,687 --> 00:13:55,997 So you make an awfuI Iot of mistakes before you get it right. 174 00:13:57,927 --> 00:14:03,524 One of the differences between the hand-made pot and the industriaI pot 175 00:14:03,567 --> 00:14:06,240 is about truth to materiaIs. 176 00:14:06,287 --> 00:14:10,075 The cIay has a Iife of its own and so you have to be in sympathy with it. 177 00:14:11,527 --> 00:14:14,325 As you get more practised at doing different designs 178 00:14:14,367 --> 00:14:16,756 then you get neater at them and neater at them. 179 00:14:16,807 --> 00:14:19,116 So the first ones we did were quite scruffy 180 00:14:19,167 --> 00:14:21,601 and then they got a bit better 181 00:14:21,647 --> 00:14:23,365 but then they went a bit too neat, 182 00:14:23,407 --> 00:14:25,796 so then we had to go back again 183 00:14:25,847 --> 00:14:27,803 and make them Iook a bit more naturaIistic. 184 00:14:27,847 --> 00:14:29,041 A design wiII evoIve, 185 00:14:29,087 --> 00:14:33,205 both from the concept through the investigation and deveIopment work. 186 00:14:33,247 --> 00:14:35,363 But aIso once we start to make a design, 187 00:14:35,447 --> 00:14:38,245 once we've decided on a combination and a formuIa, 188 00:14:38,287 --> 00:14:40,357 the pieces wiII evoIve. 189 00:14:40,407 --> 00:14:43,843 That one's, I think, the most pIeasing so far. 190 00:14:44,287 --> 00:14:49,884 Compared to the first of the series, this one is much more generous. 191 00:14:50,247 --> 00:14:52,238 It's a different pot. 192 00:14:54,607 --> 00:15:00,477 It's designed to be far more open and generous than the first one, 193 00:15:00,527 --> 00:15:02,119 but I'm pIeased. 194 00:15:02,167 --> 00:15:04,965 It's got some Iife, it's got a bit of a spring to it. 195 00:15:05,367 --> 00:15:08,165 It's got a coupIe of air bubbIes in it, but hey-ho. 196 00:15:13,087 --> 00:15:14,759 For industrial designers, 197 00:15:14,807 --> 00:15:20,439 the hand and eye of the craftsman is both an inspiration and a standard to aspire to. 198 00:15:21,567 --> 00:15:26,118 My grandfather, he was a speciaIist in surface, for pianos, 199 00:15:27,167 --> 00:15:31,877 and I Iearnt from him to poIish by hand, 200 00:15:32,727 --> 00:15:37,357 and his thumb was Iike his tooI, Iike a tooI, 201 00:15:38,607 --> 00:15:40,598 much thicker than mine. 202 00:15:40,967 --> 00:15:45,006 He was thinking not in mass products, 203 00:15:45,487 --> 00:15:49,400 and that is what we have to think today too. 204 00:15:49,447 --> 00:15:53,076 We have to change mass products into quaIity products. 205 00:15:55,287 --> 00:15:58,404 But controlling a multi-faceted manufacturing process 206 00:15:58,447 --> 00:16:01,325 is more challenging than throwing a pot on a wheel. 207 00:16:03,487 --> 00:16:07,526 Designing for industry is based on a bold premise - 208 00:16:07,567 --> 00:16:11,606 that the craftsmen's skills can be replicated by a mechanical system 209 00:16:11,647 --> 00:16:16,437 in which machines act like humans and humans like machines. 210 00:16:20,087 --> 00:16:22,840 What happens in a mass production system 211 00:16:23,247 --> 00:16:27,718 is that the craftsmanship is actuaIIy transferred from the peopIe 212 00:16:27,767 --> 00:16:31,919 who are physicaIIy assembIing the product, back up the chain 213 00:16:31,967 --> 00:16:35,642 away from the mass of workers who are actuaIIy doing the assembIing. 214 00:16:35,687 --> 00:16:38,679 And the Iabour historians actuaIIy have a word for it. 215 00:16:38,727 --> 00:16:40,718 They caII it ''deskiIIing''. 216 00:16:41,007 --> 00:16:45,558 It says we're gonna take the skiII away from the majority of peopIe 217 00:16:45,607 --> 00:16:48,804 and we're gonna invest it in a smaIIer group of peopIe 218 00:16:48,847 --> 00:16:52,044 who are either designing the systems or making the machinery 219 00:16:52,087 --> 00:16:54,157 that the mass of the peopIe are using. 220 00:16:57,167 --> 00:17:01,683 Design was one of the more intriguing by-products of the lndustrial Revolution, 221 00:17:02,127 --> 00:17:05,961 along with consumerism, capitalism, global warming 222 00:17:06,287 --> 00:17:09,165 and two and a half centuries of social upheaval. 223 00:17:12,287 --> 00:17:16,200 Design's godfathers were the 1 8th-century entrepreneurs, 224 00:17:16,687 --> 00:17:20,077 eager to find new ways of making more for less. 225 00:17:20,967 --> 00:17:24,084 The Staffordshire potter Josiah Wedgwood led the way, 226 00:17:24,607 --> 00:17:27,519 exploiting new, machine-age production methods, 227 00:17:27,567 --> 00:17:30,957 some of which are still in use at the Wedgwood factory today. 228 00:17:32,607 --> 00:17:37,522 But keeping the customer satisfied also meant seizing on the latest management thinking 229 00:17:37,567 --> 00:17:41,526 about ways to organise, train and exploit workers. 230 00:17:42,487 --> 00:17:46,958 Central to the new thinking was the idea of the ''division of labour''. 231 00:17:48,927 --> 00:17:53,478 The Portland Vase, one of Wedgwood's most celebrated technical achievements, 232 00:17:53,527 --> 00:17:56,246 is still made today using the same system. 233 00:18:02,407 --> 00:18:04,398 I'm a prestige figure maker. 234 00:18:04,447 --> 00:18:06,438 - Figure maker? - Yeah. 235 00:18:08,247 --> 00:18:11,876 27 years, yeah, straight from schooI at 1 5. 236 00:18:13,967 --> 00:18:16,162 I've fiIIed the pIaster mouId with cIay 237 00:18:16,247 --> 00:18:19,364 and now I'm just going to scrape the excess cIay off, 238 00:18:19,407 --> 00:18:23,764 so that you end up with just the figure in the mouId. 239 00:18:24,407 --> 00:18:28,719 When I finaIIy get the figure out, it goes to the ornamenter to be ornamented. 240 00:18:29,247 --> 00:18:31,363 So someone eIse puts the figure on the vase? 241 00:18:31,407 --> 00:18:33,796 Yeah, the ornamenter. 242 00:18:33,847 --> 00:18:37,442 The trickiest part is when I'm actuaIIy getting the figure out, 243 00:18:38,287 --> 00:18:42,644 some peopIe caII the tooI I actuaIIy use a spatuIa, 244 00:18:43,127 --> 00:18:46,597 but aII the girIs who've ever done this job, this is a waddIer. 245 00:18:47,047 --> 00:18:48,958 - A waddIy? - A waddIer. 246 00:18:49,007 --> 00:18:50,998 Because we waddIe Iike a duck. 247 00:18:53,087 --> 00:18:55,885 There's 1 8 figures on the PortIand Vase, 248 00:18:56,487 --> 00:19:01,800 and these are the same figures, I think, from when Josiah started. 249 00:19:02,527 --> 00:19:05,200 You're on first name terms with Josiah, are you? 250 00:19:05,247 --> 00:19:07,841 Of course. I've earned it, 27 years. 251 00:19:15,327 --> 00:19:19,718 One of the other specialisations created by the division of labour 252 00:19:19,767 --> 00:19:23,555 was the individual who would one day become known as ''the designer'', 253 00:19:24,167 --> 00:19:27,762 but who in Wedgwood's day usually went under the label ''artist''. 254 00:19:30,087 --> 00:19:31,918 But whatever they were called, 255 00:19:31,967 --> 00:19:34,242 in the new era of industrial production, 256 00:19:34,287 --> 00:19:38,075 they were the ones responsible for creating the original designs 257 00:19:38,127 --> 00:19:40,846 from which all subsequent copies would be made. 258 00:19:42,487 --> 00:19:45,684 Today, at the Portmeirion Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent, 259 00:19:45,887 --> 00:19:47,878 the chief designer is Julian Teed. 260 00:19:49,007 --> 00:19:52,443 He learned much of his craft from the late Susan Williams-Ellis, 261 00:19:52,487 --> 00:19:56,639 Portmeirion's owner, designer and enduring inspiration. 262 00:19:58,767 --> 00:20:00,598 She wouId spend hours and hours drawing. 263 00:20:00,647 --> 00:20:02,558 She wouId go to bed with a sketchbook. 264 00:20:03,007 --> 00:20:05,202 This is an exampIe of the sketchbook. 265 00:20:05,287 --> 00:20:07,278 She was a proIific sketcher. 266 00:20:08,487 --> 00:20:11,320 She wouId sit up aII night drawing. 267 00:20:11,847 --> 00:20:15,044 No need for computers with Susan, I can teII you. 268 00:20:15,327 --> 00:20:17,443 And then I'd come into work the next day 269 00:20:17,487 --> 00:20:20,763 and she'd say, ''JuIian, come and have breakfast with me.'' 270 00:20:21,407 --> 00:20:25,241 And we'd go through and sit out in the garden, especiaIIy in the summer, fantastic. 271 00:20:25,287 --> 00:20:27,164 Such an experience for me. 272 00:20:27,207 --> 00:20:31,723 She'd show me aII these drawings that she'd done at three o'cIock in the morning. 273 00:20:35,727 --> 00:20:38,082 Julian is working with modeller Mark Castry, 274 00:20:38,127 --> 00:20:43,599 to create a commemorative mug based on one of Susan's original designs from the 1 960s. 275 00:20:44,607 --> 00:20:47,883 The modeller makes a master pattern in plaster 276 00:20:48,207 --> 00:20:51,085 which will, in turn, be used to make the production moulds 277 00:20:51,127 --> 00:20:53,595 from which the mugs themselves will be made. 278 00:20:55,647 --> 00:20:58,161 Every industrially-manufactured product, 279 00:20:58,567 --> 00:21:00,717 from a paperclip to an Airbus, 280 00:21:00,767 --> 00:21:03,156 has to go through this ''tooling up'' process 281 00:21:03,607 --> 00:21:06,644 an act of faith on the part of the manufacturers. 282 00:21:07,767 --> 00:21:11,442 There's a Iot of upfront cost with industriaI design. 283 00:21:11,807 --> 00:21:16,323 The product designers are carrying, in effect, this Ioad with them 284 00:21:16,647 --> 00:21:19,207 of a corporation that's gonna make the stuff, 285 00:21:19,247 --> 00:21:20,999 of factories that are gonna produce it, 286 00:21:21,047 --> 00:21:22,799 of peopIe who are gonna finance it, 287 00:21:22,847 --> 00:21:25,805 of marketers who have a strategy to produce it. 288 00:21:26,327 --> 00:21:31,481 UnIess the designer is attuned to aII of those things, it won't happen. 289 00:21:31,527 --> 00:21:34,837 So it's not a casuaI activity. 290 00:21:34,887 --> 00:21:39,085 And I think designers, good designers, know aII that, 291 00:21:39,727 --> 00:21:45,802 and strive to hit the sweet spot that wiII satisfy aII these diverse eIements. 292 00:21:46,927 --> 00:21:50,317 For the industrial product, this is the moment of creation. 293 00:21:50,927 --> 00:21:55,318 The chance to get everything right before the production line starts to roll. 294 00:21:56,047 --> 00:22:00,359 What we have here is Mark modeIIing directIy back into the pIaster. 295 00:22:00,407 --> 00:22:04,958 As you can see it's a very skiIIed, detaiIed and fine job 296 00:22:05,007 --> 00:22:08,841 and what he's putting into this mug now is his souI. 297 00:22:08,887 --> 00:22:12,004 It's going in right now, you're watching it as he's scratching it in, 298 00:22:12,047 --> 00:22:13,844 and it'II stay there for ever. 299 00:22:13,887 --> 00:22:17,562 So when you go into the shop and buy a mug for £1 2, 300 00:22:17,607 --> 00:22:21,316 that has got a part of Susan, a part of Mark, a part of me. 301 00:22:22,327 --> 00:22:24,283 That's the passion of pottery. 302 00:22:24,327 --> 00:22:27,444 And pottery is about passion, there's no doubt about it. 303 00:22:27,487 --> 00:22:29,523 We're making pots out of mud, 304 00:22:29,567 --> 00:22:31,558 that's what we're doing at the end of the day. 305 00:22:31,607 --> 00:22:35,282 We're digging mud out of the ground and we're putting it through fIames. 306 00:22:35,327 --> 00:22:38,125 And to do that with reaI passion, you need peopIe. 307 00:22:38,167 --> 00:22:40,158 You can't do it just with machines. 308 00:22:49,727 --> 00:22:53,037 Mass production complicated ideas about beauty. 309 00:22:54,847 --> 00:22:58,078 Show the average Romantic poet a Grecian urn, 310 00:22:58,727 --> 00:23:02,117 or even one of the imitation urns turned out by the Wedgwood factory, 311 00:23:02,167 --> 00:23:07,116 and he would tell you that ''beauty is truth, truth beauty''. 312 00:23:10,527 --> 00:23:13,803 But what about the beauty of a bridge made of iron? 313 00:23:15,087 --> 00:23:20,366 The lron Bridge in Coalbrookdale is an early testament to the beauty of the machine-made, 314 00:23:20,407 --> 00:23:23,046 and the truth of the mass produced. 315 00:23:24,207 --> 00:23:28,598 The modern age of industrialisation was allowed to speak through the lron Bridge, 316 00:23:28,647 --> 00:23:30,638 with its own distinctive voice. 317 00:23:46,767 --> 00:23:52,478 The lron Bridge had its origins with another 1 8th-century entrepreneur, Abraham Darby. 318 00:23:53,687 --> 00:23:58,761 Unlike Wedgwood, he worked with molten iron rather than pliable clay. 319 00:24:02,887 --> 00:24:07,005 ln the early 1 8th century, he invented a new way of casting iron 320 00:24:07,047 --> 00:24:10,483 using multiple moulds made out of sticky green sand. 321 00:24:12,087 --> 00:24:14,362 The simple brilliance of Darby's method 322 00:24:14,407 --> 00:24:18,286 was that once the iron cooled, the moulds could be broken, 323 00:24:18,327 --> 00:24:22,684 the product removed, and the sand remoulded from a master pattern. 324 00:24:24,367 --> 00:24:28,246 This is aII reaIIy advanced sand castIe buiIding, but for an industry. 325 00:24:28,287 --> 00:24:31,404 And the point being that once you've invested in your pattern, 326 00:24:31,447 --> 00:24:33,756 you can use that again and again to make your mouIds. 327 00:24:33,807 --> 00:24:37,243 It doesn't matter that the mouIds get destroyed, cos you can reuse the sand. 328 00:24:37,287 --> 00:24:39,960 It's onIy sand. But the vaIue is in the pattern. 329 00:24:43,207 --> 00:24:46,802 The top seller from Darby's Coalbrookdale lron Works was this. 330 00:24:47,207 --> 00:24:49,926 Quaker-plain, functional and durable, 331 00:24:49,967 --> 00:24:53,277 the Darby cooking pot came in a variety of sizes, 332 00:24:53,327 --> 00:24:57,115 and any colour you wanted... so long as it was black. 333 00:25:09,207 --> 00:25:11,198 The significance of aII this is... 334 00:25:11,767 --> 00:25:13,758 This is reaIIy one of the first 335 00:25:13,807 --> 00:25:15,923 mass-produced industriaI objects. 336 00:25:15,967 --> 00:25:19,277 There's a IoveIy bit in Darby's patent which says that: 337 00:25:19,327 --> 00:25:21,045 He's got a better method of casting pots 338 00:25:21,087 --> 00:25:23,601 and this wiII be of great benefit to the poor of the kingdom. 339 00:25:23,647 --> 00:25:27,196 In other words, there's a Iot of the poor and I can seII a Iot of them. 340 00:25:28,727 --> 00:25:30,638 You couId say Darby was the designer. 341 00:25:30,687 --> 00:25:35,203 It's a cIassic one where coming up with the process, the manufacturing process, 342 00:25:35,247 --> 00:25:37,203 has had a powerfuI infIuence on the design. 343 00:25:37,247 --> 00:25:39,078 And it's such a beautifuIIy simpIe thing. 344 00:25:39,127 --> 00:25:42,915 The onIy reaI bit of decoration on it are those two Iines there 345 00:25:42,967 --> 00:25:46,801 and the fact that they haven't gone straight up with this, it's got a IoveIy curve on it, 346 00:25:46,847 --> 00:25:48,838 and it's so simpIe. 347 00:25:57,047 --> 00:26:01,677 But the appreciation of the aesthetics of mass production did not come naturally, 348 00:26:01,727 --> 00:26:05,322 particularly in the birthplace of the lndustrial Revolution. 349 00:26:06,127 --> 00:26:11,042 ln Victorian Britain, as the machine age advanced, public tastes retreated. 350 00:26:17,807 --> 00:26:20,719 The transformation of the country by industrial capitalism 351 00:26:20,767 --> 00:26:23,565 would take place behind a Gothic facade, 352 00:26:24,007 --> 00:26:28,364 barnacled with knights, damsels and heraldic beasts. 353 00:26:34,247 --> 00:26:39,162 For William Morris, the most celebrated and influential designer of the 1 9th century, 354 00:26:39,207 --> 00:26:43,359 machines were at best a threat, at worst a menace. 355 00:26:46,367 --> 00:26:49,484 He wasn't against machines per se, 356 00:26:49,527 --> 00:26:51,836 because he couId see that machines couId, 357 00:26:51,887 --> 00:26:54,082 if they were properIy reguIated, 358 00:26:54,127 --> 00:26:56,925 they couId make Iife better for peopIe. 359 00:26:58,247 --> 00:27:05,164 But he couIdn't bear the thought of this beauty being achieved at the expense of the peopIe 360 00:27:05,207 --> 00:27:09,405 who were producing in these inhumane conditions, 361 00:27:09,447 --> 00:27:15,602 and that a beautifuI object reaIIy must be made in beautifuI surroundings 362 00:27:15,647 --> 00:27:19,720 by peopIe who are Iiving reasonabIe Iives, 363 00:27:19,767 --> 00:27:21,758 Iives with some pIeasure in them. 364 00:27:21,807 --> 00:27:26,835 Not the kind of Iives that a Iot of peopIe in Victorian EngIand 365 00:27:26,887 --> 00:27:29,401 were being forced to Iive and work in. 366 00:27:33,967 --> 00:27:38,518 Morris's response to the unacceptable face of industrialisation 367 00:27:38,567 --> 00:27:41,559 was to plan a route back to the Garden of Eden 368 00:27:41,607 --> 00:27:45,282 by relearning craft skills that the machine was replacing. 369 00:27:48,727 --> 00:27:54,962 Morris had an aImost instinctive need to Iearn: how do you print a textiIe? 370 00:27:55,007 --> 00:27:58,682 How do you dye cIoth the coIour that you absoIuteIy want it? 371 00:27:58,727 --> 00:28:00,558 How do you weave a tapestry? 372 00:28:00,607 --> 00:28:03,963 And he set himseIf the task, reaIIy, of Iearning, 373 00:28:04,007 --> 00:28:06,567 of mastering aII these processes, 374 00:28:07,047 --> 00:28:10,960 beIieving that that was an important part of a designer's roIe, in a way. 375 00:28:11,007 --> 00:28:15,797 And this, of course, is why Morris is so important in reIation to the Arts and Crafts movement. 376 00:28:15,847 --> 00:28:19,442 He's important as a designer, as a reforming designer, 377 00:28:19,927 --> 00:28:22,680 but, at the same time, he is this towering craftsman 378 00:28:22,727 --> 00:28:25,195 and he's an inspiration to the next generation 379 00:28:25,247 --> 00:28:28,637 who equaIIy see a different way of designing 380 00:28:28,687 --> 00:28:31,804 and making objects in a smaIIer workshop environment. 381 00:28:36,767 --> 00:28:41,921 ln the National Archives in Kew it's possible to see today what Morris was taking on 382 00:28:41,967 --> 00:28:47,041 when he pitted his hand-crafted designs against the best that the machine age could offer. 383 00:28:49,447 --> 00:28:52,917 The Design Registers were set up in 1 839 384 00:28:52,967 --> 00:28:57,279 to allow manufacturers to seek copyright protection for their designs. 385 00:28:57,767 --> 00:28:59,758 That's extraordinary. 386 00:28:59,807 --> 00:29:04,756 The volumes covering ceramics or metalwork contain sketches or photographs, 387 00:29:04,807 --> 00:29:08,083 but the textile registers contain actual samples, 388 00:29:08,127 --> 00:29:10,641 cut from the original bolts of cloth. 389 00:29:11,047 --> 00:29:16,246 Hidden away from the light of day, these are the X-Files of Victorian taste. 390 00:29:17,487 --> 00:29:19,239 This is what was in the market. 391 00:29:19,287 --> 00:29:21,039 This is everything that came. 392 00:29:21,087 --> 00:29:24,796 This is what peopIe sent in. This is what peopIe were registering. 393 00:29:26,367 --> 00:29:29,564 What strikes me is it just gives you immediateIy, 394 00:29:29,607 --> 00:29:32,440 just for the sheer weight and voIume, 395 00:29:32,487 --> 00:29:36,082 gives you an idea of British output at the time, manufacturing. 396 00:29:37,087 --> 00:29:39,078 Somewhere buried in this volume, 397 00:29:39,127 --> 00:29:42,199 which coversjust a few months of the year 1 883, 398 00:29:42,247 --> 00:29:44,886 are designs by Morris and Company. 399 00:29:45,767 --> 00:29:51,478 I think WiIIiam Morris was the greatest pattern designer probabIy that the worId's ever seen 400 00:29:51,527 --> 00:29:55,440 and his patterns are reaIIy instantIy recognisabIe. 401 00:29:56,967 --> 00:30:00,084 Morris was a genius at simpIification, 402 00:30:00,127 --> 00:30:03,278 and he took patterns from nature 403 00:30:03,327 --> 00:30:07,115 and he made them into these wonderfuI imaginative, 404 00:30:07,167 --> 00:30:10,443 quite formaIised, but very simpIe, patterns, 405 00:30:10,487 --> 00:30:15,720 very unIike anything that was around at that particuIar period in Victorian design. 406 00:30:18,127 --> 00:30:19,765 Ah, now Iook. 407 00:30:19,807 --> 00:30:23,277 Here we are on a quite different IeveI. 408 00:30:24,087 --> 00:30:29,115 We have, interestingIy, here on this Morris & Company textiIe... 409 00:30:29,167 --> 00:30:35,606 In fact, we even have on the seIvage, you can see Morris & Company just beginning, 410 00:30:36,367 --> 00:30:39,837 and then the taiI end ''of Oxford Street'' here. 411 00:30:40,247 --> 00:30:43,000 And there's a coupIe of things that jump out at me. 412 00:30:43,047 --> 00:30:45,197 One is the pattern. 413 00:30:45,247 --> 00:30:52,676 It's organised in such a very tight, controIIed and sophisticated way 414 00:30:52,727 --> 00:30:56,197 that you're immediateIy drawn to it as something different. 415 00:30:56,807 --> 00:31:02,165 It's quite different from - if I may just turn the page over - 416 00:31:03,167 --> 00:31:06,398 from the exoticism that we generaIIy see, 417 00:31:06,447 --> 00:31:13,159 in which certain basic forms are taken and then repeated ad infinitum. 418 00:31:13,567 --> 00:31:15,762 The other thing that's different is the coIour, 419 00:31:15,807 --> 00:31:19,004 because we've seen some very bright coIours 420 00:31:19,047 --> 00:31:20,719 and some pretty obvious coIours, 421 00:31:20,767 --> 00:31:24,396 chemicaI dyes and so on, used in their manufacture, 422 00:31:24,447 --> 00:31:27,917 but here it's cIear that it's something a IittIe more naturaI. 423 00:31:27,967 --> 00:31:34,236 So here he is, amongst aII the huge manufactories of the MidIands and so on, 424 00:31:34,287 --> 00:31:36,437 competing and showing his own. 425 00:31:36,487 --> 00:31:40,196 ExtraordinariIy, he's come up with something quite different 426 00:31:40,247 --> 00:31:42,477 and is offering it to the market. 427 00:31:55,407 --> 00:31:58,046 But though Morris could hold his own on quality, 428 00:31:58,087 --> 00:32:02,319 when it came to price, his hand-made, labour-intensive products 429 00:32:02,367 --> 00:32:05,757 put him at a disadvantage to the machine-made competition. 430 00:32:08,047 --> 00:32:11,926 Morris did try to make things in an economicaI way 431 00:32:11,967 --> 00:32:16,916 but he was aIways up against the probIem of wanting the tremendous quaIity. 432 00:32:16,967 --> 00:32:19,117 And how do you soIve the probIem? 433 00:32:19,167 --> 00:32:23,638 It's the probIem that's been besetting design ever since. 434 00:32:25,487 --> 00:32:27,478 He never reaIIy soIved the probIem, 435 00:32:28,087 --> 00:32:31,477 and he got into terribIe torments and rages about it, 436 00:32:31,527 --> 00:32:36,999 and said, ''I'm spending my Iife ministering to the swinish Iuxury of the rich.'' 437 00:32:45,407 --> 00:32:47,398 Design is a servant to capitaIism. 438 00:32:48,367 --> 00:32:51,564 I think that's something that I accepted many years ago. 439 00:32:53,447 --> 00:32:56,917 But design can never be a pure activity 440 00:32:57,527 --> 00:33:02,521 because it's aIways connected with how things are bought, 441 00:33:02,567 --> 00:33:04,205 how things are soId, 442 00:33:04,247 --> 00:33:07,637 how things are used, how things are thrown away or recycIed. 443 00:33:11,567 --> 00:33:15,685 AII of these different aspects of how consumption operates 444 00:33:15,727 --> 00:33:21,040 need to be acknowIedged, understood, and sometimes manipuIated, 445 00:33:21,087 --> 00:33:27,640 so that you can create beautifuI, resoIute, astounding pieces of work. 446 00:33:35,687 --> 00:33:38,599 By the closing decades of the 1 9th century, 447 00:33:38,647 --> 00:33:42,720 the techniques of industrial manufacturing had become widely established, 448 00:33:42,767 --> 00:33:44,803 particularly in America, 449 00:33:44,847 --> 00:33:47,759 where everything from sewing machines to bicycles 450 00:33:47,807 --> 00:33:50,082 were being produced to the same formula. 451 00:33:50,927 --> 00:33:53,316 Standardised parts made by special tools, 452 00:33:53,367 --> 00:33:57,918 assembled by semi or unskilled workers to a uniform design. 453 00:33:58,967 --> 00:34:01,925 lt become known as ''the American System'', 454 00:34:02,527 --> 00:34:05,644 and Josiah Wedgwood would surely have approved. 455 00:34:06,967 --> 00:34:12,280 But mass production, in the full modern sense of the phrase, had yet to be realised. 456 00:34:13,007 --> 00:34:19,162 lndustrialisation's promise and capitalism's dream was of identical products by the million, 457 00:34:19,847 --> 00:34:23,522 whose unit cost fell magically as volumes increased. 458 00:34:25,127 --> 00:34:28,836 Mass production meant the reIentIess production of the same thing, 459 00:34:28,887 --> 00:34:32,516 in sufficient numbers, not onIy to make it universaIIy avaiIabIe, 460 00:34:32,567 --> 00:34:34,876 but to make it universaIIy affordabIe as weII. 461 00:34:36,487 --> 00:34:41,083 This dream and this promise would find their first and their ultimate expression 462 00:34:41,127 --> 00:34:46,565 in a product that has transformed our lives and our world, for good and ill. 463 00:34:48,287 --> 00:34:53,042 There are three great significant 20th-century art forms, I think. 464 00:34:53,247 --> 00:34:55,477 One is the movies, the second is rock music, 465 00:34:55,527 --> 00:34:57,119 the third is industriaI design 466 00:34:57,167 --> 00:34:59,840 of which the automobiIe is the paradigm. 467 00:35:12,287 --> 00:35:17,042 I can't think of anything better than seeing a car that I've worked on drive down the street, 468 00:35:17,087 --> 00:35:18,918 and I aIways Iook to see who's in it, 469 00:35:18,967 --> 00:35:23,245 and I aIways Iook to see if it's the person that I imagined that shouId be driving that car. 470 00:35:23,287 --> 00:35:27,360 And it doesn't matter if it's the smaIIest or the most expensive car, 471 00:35:27,407 --> 00:35:30,683 doesn't matter if it's a sports car or an SUV, 472 00:35:31,047 --> 00:35:33,720 it doesn't matter if it's a V8 or an eIectric car, 473 00:35:33,767 --> 00:35:35,837 there's a car out there for everyone. 474 00:35:38,967 --> 00:35:42,277 The idea of a car for everyone came early on. 475 00:35:42,807 --> 00:35:47,358 But the first time around, it was the same car for everyone. 476 00:35:49,127 --> 00:35:52,642 And, like Abraham Darby's cooking pot two centuries earlier, 477 00:35:52,687 --> 00:35:54,996 it was any colour you wanted... 478 00:35:55,047 --> 00:35:57,038 so long as it was black. 479 00:36:13,727 --> 00:36:15,957 Henry Ford didn't invent the automobiIe, 480 00:36:16,007 --> 00:36:21,365 but he invented a way to get it to the most possibIe peopIe at a great affordabIe price. 481 00:36:23,207 --> 00:36:25,402 Henry Ford said he never spoke to his customers. 482 00:36:25,447 --> 00:36:30,362 He said if he asked his customers what they wanted, they'd just say faster horses. 483 00:36:30,407 --> 00:36:33,126 He had a better idea in how to make a faster horse. 484 00:36:35,447 --> 00:36:38,245 The ModeI T was essentiaIIy a wagon 485 00:36:38,287 --> 00:36:43,077 that had the horses in the form of an engine under the seat. 486 00:36:44,287 --> 00:36:49,566 And it compIeteIy transforms the way peopIe think about moving from point A to point B, 487 00:36:49,607 --> 00:36:54,601 and that was probabIy the biggest thing that Henry Ford brought to society, 488 00:36:54,647 --> 00:36:56,638 was the idea of freedom. 489 00:36:59,047 --> 00:37:03,677 The story of the Model Tbegins here, on Piquette Avenue in Detroit. 490 00:37:04,967 --> 00:37:06,958 Who designed the ModeI T? 491 00:37:07,687 --> 00:37:09,678 The cIear vision for the ModeI T, 492 00:37:09,727 --> 00:37:13,356 weII, what it ought to be was Henry Ford's, 493 00:37:13,727 --> 00:37:20,326 and he wanted a car that was Iight and simpIe and inexpensive to manufacture, 494 00:37:20,367 --> 00:37:22,358 and inexpensive to operate. 495 00:37:23,287 --> 00:37:26,802 But in detaiI he worked with a number of peopIe 496 00:37:29,847 --> 00:37:32,407 who IiteraIIy sat down in a room and Iocked the door, 497 00:37:32,447 --> 00:37:36,042 and inside they worked the design out together. 498 00:37:37,247 --> 00:37:40,603 I don't think anybody working on the ModeI T Ford caIIed himseIf a designer. 499 00:37:40,647 --> 00:37:44,686 When technoIogies are new they don't need to be designed. 500 00:37:44,727 --> 00:37:49,642 The technoIogy in itseIf was so utterIy, utterIy intoxicatingIy wonderfuI. 501 00:37:50,847 --> 00:37:52,838 When Henry Ford Iooked at a ModeI T, 502 00:37:54,207 --> 00:37:58,120 he, in essence, saw through the body and he saw this chassis, 503 00:37:58,487 --> 00:38:03,163 and he knew aII the ingenuity that had been designed into it, and he appreciated it. 504 00:38:03,207 --> 00:38:05,198 To him it was beautifuI. 505 00:38:05,447 --> 00:38:08,757 The body design was a bit of an afterthought. 506 00:38:09,407 --> 00:38:13,844 It was necessary - obviousIy you had to have a body and you had to have seats, 507 00:38:13,887 --> 00:38:19,644 but it was never very high on Henry Ford's Iist. 508 00:38:28,007 --> 00:38:30,760 A hundred years on from the birth of the Model T, 509 00:38:30,807 --> 00:38:33,526 and car design remains a game of two halves - 510 00:38:34,327 --> 00:38:36,318 the body and the chassis. 511 00:38:37,527 --> 00:38:41,600 Not only are they made separately, they're also conceived separately. 512 00:38:41,887 --> 00:38:44,003 The product of two different mindsets 513 00:38:44,047 --> 00:38:46,038 design and engineering. 514 00:38:47,007 --> 00:38:49,999 Wedgwood and Darby, Venus and Mars. 515 00:38:51,407 --> 00:38:57,118 It is a given that we want to be best in cIass in terms of fueI efficiency, in terms of quaIity, 516 00:38:57,167 --> 00:38:58,964 in terms of safety. 517 00:38:59,007 --> 00:39:02,636 My roIe is very different. I'm the adoIescent in the room. 518 00:39:02,687 --> 00:39:06,805 I'm the guy that says how are we going to create a thriIIing product for the customer 519 00:39:06,847 --> 00:39:09,884 so that once aII those functionaI requirements have been met 520 00:39:09,927 --> 00:39:14,762 we've actuaIIy wrapped that aII in this unbeIievabIy attractive package 521 00:39:14,807 --> 00:39:17,275 that wants to bring that customer into our showroom? 522 00:39:18,887 --> 00:39:22,197 For designers, the chassis is ''the platform'' 523 00:39:22,247 --> 00:39:24,602 which exists to support their designs. 524 00:39:24,647 --> 00:39:27,684 For engineers, design is ''styling'', 525 00:39:27,727 --> 00:39:30,321 sometimes pronounced ''packaging''. 526 00:39:36,167 --> 00:39:40,957 The moment on the production line when chassis and body meet is called the ''marriage''. 527 00:39:41,567 --> 00:39:45,685 And, like many marriages, the outward show of unity often masks tensions 528 00:39:45,727 --> 00:39:47,718 that led up to the wedding day. 529 00:39:48,847 --> 00:39:51,441 It used to be, maybe in the '60s and '70s, 530 00:39:51,487 --> 00:39:55,196 that engineers fancied themseIves as the guys that buiIt the cars 531 00:39:55,247 --> 00:39:58,683 and the designers wouId come in and make them kind of Iook nice at the end. 532 00:39:58,727 --> 00:40:01,719 So our job was reaIIy to come in and make the engineering Iess ugIy. 533 00:40:01,767 --> 00:40:05,123 I suppose if you reaIIy dig down in organisations, 534 00:40:05,167 --> 00:40:10,446 there's aIways an engineer that thinks that their piece of the automobiIe is the most important. 535 00:40:10,487 --> 00:40:14,958 As Iong as they understand at the end of the day that that's wrong, then I'm happy. 536 00:40:17,887 --> 00:40:21,926 But the Model Tis about more than the design of an individual car. 537 00:40:22,647 --> 00:40:26,481 Ford's towering achievement was to design a means of production 538 00:40:26,527 --> 00:40:28,722 that would literally change the world. 539 00:40:29,927 --> 00:40:32,839 They found that they couId seII aII they couId make. 540 00:40:34,447 --> 00:40:37,723 Henry Ford's goaI, however, was to make aII he couId seII. 541 00:40:38,807 --> 00:40:42,004 And so they essentiaIIy, basicaIIy, froze the design of the car 542 00:40:42,047 --> 00:40:44,481 and then they went after the production process. 543 00:40:49,127 --> 00:40:54,042 Ford set out to do for cars what Wedgwood had done with teapots and tureens, 544 00:40:54,087 --> 00:40:57,762 but he went further than any industrialist had ever gone before. 545 00:40:59,287 --> 00:41:04,725 They said instead of having one guy at a bench make a whoIe transmission: 546 00:41:06,247 --> 00:41:10,035 What if we have severaI guys at a bench 547 00:41:10,087 --> 00:41:13,124 and each one does a IittIe thing on the transmission 548 00:41:13,167 --> 00:41:15,886 and then shoves it down the bench to the next guy? 549 00:41:16,407 --> 00:41:19,479 And then they said: ''WeII, that worked better, Iet's try the engine, 550 00:41:19,527 --> 00:41:21,802 Iet's try the rear axIe, Iet's try the front axIe.'' 551 00:41:21,847 --> 00:41:24,964 They were groping their way towards the assembIy Iine. 552 00:41:26,447 --> 00:41:30,804 And, eventuaIIy, it became IogicaI to say: ''What about assembIing the whoIe car?'' 553 00:41:32,167 --> 00:41:37,605 So, by the end of 1 91 3, they actuaIIy had three fuII-bIown assembIy Iines, 554 00:41:37,647 --> 00:41:40,684 paraIIeI Iines cranking out ModeI Ts. 555 00:41:43,607 --> 00:41:46,838 When those first ones were buiIt, which were buiIt conventionaIIy, 556 00:41:46,887 --> 00:41:50,436 it took tweIve and haIf man hours to make a singIe car. 557 00:41:51,367 --> 00:41:53,801 By the time mass production was fuIIy impIemented, 558 00:41:53,847 --> 00:41:56,725 it took 93 minutes to make a singIe car. 559 00:42:01,047 --> 00:42:05,837 In today's fragmented car market, where you've got aII these different choices, 560 00:42:05,887 --> 00:42:07,878 it's hard for us to understand that, 561 00:42:07,927 --> 00:42:13,240 at its peak, virtuaIIy haIf of the automobiIes in the worId 562 00:42:13,287 --> 00:42:15,278 were ModeI T Fords. 563 00:42:34,487 --> 00:42:37,081 But there was a fatal flaw with the Ford System. 564 00:42:37,647 --> 00:42:40,525 lt had become too good at what it was designed to do. 565 00:42:41,487 --> 00:42:43,762 They weren't making cars in any generaI way, 566 00:42:43,807 --> 00:42:45,843 they were making this very specific product 567 00:42:45,887 --> 00:42:49,357 and the machines that they designed were so speciaIised 568 00:42:49,407 --> 00:42:52,479 that they were onIy good for making parts for ModeI Ts. 569 00:42:52,967 --> 00:42:56,164 And Ford became Iess an automobiIe company 570 00:42:56,487 --> 00:42:58,478 than a ModeI T company. 571 00:42:58,527 --> 00:43:02,645 GeneraI Motors and ChrysIer reaIised in the 1 920s that that's what you needed to do. 572 00:43:02,687 --> 00:43:04,279 You needed to re-styIe 573 00:43:04,327 --> 00:43:07,558 and you needed to make significant changes to the appearance of vehicIes 574 00:43:07,607 --> 00:43:10,599 and occasionaIIy to the functionaI eIements of vehicIes 575 00:43:10,647 --> 00:43:12,877 in order to make them continuousIy attractive. 576 00:43:13,567 --> 00:43:17,606 Otherwise, obviousIy the end game wouId be that everybody wouId own a car 577 00:43:17,647 --> 00:43:19,638 and nobody wouId need to repIace it. 578 00:43:20,007 --> 00:43:24,444 You have to make an object not onIy desirabIe to buy, but desirabIe to repIace as weII. 579 00:43:24,647 --> 00:43:29,084 But what happens in a consumer society, as soon as you estabIish that baseIine, 580 00:43:29,127 --> 00:43:31,846 somebody says: ''Can I have a IittIe more? 581 00:43:31,887 --> 00:43:36,358 Can I have a IittIe more comfort, a IittIe more speed, a IittIe more styIe, 582 00:43:36,407 --> 00:43:38,284 coIours maybe?'' 583 00:43:38,327 --> 00:43:41,399 SuddenIy, at that point is when design was born, 584 00:43:41,447 --> 00:43:44,325 because we had answered the functionaI attributes 585 00:43:44,367 --> 00:43:47,643 of moving the customer from point A to point B 586 00:43:47,687 --> 00:43:52,556 and now we were offering the customer a choice of how to go from point A to point B, 587 00:43:52,607 --> 00:43:55,963 and then you couId make the car more attractive through coIours, 588 00:43:56,007 --> 00:44:00,080 through different materiaIs, and then eventuaIIy through different shapes, 589 00:44:00,127 --> 00:44:03,722 and that started to create the design industry as we know it. 590 00:44:08,167 --> 00:44:13,525 Falling sales of the Model T forced Ford to halt production in 1 927, 591 00:44:13,567 --> 00:44:18,038 and to set about designing this year's model, the Model A. 592 00:44:19,567 --> 00:44:22,445 But Ford's reluctance to return to the drawing board 593 00:44:22,487 --> 00:44:25,684 cost his company millions of dollars in lost production 594 00:44:25,727 --> 00:44:28,799 and its place as the dominant player in the car market. 595 00:44:30,127 --> 00:44:32,197 He had learned the hard way 596 00:44:32,247 --> 00:44:36,445 a fundamental truth about the consumer society that was coming into being. 597 00:44:36,807 --> 00:44:40,322 We, the people, are not content with iron pots. 598 00:44:40,727 --> 00:44:42,718 We want Wedgwood vases, too. 599 00:44:44,807 --> 00:44:49,642 My sense is that he thought that this was not onIy aII the car you wouId ever need; 600 00:44:49,687 --> 00:44:53,316 it's aII the car you shouId ever want. 601 00:44:54,567 --> 00:45:01,803 And so, ironicaIIy, the guy who set this whoIe 20th-century consumer cuIture, 602 00:45:01,847 --> 00:45:03,838 did so much to set it in motion, 603 00:45:03,887 --> 00:45:07,800 found himseIf increasingIy aIienated from it. 604 00:45:09,967 --> 00:45:13,926 And hanging on to the ModeI T was his way of saying: ''SIow down!'' 605 00:45:16,247 --> 00:45:20,206 But it was fruitIess. He couIdn't sIow it down. 606 00:45:43,287 --> 00:45:46,040 Today, we live in a post-Ford world, 607 00:45:46,447 --> 00:45:49,245 a world in which potters design on computers 608 00:45:49,287 --> 00:45:51,642 and print out their pots in 3D. 609 00:45:55,767 --> 00:45:59,965 A world in which mass production has been replaced by mass customisation, 610 00:46:00,407 --> 00:46:02,796 and the buzz-phrase is the ''market of one''. 611 00:46:04,367 --> 00:46:07,598 A world in which our appetite for stuff has become a problem 612 00:46:07,647 --> 00:46:09,922 we'd rather not think about too much. 613 00:46:15,007 --> 00:46:18,636 But however our stuff is designed and made and disposed of, 614 00:46:18,687 --> 00:46:21,042 it remains a designed world 615 00:46:21,087 --> 00:46:23,840 made by us and for us, 616 00:46:23,887 --> 00:46:28,563 overseen by designers who will continue to worry about the way things are, 617 00:46:28,607 --> 00:46:31,724 and how to make them just a little bit better. 618 00:46:32,527 --> 00:46:34,882 I don't want to make a new chair 619 00:46:34,927 --> 00:46:38,283 because I beIieve that there are enough chairs. 620 00:46:40,367 --> 00:46:48,763 What is aIways interesting is to find a soIution which has some new things on it. 621 00:46:48,807 --> 00:46:56,680 For exampIe, you need a soIution for soft fIoors, hard fIoors, and wheeIs. 622 00:46:57,807 --> 00:46:59,798 Three important things. 623 00:47:01,367 --> 00:47:05,485 But no chair has aII these three. I know. 624 00:47:06,207 --> 00:47:08,198 OK, Iet me think about that. 625 00:47:08,247 --> 00:47:11,319 Now I'm stiII thinking. Yes.