Ep. 261 - What can design do with Pepijn Zurburg

Audiogyan is proud to partner with UnBox Cultural Futures Society and What Design Can do. What Design Can Do, is an international organization that seeks to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, fair, and just society using the power of design.

WhatDesignCanDo is launching the “Make it Circular Challenge” - a global design competition building a circular future in partnership with IKEA. This Challenge invites designers and creative entrepreneurs everywhere to submit design-driven climate innovations. The end goal? To show the world that a circular future is not only imaginable — but actionable. Winning projects will be propelled into 2023 with €10.000 in funding and a tailor-made development program. Submit your proposals online for free by 31 January 2023. Check out the design briefs and learn more about them at makeitcircular.whatdesigncando.com

Pepijn Zurburg joins us on Audiogyan. He is a designer and an art director. During his studies at the Utrecht School of the Arts and Sandberg Institute, Pepijn met Richard van der Laken. Together, they founded the renowned visual design agency De Designpolitie, the graphic design collective Gorilla, and What Design Can Do. Their work has won numerous awards and features in the permanent collection of galleries such as Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and MoMa New York. Working with partners and clients from KPN to Frascati Theatre, and many more. Pepijn is responsible for leadership and strategy, branding, and visual communication for everything at “What Design Can Do”. A true allround designer with a strong hands-on approach.

Questions

1. What's your definition of design? How has it changed over time?
2. What according to you is a “short term” and “long term” view on using Design, for profitability? What according to you, design can really do and what are we doing?
3. What is the “What can design do” competition about?
4. What are the fundamental aspects of circular design for this year's theme?
5. What made you start with Richard, “What Design Can Do”? Any moment, project, or milestone which you think is a trigger/starting point?
6. Can you give us a panoramic view from 2015 till today? Maybe talk a little bit about the start with the “refugee challenge” and others to this year's “make it circular” challenge
7. Design is a continuum (Naveen Bagalkot), a process where we peel layers by shipping. What framework do you use to evaluate that proposed ideas are actionable? In your research docs, you mentioned “The Five Circular Ways of Living”. Can you tell us more about it?
8. I had given a flash talk a long time ago called “Designed by Default”. In short, it was about… “things are designed by default in nature”. We as the human species, rewire stuff for some incentives which more often than not land up in a few tradeoffs. What are your thoughts on that? How do you look at the synthesis after this tradeoff?
9. Can you conclude by sharing any case study/winner or 2, which you loved the most in the last 5 years?
10. One surprise question, regarding hands-on. Does a designer need to be hands-on all his/her career? What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an individual contributor all throughout?

Reference reading

1. https://www.whatdesigncando.com/makeitcircularchallenge/
2. https://www.whatdesigncando.com/our-challenges/
3. https://makeitcircular.whatdesigncando.com
4. https://www.youtube.com/@WhatDesignCanDoVideo
5. https://www.instagram.com/whatdesigncando/
6. https://twitter.com/WhatDesignCanDo
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXhzxS6nqDU
8. http://quicksand.co.in
9. http://quicksand.co.in/unbox
10. https://www.whatdesigncando.com/project/living-coffin/
11. https://www.whatdesigncando.com/project/nyungu-afrika/
12. https://www.instagram.com/pepijnzurburg/?hl=en
13. https://www.linkedin.com/in/pepijn-zurburg-8207247/?originalSubdomain=nl
14. https://www.designpolitie.nl
15. https://www.whatdesigncando.com/about-wdcd/our-team/