When Alex Milton returned to his native London after a role as a designer for General Motors in Detroit (who advised that he “didn’t have enough petrol in his blood”) he began to explore a broader practice and found more fuel for his process in “the space between disciplines”. Working as a consultant with designers as they created processes and assembled teams, he was able to map out a role for himself. “I was lucky that at the time, there were very few people talking about process rather than glossy portfolios. I was able to – rather cheekily – go into companies and say: ‘You don’t need another designer, you need a design thinker – someone who can do process for you’.”
This led to a series of ever more prestigious consulting and academic positions between England and Scotland, before he took the position of Head of the Faculty of Design at NCAD. Which, in turn, brings us to his current position as Programme Director of Irish Design 2015. Although the ‘year of Irish design’ has ended, Milton is now engaged in carving out a meaningful legacy for the initiative. Presently he’s collating reports on the year’s impact, feeding into a statistical analysis of design practice in Ireland on a scale never seen before. While that process is still underway, it feeds into an informed perspective on what it is to be a designer in Ireland and how Irish design fits in an international context. “[In Ireland] we’re not good at arguing the case and quantifying the actual impact of what we do. It’s one of the benefits of ID2015 – we can measure the impact of design at that broader scale. When you can present those figures it is a route to speaking to other industries and to government in their own language.”
The language of design in Ireland – outside of the design community – is a huge challenge that Milton hopes can be overcome. “We talk about fashion in the context of style pages. We talk about products in the context of shopping guides. If we talk about architecture we talk about it in the context of the property pages. For graphic design we talk about ‘How much did that logo cost? A disgrace!’… It’s a huge issue for me. We need to get design out of those little ghettos and get people discussing it.”
Design’s historical and contemporary relationships with the press, with education and with industry in Ireland, have framed practice here, Milton argues: “There are really strong cultural differences, and most designers are the product of their environment – initially the product of their education. In the UK, 150 years ago, they established a series of regional design schools to create design for industry, as opposed to only in the context of the arts. The UK has an industrial heritage which they really tap into. Ireland, bar elements in the North, didn’t experience Industrial Revolution. There is a different cultural perspective. Industry also plays a huge role politically. Industry has always been a driver of design and that relationship to governance, so it’s not there in Ireland.”
By contrast: “In Finland there are design units embedded in each government department. If you look at leading companies on the FTSE 100 or similar, they all have a CDO. Another great example is South Korea. This used to be a place where low-end, cheap products were made. But now South Korea knows that it can’t compete with China on cost, let alone its smaller Asian nation neighbours. It’s got to go up the value chain, and the route is design. Companies like Samsung, Hyundai, LG are really investing in design. But the biggest thing that is happening is investment in education. Last year alone they invested the equivalent of $1bn in design education. South Korea now has more than 230 design schools. That’s more than the USA. And design is a component of every university course. In Stanford, if you do an MBA, you’ll do a course in Design Thinking. In Ireland design isn’t taught at all until third level; where it’s taught in quite traditional ways and formats. We’re behind the curve.”
So, in the face of age-old structures and massive investment in design – of which we have neither – can Irish design compete? Can we be taken seriously as a nation producing design? Do we have the opportunity to create good work? Milton asserts that “not having to work to such a well-defined model gives the space to breathe.”
“What’s interesting is that the places that are at one remove from what are traditionally thought of as the centres of design industry – design capitals – have that space. Having spent 2015 travelling the world with a series of Irish design exhibitions, Milton feels that “the response we got was phenomenal – recognition in London, New York, Milan – the work was world-class… The key thing is trying to focus on strengths and address some of those weaknesses.”
Milton speaks of Irish designers as “sensitively making interventions”. He states, “We have modesty and empathy. The work isn’t showy… There’s a quiet confidence and we are very good at doing certain things. We’re much more introverted, considered and thoughtful. And there’s a strong ethical model to it – to be seen to be doing good. Elsewhere, you experience the elevator pitch. In Ireland it’s a more conversational pitch about creating a relationship over time with the client.”
“Designers need to learn to speak the language of other communities, because it’s no good to look at them, and say ‘they don’t understand us!’, and go and insult them. And it’s a story, which is a strength in Irish designers. If you tease the information out of an Irish designer there’s a compelling story there.”
Speaking from his experiences of living in the city, Milton cites O’Connell Street as an example of where thinking about design in a different manner could help: “I look around there thinking, ‘as a design environment, this isn’t working.’ Why? We should be addressing that. And design is a way to understand what communities need, how it’s going to function, what’s required. Design can make that fundamental impact, but we’re not necessarily using it in that sense. We’re not confident about describing it like that, we view it as being a bit arty-farty, and it’s not. It’s an intrinsic part of our lives. We need to take more ownership over that and demand better.”
So where does he see himself fitting into this picture? Where will his own practice take him as he continues with ID2015, and presumably, beyond it? “I’m a much better creative director than designer. My ego has come to terms with that. *[As]* a creative director you’re not hands on with everything yourself, so you’re seeing design as a system; a set of methodologies. I love doing certain bits, but I’m also aware that there are other people who might be better at doing other bits of it. So it’s about assembling this amazing team – that can be a design process. I don’t want to be Iron Man, but I do want to be Nick Fury!”
You can find out more about Alex’s work at www.alexmiltondesign.com and see some of the results of ID2015 at www.irishdesign2015.ie.
Words: David Wall
