Design for the other 90%

The most thought-provoking design exhibition in New York of the summer was Design for the Other 90% at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. While Design Life Now: The National Design Triennial took up the former Carnegie mansion's interiors, curator Cynthia Smith's Design for the Other 90% was, fittingly perhaps, situated outside in the garden. Coming out onto the lawn from the Triennial, the first thing that struck me about Design for the Other 90% was that it wasn't a particularly aesthetically-pleasing exhibition. It also seemed rather small, tucked away in a corner of the garden. But it's a start. The exhibition's premise was simple but confronting---most of what we think of as design is produced for a small fraction of the world's population with large disposable incomes. Indeed, much of the work in the vast Triennial fell into this category of design that serves the world's wealthiest 10%.