Design Research: History, Theory, Practice - Histories for Future-focused Thinking
International Norms and Local Design Research: ICSID and the Promotion of Industrial Design in Latin America, 1970-1979
Tania Messell
University of Brighton
t.messell@brighton.ac.uk
Keywords: ICSID; promotion; Latin America; local/global
Abstract
The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) was founded in 1957 to raise the professional status of designers and to establish international standards for the profession. While the organisation expanded to include member societies from developing economies in the 1960s and 1970s, it was predominantly led by Western members, and design mainly promoted as a tool for industrial development, due to ICSID’s close collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). Examining ICSID’s early promotional activities in developing countries, in particular its first congress in Latin America ‘Industrial Design for Human Development’, held in 1979 Mexico, this paper appraises the reception of Western design precepts by a circle of Latin American designers and theorists, whose design methodology, which promulgated the primacy of local needs, resources and expertise, paved the way towards a more multifaceted understanding of design within ICSID and beyond.
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Cite this paper: Messell, T. (2016). International Norms and Local Design Research: ICSID and the Promotion of Industrial Design in Latin America, 1970-1979. Proceedings of DRS 2016, Design Research Society 50th Anniversary Conference. Brighton, UK, 27–30 June 2016.
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