Patrick Flick's rate of change graphic. Copenhagen August 28 2009

With the economic, social and environmental problems that the planet faces today it would be easy to give in to a pessimistic world view: science offers a gloomy outlook and attempts to reverse the negative tide often appear too little, too late. Yet from the design sector comes hope: in the midst of eco buzzwords and sustainability banter, there is a new generation of designers who are implementing 'new design' and starting to reap the benefits.

'New design' deploys the potential and fluidity of the design process in multidisciplinary fields to produce tangible solutions to global problems; this new form of design is dubbed 'process design', 'service design' or 'human centered desig', but could simply be called designing for good.

To shed light on the economic potential and business value of design for good, the INDEX: organization invited four major contemporary design figures to a seminar moderated by Alice Rawsthorn, entitled 'Designing For Good - What do you get out of it?'. The speakers - Chris Bangle, Fabio Cavalli, Cameron Sinclair and Patrick Flick - each unraveled their motivations and methodologies for addressing global problems through design.

In her comprehensive introduction Alice Rawsthorn stated: "There is nothing new about designing for good because there is no such thing as designing for bad", pointing out examples of sustainable design practices that date back to the 1920s. However she also admitted that: "ugly fuel-guzzling cars, malfunctioning mobile phones, illegible instruction books and landfills filled with crap" have tarnished the reputation of design, associating it in the public eye with the mass production of things that people don't really need and that then fail to go away; a phenomenon she described as a post-modern design nightmare. According to Alice, at this economic and industrial tipping point, design must use its potential to address the needy majorities, as opposed to fulfilling the desires of the wealthy minorities. In practical terms this means designing fairer, more inclusive public services, regenerating the economy, responding to natural disasters and improving the overall quality of life. Design in these terms is broadening its horizons and creating important competitive parameters, critical in the development of 'useful' design.

Designing for good: Good for who? American automobile designer Chris Bangle, described by Phil Patton of New York Times as "arguably the most influential auto designer of his generation" opened the seminar. Bangle is most renowned for his role as Chief of Design for the BMW group, where his cutting edge designs brought BMW, Mini Cooper, and Rolls Royce into the twenty-first century and earned him his reputation as a controversial designer.

His talk revealed the challenge of designing for good in a corporate environment, where the designer's efforts are divided between customer demands and the physical designing of car. Investment is a scary business for companies, meaning that design often is not used to its full potential and ideas do not come to fruition: there is a limit to the customer's willingness to pay. The lagging development of electric vehicles exemplifies this design challenge for the car industry. Chris Bangle, however, is driven by a quest to 'strategize emotion', convinced that the 'outsider's' perspective is often more valuable than the pedantic design approach of industry teams. His brainchild GINA, a concept car with a fabric skin, embodies his vision that cars should adapt to changing lifestyles and societies. GINA has radically re-defined the idea of non-defined surfaces in car design, and its fabric skin substitutes the most energy-consuming part of car design: steel painting and the innovative GBK technology alters the manufacturing process, cutting costs. Chris Bangle believes that within a company designing for good means creating something that is good for people. He envisages mechtronics playing a crucial role in the future of car design as the future points to shared vehicle interiors and technology will need to be more adaptable to their context.

Fabio Cavalli: a non-designer on a design mission Fabio Cavalli, Chief Executive Officer of mondoBIOTECH introduced himself as a non-designer on a design mission, finding therapies for 'rare' diseases. In 2001 he founded mondoBIOTECH, a non-profit open source biotech company that combines innovative technology with a creative business model, with the aim of finding treatments for rare diseases.

MondoBIOTECH applies a method known as search and development, based on an understanding of severe and rare diseases and the knowledge of certain products of the human body. It performs classical research with new compounds and investigates the use of the human body's own potential therapeutics. On August 26 2009 mondoBIOTECH became the first company ever to go public without banks, with patients from its growing community buying the shares. Fabio's faith in open source business is based on his profound belief that sharing reduces risks and his dream is to improve the lives of millions of patients afflicted by rare diseases that are often overlooked.

Process design: the power of the invisible Patrick Flick is the founder and executive board member of Value Web, an international network of process designers and facilitators that delivers collaborative engagements to leaders and their organizations around the world seeking solutions to systemic and complex problems. He is also a partner in Blatter+Flick, a boutique philanthropy advisory and facilitation firm based in Switzerland.

Patrick passionately believes that the design process has the potential to empower individuals to find new ways to solve complex, abstract problems. In detailed graphs he showed how problems related to human activity have exploded since the 1950s, whereas our ability to resolve these problems, on the other hand, has not grown exponentially. This is where design steps in.

His vision is less focused on the application of new technologies, and more embedded in the very characteristics of design itself as an eclectic, adaptable, deliberative and collaborative practice. By making leverage on these characteristics he works with philanthropists who want to invest their money in doing good. He applies design thinking to complex global issues to come up with an A-Z investment strategy. He admits that: "The most difficult part is making it visible, clients can't want what they do not know, and seeing beyond experience is the toughest challenge", but he insists that the process evolves like nature and the end result is innovation. He concluded: "life by design, not default".

Doing well by doing good Cameron Sinclair is the co-founder, 'Executive director and eternal optimist' of Architecture for humanity, a charitable organization which seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brings professional design services to communities in need. Since it was founded in 1999 the organization has worked in thirty-one countries on projects ranging from schools, health clinics, affordable housing and long-term sustainable reconstruction. Among other numerous accomplishments he and Kate Stohr published a compendium on socially conscious design entitled 'Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises'.

Cameron Sinclair's success demonstrates the power of collaborative design and how it can respond to the world housing crises. In his heartfelt and eloquent address Cameron revealed how innovative open source technology, knowledge distribution, social networks and on-site community work combined with architectural skills can foster change, and it has to be said that he walks the talk. After starting out in 1999 with a modest investment and a website, he strove to find a way to get building and design professionals involved in humanitarian issues, and to give where resources are scarce. Since then the organization has grown into a high-profile global network of 40,000 design professionals, earning international recognition.

Cameron concluded his talk by underlining three key aspects related to the success of designing for good: implementation, culture and interconnectivity.

Although there is a tendency to be skeptical about the realistic possibilities of doing good while doing business - empty mantras of sustainability buzzwords and accounts of greenwashing are all too widespread - you'd have to be a dyed in the wool cynic not to be captured by the sheer determination and enduring optimism of these designers as they intrepidly pursue their goals for our future wellbeing. And while 'new design' may not literally save the world, it can certainly restore our ability to dream.