Abstract
This conceptual paper, under the topic track “Culturally-situated practice as design confidence”, seeks to propose principles for good Caribbean design and establish a case for design in local cultural policy in West Indian islands; showcasing how a healthy relationship between design and local culture can contribute to creative and culturally proud solutions that can potentially offer economic and social benefits. Five fundamental principles to guide good Caribbean design are proposed, inspired by Caribbean culture and society. This paper applies these principles to show how culturally-situated design and designers can contribute to environmental and economic improvements; cultural continuity - making/keeping cultural traditions relevant and accessible; and visual/language preservation - culturally situated design for identity and communication. This study draws on insight, case studies and research to present the potential value of establishing fundamental Caribbean principles of good design and integrating design and culture in order to reap social, cultural, economic and environmental benefits.
Keywords
design; principles; culture; caribbean
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2018.522
Citation
Estwick, D. (2018) A Case for Caribbean Design Principles, in Storni, C., Leahy, K., McMahon, M., Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Design as a catalyst for change - DRS International Conference 2018, 25-28 June, Limerick, Ireland. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2018.522
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
A Case for Caribbean Design Principles
This conceptual paper, under the topic track “Culturally-situated practice as design confidence”, seeks to propose principles for good Caribbean design and establish a case for design in local cultural policy in West Indian islands; showcasing how a healthy relationship between design and local culture can contribute to creative and culturally proud solutions that can potentially offer economic and social benefits. Five fundamental principles to guide good Caribbean design are proposed, inspired by Caribbean culture and society. This paper applies these principles to show how culturally-situated design and designers can contribute to environmental and economic improvements; cultural continuity - making/keeping cultural traditions relevant and accessible; and visual/language preservation - culturally situated design for identity and communication. This study draws on insight, case studies and research to present the potential value of establishing fundamental Caribbean principles of good design and integrating design and culture in order to reap social, cultural, economic and environmental benefits.