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Description: | Overseas American bureaucrats study design by Bob Stovell A conference, called by Governor Brown of California, was held last December in Sacramento to consider the state's responsibility for raising design standards over a range of government sponsored projects. The conference is significant not only in terms of California's own problems but in a much wider context, for it focuses attention on the fact that government bodies throughout the world are capable of becoming perhaps the most important patrons of good design. The author, an English designer working in the USA, suggests that there are firm intentions to follow Up the conference message. Government in the United States is perplexing to the British mind, not only in its operation and its system of politically appointed civil servants (not to mention those astonishing election performances), but also in the apparently hostile attitude with which the man-in-the-street regards government activities at local, state, and Federal levels. Underlying this hostility is the deeply held American conviction that anything public bodies can do, private enterprise can do better. Support for this attitude is to be found in the appearance of almost al I of the artifacts and architecture of American government; with a few notable exceptions, such as the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Civic Centre in California's Marin County, these compare very unfavourably with their counterparts in private industry. Government forms, signs, and publications, for instance - and they are legion often demonstrate such a brutal insensitivity towards design that one is tempted to think of the men originating them in terms of the stereotype bureaucrat, callous and pennypinching. It was, therefore, an illuminating experience to attend a one-day design conference, last December, for just such government administrators, and to discover that they too are deeply concerned about the appearance and function of the various structures, signs, and printed materials originating in their departments. Inquiry at the highest level The conference, instigated by the governor of California and held in Sacramento, the state capital, was the first step toward an attempt to upgrade design in the state's public building and printing. Since this was the first conference of its kind anywhere in the country, the implications for design could be far reaching indeed; for although government has become a powerful force in the economy of the United States, it is still the open competitive aspects of the market place which dominate the form and philosophy of most American design. Perhaps the governor had this in mind when he reminded his assembled civil servants of a statement by President Kennedy: "The nation which disdains the mission of art invites the fate of Robert Frost's hired man - who had nothing to look backward to with pride and nothing to look forward to with hope." Pointing out that "a nation which aspires to lead the world should not condemn itself to so mean a fate", the governor stated his conviction that "the role of government in the arts is an issue worthy of inquiry and debate on the highest level." A distinguished panel of architects and designers addressed the conference. Nat Owings, of the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, spoke of the design responsibility of government in his keynote speech, and was followed by another architect, Robert Alexander, who pointed up some of the frustrations experienced by private architects working on government assignments. Industrial designer Walter Landor used film and slides to illustrate his theme of how government graphics can be improved from both aesthetic and functional standpoints, without necessarily adding to the taxpayer's burden. Arthur Drexler, of New York's Museum of Modern Art, characteristically stretched his listeners' imagination with visions of a bold, new twentieth century environment, and then brought his subject back to the central thesis of the conference by pointing out that somebody in the audience had the authority to start implementing such things in California right now. The final speaker, Karel Yasko, assistant commissioner for design and construction, General Services Administration, gave a preview of some refreshingly imaginative buildings soon to be built for the federal government, and told of Washington's resurgent interest in design and the arts following the inauguration of the late President Kennedy - an interest which is being sustained by President Johnson's administration. Perhaps the most encouraging thing about the conference, from a designer's viewpoint, was not so much what was said from the platform, but the enthusiasm and interest of the audience, both during the presentations and at the reception which followed. It must have been gratifying for the conference organisers to see so many of these civil servants expressing an earnest desire to do something about raising design standards in their own departments. Design conferences, of course, have a way of stimulating excitementwhiletheyareinprogress,but theenthusiasmisaptto pall once the participators disperse to their own offices to resume the workaday problems and frustrations of their regular routines. To sustain some of the momentum of this conference, the governor announced a series of design workshops in which government personnel will be given guidance in implementing design improvements for their own departments. As a further incentive, an annual design award will be presented to the government agency making the greatest contribution in architecture, graphics, and environmental design. (caption) Edmund G Brown, Governor of California, centre, talking to Cyril Magnin, president of San Francisco Port Authority and president of Joseph Magnin stores, at the conference lunch table. Karel Yasko, left, one of the speakers, is assistant commissioner for design and construction, General Services Administration, Washington DC. Strong government backing It remains to be seen whether California's state government will give the lie to the idea that anything public bodies can do private enterprise can do better - at least as far as design is concerned. would be a pity if the enthusiasm of the administrative branch of the government were to be curbed by a timid legislature, or by public outcry et tax money being 'wasted' on something as intangible as aesthetic improvement, but this could easily happen in the bewildering complexity of American government. Yet the very fact that a design conference for government offcials was held at all is reason to hope that the American design community might, in the future, find assignments congenial to their talents in addition tosatisfyingthewhimsof consumers.lt is to be hoped so, for California is the leading state of the Union in terms of population and potential influence on American culture; and California is rapidly being engulfed in a plethora of commercialism designed to stir the appetite rather than the soul. (caption) During a break in proceedings, conferees wander through the garden of the Mansion Inn designed by architect Al Dreyfuss, a member of the planning committee of the conference. It is, perhaps, too much to hope for a new movement in American design to stem from this one conference, but enlightened government officials in California and elsewhere could provide the stimulus for such a movement if the ideas expressed take hold. The auguries are good. A design conference for offcials at the federal government level is planned sometime in 1965. | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Bob Stovell | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8287... | Go to resource |
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