Q&A with Sebastian Wrong

Designer Sebastian Wrong on affordable design:

“Well, I think you can say, actually, I’ve had enough of ‘affordable design,’ which often translates into cheap consumer products that have a short lifespan, the type that you’ll just be prepared to chuck away after you’re sick and bored of them. In that case, you’d rather invest five times the amount of money into something which is going to be there for a long time, and you’ll actually give to your kids, and you’ll feel passionate about, so you have something that lasts, and means something.

It’s a view reflected by many designers these days. People are looking for more from their purchases, and wanton buyer-lust has given way to an expectation, almost prerequisite, that these pieces will be sustainable on a functional, as well as personal, level.

Society and culture has got to change, really. This sort of disposable attitude about things being just for show, just for the look, and then underneath it’s just a load of garbage that’s going to fall apart and become more landfill. You can look at it either way, and say, there’s an enormous amount of work that goes into this to make it and produce it and that’s reflected in the price.”