By Christos Christou studied industrial design in Milan. Yet these are the markets that have contributed to the recent economic growth. In order to talk about design in Greece, it is essential to analyze how Greek industry works. Industrial design, the process of developing and promoting new products, is not active in the Greek economy. Even though the industrial revolution was completed not so many years ago, Greece has yet to make the designing of a product part of its culture.
History offers an explanation.
Right after the Second World War, many private initiatives led industrial rates to extremely high levels. Since there were no Greek industrial designers at that time, many original products were designed by engineers, architects and even artists. As a result, Greek industrial companies focused on new ways to make money and design was not a priority. Low cost, quality products were entering the market and the Greek government began protecting financially problematic companies by acquiring them and keeping them alive with public funds. What ensued was an incredible mess that in the past 20 years has changed the face of Greek industry.