Semantic, interface, ergonomic, poetic, emotional, aesthetic, experiential issues were not part of the discussion. The number of quality products offered for sale today is truly amazing , given the process through which most consumer goods manufacturers produce new lines, totally and thoroughly predicted in previous performance and sales histories, investments in tooling, equipment and habits of engineering and manufacturing. We are amidst a post-industrial age, an age where autonomy, diversity, change, vicissitude, and the moment exist in harmony with technological manifestation. In order to make change in the world one must understand where the world is going and create the change from within a given contemporary condition, not resort to a condition that is misanthropic and historic. Sotsass said in 1982 that we are entering a time when we control the machine, the machine does not control the outcome.
Few designers embrace technological process.
Its almost to the point where designers are acting as naive artisans who want to 'self express' regardless of manufacturing. If Designers and manufacturers continue to bifurcate then industrial design will become even less significant as a relative profession. The process of design is to develop very intelligent solutions with new ideas to manifest our objects of our milieu. If we can embrace the Old School concerns of total engagement in production and industry we produce responsible objects. If we can achieve the newer issues of responding to the subject at hand and develop highly experiential, communicative, interactive but poetic works, then good design can exist respectfully, visibly and effectively in our commodity landscape.