Narrative Indulgences and Evocative Abstractions: Fictional Products at Adobe Design Center

Allan Chochinov ponders the use and relevance of prototyping products that will never be produced. His analysis highlights an interesting distinction between design for production and design for consumption, in which the latter's distance from utility opens a space where "Form follows Art, where products can be ideas first and utility second."

IMO, design for consumption also signals some important implications for sustainability. In addition to Idealist (mentioned in the article), Instructables is a great example of a large collection of designs and inventions that prioritize ideas and place production in the hands of those who wish to execute them, possibly increasing the likelihood that they are locally-sourced. It also begs the question of whether or not the rise of "consuming through pixels" (especially in cases where products are not produced) obfuscates the necessity of having all those computers plugged in just to check out the ideas and pass them on to others. It would be interesting to calculate the carbon footprint of a successful 'virtual' viral design (server demand, estimated number of time on individual PC's during which people consider and forward it, etc.).