Mexican Design

Plenty of times I have heard about the Mexican design, either in fashion, furniture or product design, but do we really know what that means? If you thought of colourful fabrics, sculptures repleated with beads or any other craft as it´s definition; I´m sorry to tell you that´s wrong.

Obviously there´s not an exact definition, but with the experience gained throughout my mayor and a fashion intership I taking as an industrial designer, I will give you the basics to aknowledge what is design, an accurate definition of the Mexican design and some general misconceptions.

• What is it? No matter what industry you are talking about, design is the development of something, an object, a service, a concept, or a solution through human mind. It is precisely the behavior and thinking of the human being the basis of the creation and the point on which everything goes. The design changes trough history, technology, tendencies and behavior. There´s a reason why fashion is ever-changing. 

• At one moment of your life, you surely have heard the famous phrase " it has design " referring to a fancy Karim Rashid chair worth thousands of dollars. The reality is that EVERYTHING is designed . Being strict, design is a creative process by excelence that everyone of us practices (like dressing, drawing, cooking ) and we will certainly keep doing it, however some do it better than others without doubt .

• How do you design? There are many successful methods to achieve a good design, there is not only one way and it adapts according to you. Some are like Victor Papanek that don´t have a recepy and there are methods like the Design Thinking that are a helpfull guide to achieve a good solution, but remmember that any way will leave a strong foundation to create. 

• The thing line between good and bad design has nothing to do with taste. This doesn´t mean that the your personal taste doesn´t influence, but we must accept that if something fulfills its purpose flawlessly, obviously is fairly made and meets a group of people who accept or even want to buy it, it is good.

• Reading the safe introduction crafts are thought Do not design? It is like the relationship of a vegan with a carnivore, it's complicated. Many people take the Mexican design only when there are cultural or traditional features, but the reality is that there is no specific list of requirements on the composition of the object to be taken as such. The crafts have design are Mexican , but not are defining what the Mexican design.

• Now, the big question: What is the Mexican design?

The simple answer is that design achieves it´s nationality according to it´s creator. On the other hand, many times we don´t know the origin of a product and just by looking at it you might say: "Is so Japanese". This is due to the generation of symbolic heritage that the country has itself and that stands in some way on others. Even though you can see similar features from one culture to another, the adaptation of such conducts speaks a lot about it´s origin. A clear example is the "Acapulco" chair that has manufacture features of the first bent tube furniture by Marcel Breuer.

To be more precise and less general. Mexican design is a reflection of what we live as Mexicans, what we found in our environment and resources, what we learn overboard, what we teach foreigners, the ideologies and relationships of multiple social groups that are constantly evolving.