This past Thursday saw the 2nd annual IDSA design debate held at the Olympic Sculpture Park in downtown Seattle. A decent-sized crowd showed up for drinks and hors d’oeuvres and subsequent righteous debate on design.

On panel were Anne Traver (graphic design), Bill Buxton (interaction design), Bill Gaylord (architecture), and Jill Solberg (industrial design) to discuss their aligned or opposing views on various pre-selected design topics. For example: Are designers just styling more stuff to sell to consumers to stuff the pockets of rich corporate America? Do large corporate clients suck the creativity out of projects? Can environmentally-conscious design happen at the individual level, or does it have to be a federal mandate? And so on.

Bill Buxton, offering to be the “official” contrarian, provided much of the stimulus in the ensuing debate. He offered lively counter-arguments to the relatively moderate opinions of the panel and could always be counted on to provide a few off-the-wall ideas to keep things interesting.

The moderator, Jacob Fleischer, also donned his hat of excessive trash and consumerism (created specially by Bill Gaylord, pictured left) to provide a level of comic levity to the subject of designers being primarily responsible for landfills.

The debate provided some unique insights and topics, but with the panel staying mostly neutral at most turns. Next year, we’d like to see the gloves really come off and get those knuckles bloody!

In the end, what seems to be the solution to all the world’s design related problems? Better design. Hmmm…