When design makes good: NGV

The NGV's latest design exhibition, Making Good: Redesiging the Everyday on show at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV International, aims to present tangible examples of how designers are reimagining everyday products and systems for the good of both humans and the planet. And it's a cleverly titled show. The "making good" of the name invokes the positive contribution contemporary designers are making by prioritising ecological responsibility, ethical production processes and social impact. It also hints at what we, as designers, might not always want to talk about: that design, despite its often, good intentions, has been complicit in myriad issues and the cause of significant harm. So, how can we, as designers, begin to repair some of the damage that we've caused? How can design make good on its promise to contribute positively to the world?

The work on display made some suggestions, and I found myself thinking again about British designer Kiki Grammatopoulos's Rewild the run shoes numerous times after my visit. Learning from biomimicry, the shoes have a chunky, bristled outer sole that grips and distributes seeds, thus involving the runner in rewilding the city. Displayed nearby was the memorably named Full Metal Jacket made from an antibacterial copper textile, created by clothing brand Vollebak. Together, these prototypes prompted the imagination, conjuring visions of cities dense with greenery that had been spread by long-limbed runners, and bacteria-free hospitals teeming with staff outfitted in scrubs that would look perfectly at home in an early 2000s music video.

Alongside these more evocative works, less glamorous items designed for daily use argued for the transformative impact that practical, functional designs can have. Items eradicating single-use plastic included compostable food wrap, edible coffee cups and plant-based ear plugs, while a dehydrated oat milk powder showed how product innovation can reduce packaging and the energy used in transport, in this case by significantly reducing the product's weight. Collectively, these items underscored the impact of personal choice on the climate crisis.

Coming from a background in landscape architecture, it would be amiss of me not to mention the built environment work on display, from schemes for more sustainable architecture, to paint systems that purify the air. While the proposal for Hotel Optimismo - an energy-generating, waste-recycling, high-rise built from carbon-sequestering materials by Finding Infinity (presented in a short video) was no doubt thought-provoking, I lingered longer over a film that documented the already built and operating Regenerative Futures Studio at Woodleigh School. Designed by Joost Bakker with McIldowie Partners and Sam Cox, one could see the physical outcome and hear the testimonials of the building's impact on the students who use it.

Making Good should make you feel good about design as a profession. And the broad range of approaches on display offers much food for thought when it comes to interdisciplinary thinking. (Are there approaches to more ecologically responsible design that come from fashion design, for instance, that could be taken into architecture? Or vice versa?) Furthermore, as designers, there are the choices we make in our professional practice - how we frame a brief, the approach we take to a project, the materials we specify - but also the decisions we make in the everyday running of our studios, and at home in our domestic spaces. Making Good helps us to appreciate the many scales and dimensions of design, highlighting just how many (design) decisions we make in our personal and professional lives.