Product design needs to incorporate styling

I am glad that Mike Simpson’s pink vacuum cleaner has encouraged so much interest. Some of the last few letters have included a great deal of nonsense which needs some response.

To marginalise “styling” as superficial does not stand up to any understanding or interpretation of the history or current purpose of product design. The clear intention of this student’s project – incidentally, a minor submission alongside a stunning major project – was to reinterpret and challenge preconceptions of a well understood product.

The New Designers Exhibition is rightly concerned with the “new” and among much that is tired and derivative this work stands out.

Ian Roberts

Lecturer of Industrial Design

Manchester Metropolitan

University

Manchester M15 6BR