Photo: Richard Gardner
What is American design?
I.M. Pei famously said that architecture reflects society. But all design — from office supplies to SUVs, strip malls, suburbs, screen savers and salt shakers — both reflects and refracts. In other words, everything a society makes becomes the building blocks of its future.
Americans in the 21st century are surrounded by indifferent commodities entirely disconnected from their history and materiality, engage with the world primarily via arcane black boxes, and live, work, shop, eat and convene inside generic, market-driven spaces. While these places and objects mostly serve their surface purpose, all too often there’s something unsatisfying, something missing: it is that formless, indescribable yet wholly tangible thing Robert Pirsig called “quality.” And with our world awash in junk, is it any wonder American society has gone haywire?
It’s been a while since it felt good to be American. It may be a while before that changes. In the meantime, it may help in the meantime to reflect upon the wealth of optimistic, democratic, evocative and empowering things we’ve made that continue to connect people around the world, fuel dreams of better futures, and remind us of what we’re capable of at our best.
Starting in 2024, we’ll talk with authors, designers, architects, filmmakers, artists and other interesting people about objects, graphics, garments and places that each embody that hard-to-pin-down “quality” we could all use a lot more of.
Tag Christof is a photographer with a background in industrial design and economics. He is a graduate of Central Saint Martins, where his research focused on innovation and obsolescence, collaborative design in architecture, and design as cultural production. He has worked in creative and editorial direction for brands and startups in the fashion, furniture, and publishing sectors, and has spent almost two decades pondering America, one highway at a time, through its objects, textures and places.