What is Slow Design?

Objects are important: they reflect and shape our identity; they influence our moods and inform our interaction with the world around us. The problem is that a fast-forward approach to design has filled the planet with stuff that fails to inspire or nourish. That is where Slow Design comes in.

Around the world, people are looking for ways to apply the Slow creed to the art of making things. The definition of Slow Design is still evolving but already the basic outline is taking shape.

Slow Design means using materials and resources in a way that respects the environment. It means small-scale, local production and networks of artisans sharing ideas and expertise. It means diversity, eccentricity and real character rather than cookie-cutter products that look the same all over the world: think a tailored suit versus the latest off-the-rack offering from Gap. Slow Design yields objects with a story behind them.

Slow Design does not have to take a long time. The state of mind of the designer is more important than the length of the production cycle. Being deeply engaged with a task, working at the right speed and letting the imagination soar can all add up to Slow Design.

By marrying form and function, Slow Design creates a better experience for the user. Slow objects invite us to pause, reflect and savour. Some designers go even further by creating things that actively promote deceleration. One example: An Icelander named Thorunn Arnadottir recently made a clock by hanging a string of beads over a notched metal disc. Every five minutes, a bead drops, which seems to slow the passage of time. Take away the beads and you stop time altogether.

Yet Slow Design is not a Luddite backlash against the modern world. Far from it. In the past, the only thing that mattered was the product. But in Slow Design the process that created the product matters too. And there is nothing more modern than wanting to know the story behind the objects that we consume.

Carolyn Strauss is a leading thinker in the Slow Design revolution and founder of slowLab, a network of like-minded designers, architects, artists and others. She argues that "Slow Design brings a renewed richness to the people, places and things of the everyday." slowLab has pinpointed six principles as the starting point for defining Slow Design.

But does a design have to tick all the boxes to be called Slow? And if not, which ingredients are non-negotiable? Can a product made on a large scale ever be Slow? These are just some of the questions to be tackled in the months ahead – and we invite the citizens of Slow Planet to jump into the debate.