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I think that self-production is the answer of contemporary design and of new firm models
to the overall market change. There is a transformation, which is induced
or complementary to the change in production modalities, of designers' role.
With the new conditions and lifestyles, It's not possible for them to work in the usual way anymore,
which is to simply be a consultant for firms that supply the market.
With this change, designers become protagonists as designer-enterprises, realizing their ideas directly
because they have a technological system that allows them to do so, such as miniaturization and 3D printing,
and also because they renegotiate the production processes, and thus they realize ideas and bring them to market.
Thus, it is a different market, moving from a mass-market
towards a "long tail" approach, targeting need communities and niches.
It is a culturalized and advanced type of need, using values such as ethics and a sense of
moderation in what one chooses to buy. At the same time, this market becomes aware and
capable to create new production models, such as on-demand and bespoke,
in which a product or a small series of products correspond to a specific need.
I believe that this opens spaces to new professional and professionalizing systems such Open Design Italia.
The idea that the innovative capacity of people, which is changing the traditional roles, must be expressed and it must find new arenas,
in which this new culture is showcased and it activates new relationships,
so that it can actually become a market culture.
The switch is, as usual, chaotic, but from my point of view it is clear that new overarching structures are emerging.
It is interesting to study this phenomenon, it is interesting to work in it and it is interesting to enable it.