Globalization and Design Institutionalization: ICSID’s XIth Congress and the Formation of ALADI, 1979

Abstract

Abstract The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) was founded in London in 1957 to raise the professional status of designers and to establish international standards for the profession. By the 1970s the Council had expanded its attempts to rationalize local production processes in developing countries and spur their entry into international markets, in line with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s (UNIDO) programme. As this article reveals, Latin America represented a crucial zone of intervention for the ICSID, whose efforts culminated in a congress held in Mexico City in 1979, organized around the theme ‘Industrial Design and Human Development’. The event nevertheless exposed heightened concerns about ICSID’s development policies and centralized structure, alongside the creation of the Latin American design organization ALADI by a circle of Latin American designers, who promulgated the benefits of place-based design practice and regional cooperation towards Latin America’s economic and cultural independence. Mapping ICSID’s initiatives in the region in the 1970s and examining the multifarious reception of the Council’s design precepts by Latin American design circles, this article highlights how processes of translation shaped their interactions, ultimately countering a ‘diffusionist’ model of cross-cultural exchanges.