Telegrams to the Designer

Nine days ago I launched the Milan Design Week thread with the Alchimia Manifesto; today I'm going to take a break and leave you with Studio Alchimia's "Telegrammi al Designer (Telegrams to the Designer), ten telegrams published in the '80s and addressed to young designers (mainly architects and interior designers, even though they could actually be applied to any kind of designer).

We are currently living in amazing times, with wonderful ideas being circulated by young and talented creative talents. Yet, at the same time, we are also living in tremendously confusing times and we are facing every day serious issues of different kinds (health, financial and political for example…) on a global level.

Some of these telegrams may sound bizarre, others would be great if printed on T-shirts, others would be perfect mottos for design studios, all of them should be sent instead to all those fashionistas – Lapo Elkann and his Fiat 500 "designed" by Gucci included – who thought design week was a wonderful excuse to have parties and cocktails, ignoring all those frustrated young designers who don't manage to get their ideas past the prototype stage, all those factory workers (Fiat workers included, dear Lapo) who lost their jobs and all those heavily indebted entrepreneurs who, not seeing a way out, committed suicide.

Telegrams to the Designer

Interior design and architecture are the maternal womb – mother is their spontaneous designer – inhabitation is a natural act without rules – recall attraction of soft design as opposite to hard design – the private house and its closed scene is the last refuge left to freedom for man immersed in neo and post modern world – stop

Think that objects are also made of flesh – the human body is a self contained design system – if man sits on ground the whole world beneath becomes his chair – important to remember that millions objects created by man are only extensions of his body and therefore must not hurt him – stop

Moral hypothesis of the traditional industrial system is to spread wealth through technology – therefore achieving utopia of widespread prosperity – instead equality increased – irreversible violence is permanent characteristic of mankind – stop

Must increase mass imagination and decrease elite design – neo and post modern man is a specialist amateur – everyone who looks at their reflection in a mirror each morning, gets dressed and combs their hair is a great portraitist and best painter of themselves – stop

There is no such thing as development but circularity between past present and future – they endlessly redesign themselves – the acceleration of information produces the phenomenon of instant antiques – the object of future is timeless – stop

Consider image of neo and post industrial epoch – objects become non objects – illusory evanescent warm discreet light eclectic composite formless slightly multi-coloured and without hard edges – stop

Each object differs from every other – it's necessary to adapt objects to the diversity of the individual behaviour – each person differs from every other – stop

Naturalness of man lies in his ever increasing artificiality – this is positive – all man's actions are progressive falsification of the natural – neo and post modern man is like a sentimental robot – but the following words mean same throughout time – death pain illness war fear hunger – stop

The new designer will no longer work on genuine and safe objects worthy of eternity – in the present conditions it is impossible to know where we are heading therefore designs have temporary value with few connections with the coldness of authenticity but tied to the fleet chaos of the apparent and the unknown – amorous design is opposed to functional design – stop

Think about the idea of the terrestrial paradise – the terrestrial paradise was perfect place – its main feature was the total absence of architecture objects organisation planning – even nowadays the best hypothesis in this world is existence without designing – stop

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