A glimpse into Victor Papanek's "critical design theory" and its contemporary applications

Abstract

Victor Papanek is a famous American designer, design educator and design theorist after the war. Among them, his "critical design theory" plays a crucial role in the formation of sustainable development and environmental protection concepts. In his controversial Designing for the Real World, he called on the American industrial design community to oppose commercial profit-oriented design and focus on the real needs of those ignored by designers. This article explains Papanek's "critical design theory" and his "three principles" of environmental protection, and then explains some of his own insights into this view, and finally constructs Papanek's responsibility framework for designers.