Katherine Bennett, IDSA VP of Education and Art Center faculty member, began her provocative talk with a photo of a toilet brush with disposable heads. She reminded us of the fact that this is the majority of the industrial design that is being done. And she suggests that this is not a bad thing. Indeed it is meeting some need of many, as it is a huge seller.

She questioned whether designers have a quiet contempt for low-end, mainstream products: "Do we know what these users want -- do we even want to design for them?"

She then focused on the magnificent body of work by Eva Zeisel and told stories of her visits with the 93-year-old designer. Bennett focused on Zeisel's words: "Design is a benevolent gift of love" from the designer to the user.

By designers taking an elitist stance and giving short shrift to the unglamorous design assignments, they are not truly giving these "benevolent gifts of love."

The gist of the talk was that the world depends on design to create objects that respect their banal, mainstream needs and desires. As designers we need to "get over ourselves, stop designing to impress our friends, and focus on what matters."