I was recently talking to a designer who works for a top car company, and he revealed that he has just spent four years working on the steering wheel design for a new model. FOUR YEARS! I can't possibly imagine how one person can fill that many working days on just one object. And what about all the other designers working there? How many are there for the whole car? How long will one of them spend on the rear light cover, or even the coat hanger hook??
What really disturbs me though is how this obsessive search for perfection reflects the values of our society. How can the creative value of this design resource be so squandered when there are so many infinitely more pressing problems that need solving? Millions, even billions, of people on this planet are starving, malnourished or without proper basic facilities such as shelter or running water. With all that desperately urgent need out there we fritter away our time on the unbelievable and unpardonable luxury of a steering wheel that takes four years to design! Surely even six months would produce a perfectly adequate steering wheel, and the car company can then donate the remaining three and half years of the designer's time to solving the real problems of this world?!
