The elements of change

REFLECTIONS

Caroline Till, co-founder of research agency Franklin Till, on inspiring difference through material innovation and sustainability – and how design can change the world…

I come from a trend-forecasting background, but we like to distance ourselves from the word ‘trend’ because that’s inherently connected with the perpetuation of ‘newness’ and fuelling fast, mass consumption. We’re working on the premise that we’ve reached a point of material shortages and issues relating to energy consumption that we cannot continue to fuel. So we start from that premise, but use it not as a limitation but as a challenge.

I think we are very pragmatic in our approach. I was involved in this amazing event at the Klosters Forum in Switzerland recently, looking at the issue of stemming the flow of plastic into the ocean – there was a whole amazing range of expertise, but what I realised was that a lot of people are in the realm of communicating dystopia and focusing on that. We believe that we already have many of the tools we need to work towards solving these issues – it’s just a matter of getting the right heads together, or approaching the system slightly differently, and we are very much advocates of that.

I’m always quite naïve in that I think everything can be resolved with a design approach – that everything is effectively a design problem. Particularly with the issue of plastic, I think we designed our way into it, by not thinking where it was going to end up. And we were also guilty of exalting its particular properties relating to longevity, and producing amazingly seductive marketing stories and narratives around that – along with incentives from petrochemical companies with which there are huge issues.

Our book Radical Matter is essentially saying that designers are very much working as change makers. I used to run the Material Futures course at Central St Martins – I’m still very involved in design education at various different institutions – and I see more often than not students massively taking responsibility for some of the major social and environmental issues that we are facing in the 21st century. So we feel positive about that.

At Franklin Till, we call ourselves a research agency specialising in colour and material innovation – and we’re particularly interested in how we can work with clients to communicate and activate this research with a positive social and environmental impact. We like to think that we’re not making people buy things, but rather we’re helping our clients to make things that people want to buy. So with that sense, there’s hopefully a more inherent concept of sustainability.

We’re really passionate about making the information as accessible and inspiring as possible. I suppose that’s where we differ from intensive data analysis companies. We’re not generating new knowledge per se – we’re essentially trying to amass and analyse and then activate knowledge that’s already existing.

It seems crazy in this day and age that we can design and output products on a mass scale, but not have to have any consideration about where that material is going to go afterwards. And even though we’re at this point where there’s so much conversation about circularity and circular design – and resources like the Ellen MacArthur Foundation are amazing in increasing knowledge and awareness around that – it still feels that there’s so much disillusionment around. For the broader design industry, the information about this can be quite dry and inaccessible. So we’re trying to make that information not just more accessible but more realistic on an individual basis.

We believe that the seduction of design is one of the most powerful things: through making things visually stimulating and beautiful, you can help people see where it fits, where it’s relevant for them.

We do a lot of workshops within companies trying to explore sustainable strategies, either within a specific product line or as a company as a whole. I think traditionally over the past 10 years or so people have seen it as a big stick that they’re being whacked with, so we’re trying to reposition it, so that it doesn’t feel as if they’re being told off for doing something bad.

Often the barriers to finding alternatives mean the solutions are just not there yet. So it’s going to require a different approach: for instance we’ve worked with some major global manufacturing brands who are very open to the idea of shifting their whole business model, to becoming more localised, very focused on local material and manufacture. Of course, major shifts like that aren’t going to happen overnight, but it’s very heartening to know that companies of that scale are taking responsibility and looking at where change needs to happen.

We have increasingly been seeing a backlash against mass production because I think people are really disillusioned, not only by having exactly the same thing as the person sitting next to them, but also having this disconnection with what surrounds them, because it’s not reflective of them or their increasing social and environmental concerns, or of their values in general.

I really feel both on an individual level and a brand level that we need tools to help us navigate the complexity of the sustainable agenda. Like everyone else, I’ve got limited economic capability, I’ve got a young child, I’m time poor – and I want to understand where would be best to focus my social and environmental concerns; should it be not holidaying outside of the UK? Or not driving my car any more? Just understanding those trade-offs. I think the plastic issue for me is a big one, particularly having been involved in all the conversations we’ve had recently. But there just aren’t the alternatives available on the market at the moment – and whether we need to be much more active as consumers and stop shopping at supermarkets unless they stop using single-use plastic in places it doesn’t need to be…

For Caroline Till, co-founder (with Kate Franklin) of the agency Franklin Till, ‘everything is effectively a design problem’ - she is committed to ensuring information is presented in as accessible a way as possible

So the plastic issue does keep me awake at night – as well as generally having a sense as an individual where my action is best placed. But then also, through the work that we do, how we could help other people to navigate that.

What’s really exciting at the moment is we’ve reached a point where sustainability has never been so talked about. Suddenly the fashion industry has got on board, which is amazing – they’re usually always the last to the party when it comes to something they think is unsexy – but suddenly it’s ‘cool’ to talk about sustainability, which is amazing.

There is a massive danger here – it cannot just be a fad or a trend that we have this level of concern. Also we’re at risk of people getting ‘issue fatigue’ – where it’s about female empowerment one day or save the rhino the next –I worry that we could become numb to these issues because we’re communicated to about so many of them on a daily basis.

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