0:00:00.947,0:00:04.085
Design is a slippery[br]and elusive phenomenon,

0:00:04.085,0:00:06.825
which has meant different[br]things at different times.

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But all truly inspiring design projects[br]have one thing in common:

0:00:11.640,0:00:13.466
they began with a dream.

0:00:13.780,0:00:15.231
And the bolder the dream,

0:00:15.231,0:00:18.598
the greater the design feat[br]that will be required to achieve it.

0:00:18.949,0:00:21.438
And this is why the greatest designers

0:00:21.438,0:00:26.585
are almost always the biggest[br]dreamers and rebels and renegades.

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This has been the case throughout history,

0:00:29.661,0:00:33.668
all the way back to the year 300 BC,

0:00:33.668,0:00:36.885
when a 13-year-old became the king

0:00:36.885,0:00:41.125
of a remote, very poor[br]and very small, Asian country.

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He dreamt of acquiring land,[br]riches and power

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through military conquest.

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And his design skills --

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improbable though it sounds --

0:00:50.118,0:00:52.974
would be essential[br]in enabling him to do so.

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At the time,

0:00:54.779,0:00:58.001
all weapons were made by hand[br]to different specifications.

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So if an archer ran out[br]of arrows during a battle,

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they wouldn't necessarily be able[br]to fire another archer's arrows

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from their bow.

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This of course meant that they would be[br]less effective in combat

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and very vulnerable, too.

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Ying solved this problem

0:01:15.163,0:01:19.218
by insisting that all bows and arrows[br]were designed identically,

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so they were interchangeable.

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And he did the same for daggers,[br]axes, spears, shields

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and every other form of weaponry.

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His formidably equipped army[br]won batter after battle,

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and within 15 years,

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his tiny kingdom had succeeded

0:01:36.131,0:01:39.777
in conquering all its larger, richer[br]more powerful neighbors,

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to found the mighty Chinese Empire.

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Now no one of course,

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would have thought of describing[br]Ying Zheng as a designer at the time --

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why would they?

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And yet he used design[br]unknowingly and instinctively,

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but with tremendous ingenuity,

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to achieve his ends.

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And so did another equally[br]improbable, accidental designer,

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who was also not above[br]using violence to get what he wanted.

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This was Edward Teach,

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better known as the[br]British pirate, Black Beard.

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This was the golden age of piracy,

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where pirates like Teach[br]were terrorizing the high seas.

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Colonial trade was flourishing

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and piracy was highly profitable.

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And the smarter pirates, like him,

0:02:24.494,0:02:27.354
realized that to maximize their spoils,

0:02:27.354,0:02:31.949
they needed to attack[br]their enemies so brutally

0:02:31.949,0:02:33.923
that they would surrender on sight.

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So in other words,

0:02:34.922,0:02:37.515
they could take the ships[br]without wasting ammunition,

0:02:37.515,0:02:39.419
or incurring casualties.

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So Edward Teach redesigned[br]himself as Black Beard

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by playing the part of a merciless brute.

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He wore heavy jackets and big hats[br]to accentuate his height,

0:02:49.970,0:02:53.540
he grew the bushy black beard[br]that obscured his face,

0:02:53.540,0:02:57.110
he slung braces of pistols[br]on either shoulder,

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he even attached matches to the brim[br]of his hat and set them alight,

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so they sizzled menacingly[br]whenever his ship was poised to attack.

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And like many pirates of that era,

0:03:07.799,0:03:10.716
he flew a flag that bore[br]the macabre symbols

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of a human skull[br]and a pair of crossed bones,

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because those motifs had signified death[br]in so many cultures for centuries

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that their meaning[br]was instantly recognizable,

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even in the lawless, illiterate[br]world of the high seas;

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surrender or you'll suffer.

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So of course all his sensible[br]victims surrendered on sight.

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Put like that,

0:03:34.190,0:03:38.699
it's easy to see why Edward Teach[br]and his fellow pirates

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could be seen as pioneers of modern[br]communications design,

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and why their deadly symbol --

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(Laughter)

0:03:46.425,0:03:47.432
There's more --

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why their deadly symbol[br]of the skull and crossbones

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was a precursor of today's logos --

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rather like the big red letters[br]standing behind me,

0:03:56.220,0:03:58.268
but of course with a different message.

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(Laughter)

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Yet design was also used to nobler ends

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by an equally brilliant and equally[br]improbable designer:

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the 19th century British nurse,[br]Florence Nightingale.

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Her mission was to provide[br]decent healthcare for everyone.

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Nightingale was born into a rather[br]grand, very wealthy British family,

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who were horrified when she volunteered[br]to work in military hospitals

0:04:24.159,0:04:25.809
during the Crimean War.

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Once there,

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she swiftly realized that more[br]patients were dying of infections

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that they caught there[br]in the filthy, fettered wards,

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than they were of battle wounds.

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So she campaigned for cleaner, lighter[br]area clinics to be designed and built.

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Back in Britain,

0:04:43.621,0:04:45.244
she mounted another campaign,

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this time for civilian hospitals,

0:04:47.398,0:04:51.067
and insisted that the same design[br]principles were applied to them.

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The Nightingale ward --

0:04:53.130,0:04:54.461
as it is called --

0:04:54.461,0:04:58.164
dominated hospital design[br]for decades to come,

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and elements of it are still used today.

0:05:01.883,0:05:03.161
But by then,

0:05:03.161,0:05:05.947
design was seen as a tool[br]of the Industrial Age.

0:05:06.212,0:05:09.079
It was formalized and professionalized,

0:05:09.079,0:05:11.648
but it was restricted to specific roles

0:05:11.648,0:05:14.749
and generally applied in pursuit[br]of commercial goals,

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rather than being used intuitively

0:05:16.969,0:05:21.195
as Florence Nightingale, Black Beard[br]and Ying Zhang had done.

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By the 20th century,

0:05:23.080,0:05:28.682
this commercial ethos was so powerful[br]that any designers who deviated from it

0:05:28.682,0:05:32.098
risked being seen as[br]cranks or subversives.

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Now among them is one[br]of my great design heroes,

0:05:36.568,0:05:39.119
the brilliant László Moholy-Nagy.

0:05:39.119,0:05:41.909
He was the Hungarian artist and designer

0:05:41.909,0:05:46.046
whose experiments with the impact[br]of technology on daily life

0:05:46.046,0:05:47.414
were so powerful

0:05:47.414,0:05:49.561
that they still influence the design

0:05:49.561,0:05:53.415
of the digital images we see[br]on our phone and computer screens.

0:05:53.833,0:05:58.553
He radicalized the Bauhaus Design[br]School in 1920s Germany,

0:05:58.553,0:06:01.374
and yet some of his former[br]colleagues shunned him

0:06:01.374,0:06:06.041
when he struggled to open a new[br]Bauhaus in Chicago years later.

0:06:06.322,0:06:10.559
Moholy's ideas were as bold[br]and incisive as ever,

0:06:10.559,0:06:14.394
but his approach to design[br]was too experimental,

0:06:14.394,0:06:16.840
as was his insistence on seeing it,

0:06:16.840,0:06:17.837
as he put it,

0:06:17.837,0:06:22.136
as an "attitude," not a "profession"[br]to be in tune with the times.

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And sadly,

0:06:24.083,0:06:27.207
the same applied to another[br]design maverick:

0:06:27.207,0:06:29.407
Richard Buckminster Fuller.

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He was yet another brilliant[br]design visionary

0:06:33.120,0:06:34.630
and design activist,

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who was completely committed[br]to designing a sustainable society

0:06:39.054,0:06:40.980
in such a forward-thinking way

0:06:40.980,0:06:44.560
that he started talking about[br]the importantce of environmentalism

0:06:44.560,0:06:47.234
in design in the 1920s.

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Now he --

0:06:48.855,0:06:50.269
despite his efforts --

0:06:50.269,0:06:55.068
was routinely mocked as a crank[br]by many in the design establishment,

0:06:55.068,0:06:56.137
and admittedly,

0:06:56.137,0:06:58.042
some of his experiments failed,

0:06:58.042,0:07:00.643
like the flying car that never[br]got off the ground.

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And yet the Geodesic dome,

0:07:03.169,0:07:06.504
his design formula to build[br]an emergency shelter

0:07:06.504,0:07:09.105
from scraps of wood, metal, plastic,

0:07:09.105,0:07:10.171
bits of tree,

0:07:10.171,0:07:11.173
old blankets,

0:07:11.173,0:07:12.288
plastic sheeting --

0:07:12.288,0:07:15.212
just about anything[br]that's available at the time,

0:07:15.212,0:07:18.779
is one of the greatest feats[br]of humanitarian design,

0:07:18.779,0:07:23.003
and has provided sorely needed[br]refuge to many, many people

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in desperate circumstances,

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ever since.

0:07:26.692,0:07:28.991
Now it was the courage and verve

0:07:28.991,0:07:32.568
of radical designers like[br]Bucky and Moholy

0:07:32.568,0:07:34.589
that turned me to design.

0:07:34.935,0:07:38.673
I began my career as a news[br]journalist and foreign correspondent.

0:07:38.932,0:07:42.373
I write about politics, economics[br]and corporate affairs,

0:07:42.373,0:07:46.222
and I could have chosen[br]to specialize in any of those fields,

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but I picked design

0:07:48.027,0:07:51.780
because I believe it's one of the most[br]powerful tools at our disposal

0:07:51.780,0:07:54.199
to improve our quality of life.

0:07:55.946,0:07:58.547
Thank you, fellow TED design buffs.

0:07:58.547,0:07:59.569
(Applause)

0:08:00.165,0:08:04.690
And greatly as I admire the achievements[br]of professional designers,

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which have been extraordinary and immense,

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I also believe that design benefits hugely

0:08:11.037,0:08:12.308
from the originality,

0:08:12.308,0:08:13.649
the lateral thinking

0:08:13.649,0:08:17.364
and the resourcefulness[br]of its rebels and renegades.

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And we're living at a remarkable[br]moment in design,

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because this is a time when the two[br]camps are coming closer together.

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Becuase even very basic advances[br]in digital technology

0:08:30.903,0:08:35.150
have enabled them to operate[br]increasingly independently,

0:08:35.150,0:08:37.766
in or out of a commercial context,

0:08:37.766,0:08:42.387
to pursue ever more ambitious[br]and eclectic objectives.

0:08:42.814,0:08:44.483
So in theory,

0:08:44.483,0:08:47.002
basic platforms like crowdfunding,

0:08:47.002,0:08:48.405
cloud computing,

0:08:48.405,0:08:49.723
social media

0:08:49.723,0:08:53.307
are giving greater freedom[br]to professional designers

0:08:53.307,0:08:56.815
and giving more resources[br]for the improvisational ones,

0:08:56.815,0:08:57.864
and hopefully,

0:08:57.864,0:09:00.369
a more receptive response to their ideas.

0:09:00.910,0:09:05.021
Now some of my favorite[br]examples of this are in Africa,

0:09:05.021,0:09:07.171
where a new generation of designers

0:09:07.171,0:09:10.814
are developing incredible[br]Internet of Things technologies

0:09:10.814,0:09:15.251
to fulfill Florence Nightingale's dream[br]of improving healthcare

0:09:15.251,0:09:18.934
in countries where more people[br]now have access to cell phones

0:09:18.934,0:09:21.024
than to clean, running water.

0:09:21.253,0:09:23.865
And among them is Arthur Zang.

0:09:23.865,0:09:26.758
He's a young, Cameroonian[br]design engineer

0:09:26.758,0:09:30.926
who has a adapted a tablet[br]computer into the Cardiopad,

0:09:30.926,0:09:33.468
a mobile heart-monitoring device.

0:09:33.468,0:09:37.462
It can be used to monitor the hearts[br]of patients in remote, rural areas.

0:09:37.747,0:09:40.463
The data is then sent[br]on a cellular network

0:09:40.463,0:09:44.225
to well-equipped hospitals hundreds[br]of miles away for analysis.

0:09:44.563,0:09:47.891
And if any problems are spotted[br]by the specialists there,

0:09:47.891,0:09:50.863
a suitable course of treatment[br]is recommended.

0:09:51.265,0:09:53.378
And this of course saves many patients

0:09:53.378,0:09:58.653
from making long, arduous, expensive[br]and often pointless journeys

0:09:58.653,0:10:00.133
to those hospitals,

0:10:00.133,0:10:02.307
and makes it much, much likelier

0:10:02.307,0:10:04.908
that their hearts[br]will actually be checked.

0:10:05.378,0:10:08.831
Arthur Zang started working[br]on the Cardiopad eight years ago,

0:10:08.831,0:10:11.176
in his final year at university,

0:10:11.598,0:10:14.949
but he failed to persuade[br]any conventional sources

0:10:14.949,0:10:18.037
to give him investment to get[br]the project off the ground.

0:10:18.455,0:10:20.405
He posted the idea on Facebook,

0:10:20.405,0:10:22.954
where a Camaroonian[br]government official saw it,

0:10:22.954,0:10:25.907
and managed to secure[br]a government grant for him.

0:10:26.286,0:10:29.345
He's now developing[br]not only the Cardiopad,

0:10:29.345,0:10:33.525
but other mobile medical devices[br]to treat different conditions.

0:10:34.022,0:10:35.691
And he isn't alone,

0:10:35.691,0:10:40.568
because there are many other[br]inspiring and enterprising designers

0:10:40.568,0:10:44.260
who are also pursuing[br]extraordinary projects of their own.

0:10:44.483,0:10:47.522
And I'm going to finish[br]by looking at just a few of them.

0:10:48.109,0:10:50.325
One is Peek Vision.

0:10:50.325,0:10:53.493
This is a group of doctors[br]and designers in Kenya,

0:10:53.493,0:10:56.725
who've developed an Internet of Things[br]technology of their own,

0:10:56.725,0:10:59.326
as a portable eye examination kit.

0:10:59.838,0:11:01.783
Then there's Gabriel Maher,

0:11:01.783,0:11:03.873
who is developing a new design language

0:11:03.873,0:11:08.931
to enable us to articulate the subtleties[br]of our changing gender identities,

0:11:08.931,0:11:11.903
without recourse[br]to traditional stereotypes.

0:11:12.038,0:11:13.552
All of these designers,

0:11:13.552,0:11:14.773
and many more,

0:11:14.773,0:11:16.240
are pursuing their dreams

0:11:16.240,0:11:18.796
by the making the most of their[br]newfound freedom,

0:11:18.796,0:11:21.717
with the discipline[br]of professional designers

0:11:21.717,0:11:24.657
and the resourcefulness[br]of rebels and renegades,

0:11:24.657,0:11:26.770
and we all stand to benefit.

0:11:26.770,0:11:27.773
Thank you.

0:11:27.773,0:11:29.447
(Applause)