Towards An Open Conventions Body For metaModern Design

One of the benefits of modern societies is that the effort of designers and manufacturers can often be focused on a relatively small number of conventions and particular designs. This can sometimes lead to very high quality designs and substantial harmony amongst the elements of the designed world that are easy to mass produce and that appeal to individuals from many different national, religious, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. However, there are drawbacks. When there is a concentration of focus on a small number of conventions and designs — such as what is often seen in economic central planning — it may lead to less freedom for designers and fewer options for consumers.

Is there a way to gain some of the benefits of concentrating large numbers of designers on a relatively small number of conventions and designs without the coercion and limitations sometimes associated with modernist schemes? One approach is to create a metaModern design open conventions group that is similar to internet standards groups such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). This group could attract designers from around the world who could work together to define conventions for metaModernist designs, modular interfaces, and complete designs for various types of manufactured items. The items produced by the design body could be modified by anyone under the condition that modifications be released under an agreed to licensing scheme, such as Creative Commons licenses. These items could then be used for free as the bases for products and services created by any manufacture that wishes to participate. Manufactures may find being associated with the design body and displaying its logo gives them a competitive advantage compared to a relatively unknown manufacture producing their own independent designs. Several manufactures may compete by manufacturing the same designs with an emphasis on tailoring for particular markets as well as on factors such as availability, guarantees, quality, and cost. This dynamic may lead to improvements in diversity, quality, innovation, and cost — in addition to a more robust supply chain — than a single manufacturer may be capable of producing alone. Products and services based on the work of a metaModern design group might complement one another more often than a random collection of items purchased in the marketplace, since they would be based on a set of related conventions, modular interfaces, and designs. Since contributing and using designs would be voluntary, and the items produced would be available under relatively free licensing arrangements, a plurality of design groups would be free to form around a set of shared designs and could collaborate to whatever degree they found appropriate.

The conventions produced by a metaModern design group might make general design recommendations for things like typeface, line, texture, proportion, pattern, stitching, quality standards, modular interfaces, materials, and manufacturing techniques. These specifications might also be used in a core set of particular designs for nearly every imaginable product class — including furniture, kitchenware, clothing, buildings, transportation, infrastructure, and appliances. In an advanced form, the conventions and designs could be parameterized and loadable into a CAD system for customization and to guide the construction of new designs.

Unlike some Postmodern approaches, metaModern approaches don’t simply criticize ideology. They attempt to improve quality of life through pragmatic conventions that are explicitly labeled as guesses that we are permitted to adopt, abandon, criticize, and revise. Both the design process and the items produced should communicate the value of epistemic humility and socially constructed pragmatic conventions that focus on voluntary cooperation.

A metaModern approach to design might be rooted in modernist functionalism with some elements that deviate from functionalism in a way that is intended to express criticism of forceful ideological approaches to the world. Proportions, colors, shapes, materials, and textures might deviate from functionalist designs in subtle but psychologically positve ways — such as “cute aesthetics”. Optionally, “other-than-modernist” accents might complement the primarily functionalist design by referring to ethnicity, nationality, religion, or fantasy elements in ways that harmonize well with the modernist elements. Another approach might start with a primarily non-functionalist design and complement it with small amounts of functionalism — similarly to what one might see in a old building that has been renovated. Manufactures could compete by varying the designs in ways that are appropriate to their customers while still resonating well with the global MetaModern design community by conforming to style conventions, customizing common designs, and creating items that implement modular interfaces.

An open conventions body for metaModern design could work towards creating improvements in global quality of life by offering affordable, high quality designs that could be manufactured by any manufacturer — where the designs would tend to complement one another compared to other items in the marketplace. Manufacturer diversity and competition could help to lower costs and keep quality high while still producing complementary products and services that appeal to a large portion of humanity. Designers could find employment with manufacturers and distributors who could use their consulting services to tailor designs and create novel designs that incorporate both open items and proprietary items similar to Open-Source Hardware (OSH). The designs and the open conventions process itself could communicate the value of epistemic humility and socially constructed pragmatic conventions that emphasize voluntary cooperation.

In order to keep quality high and protect the reputation of the participants, each item submitted could require approval by those who have already contributed approved designs — where each contributors vote could be weighted based on the number and type of designs they have already had approved by the community. Contributors could be allowed to delegate their votes to others if the do not have the time or expertise for evaluating a design submission. The square root of the points a contributor has earned could be used when weighting their vote if the contributors would like voting power to be a function of contributions without creating very large power inequality.

Some Conventions For A metaModern Aesthetic

There may be many ways the form of a design might reflect metaModern values, and not just the process that produced the design. One approach is to begin with design elements that are associated with modernist utopianism and Functionalism and to modify them in subtle ways while still producing a positive psychological impact — think Helvetica tweaked to slightly resemble baby animal proportions. Including elements from outside of modernist utopianism is permissible, however, it’s important to avoid creating negative pastiches.

• Functionalist/Modernist designs that are modified in subtle ways using “cute aesthetics” that deviate from more typical Functionalist/Modernist designs in some way, such as proportion, material, texture, and color
• In some cases there may be inclusion of figurative or organic elements from nature, religion, ethnicity, nationality, or pure fantasy where the “other-than-modernist” portions are still harmonious or matched with the modernist portions in some way, such as form, proportion, material, texture, or color
• Modularity that allows for a diverse collection of designs to complement and interoperate with one another even when produced by a diverse collection of independent designers and manufacturers
• Elaborate proprietary elements since making design files freely available creates less dependence on a single manufacturer

Values:

• Epistemic humility
• Belief in the ability of pragmatic applications of rationality and empathy to improve quality of life
• Respect for the freedom to voluntarily cooperate to varying degrees
• Celebration of pragmatic applications of rationality, empathy and sharing of resources in ways that improve quality of life