8. Over the past 10-15 years we've seen the emergence of the "star" designer, creating one-off or conceptual products that have been sold in galleries and collected by museums while building their own names into a valuable brand in the process. Do you feel that these designers push design into unexplored territory or do you feel there are some negative side-effects for the profession at large to this elevation of the individual designer? SK: Of course, I'm all for individual authorship. Design is now a fashion system. Young designers create couture contexts to get noticed. This has made the field much more interesting and created space for new kinds of authorship and new models of practice. The down side comes when design becomes a vulgar side show of young designers trying to out-spectacle each other with heavy-handed concepts. When branding eclipses actual design content, then It's dubious. Memphis predicted this. However, 'Design about Design' is here to stay and Cranbrook - being focused on authorship and making - should be a thought leader in this discussion. As an American school, we have to work harder than our Euro counterparts who have more advanced venues for young designers to show their work and get noticed. 9. As a curator and exhibition organizer, do you feel that the increased design awareness of the general public--through events such as Design Miami--has been a positive development for the design community? SK: Design Miami has made design rarities collectible, like Art. Is awareness of Art a positive influence on the general public?Nice.
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