Can creativity save the world?

It's a loaded question, but eight designers gave us some thoughtful and inspiring answers.
Design Indaba Hot Topic.
Design Indaba Hot Topic.

Stefan G Bucher, graphic designer and illustrator  

Douglas Adams used to say something along the lines of “The world doesn’t need saving, the world will be just fine after we’re gone.” Can creativity save OUR world? It does look like we’re headed for a global crisis, doesn’t it? If that’s true then creativity is the only thing that can save us. But it certainly won’t be a poster or a viral video. It’ll be an engineer somewhere who comes up with a Mr. Fusion device that completely changes how we use the resources available to us. And then that will be my favorite gadget.

Oscar Diaz, product designer 

"Save" is a big word, but it can definitely help to improve it.

Rahim Bhimani, industrial designer 

Absolutely. I think the power of creativity is coming up with unique solutions to complex problems. If it were not for creativity we would not have ingenious services or products that we currently have and rely on to make our lives a lot simpler.

Hellicar & Lewis, interaction designers 

Joel Lewis: It's the only thing that will. In the long term? Too soon to tell.

Pete Hellicar: Creativity isn't just about coming up with new ideas. It's also about looking at what we have and using existing ideas creatively. I think that we already have all the ideas we need to save the world and, more importantly, our species. Less ideas and more realisation that we have everything we need to make it work.

Andrew Shoben, artist and founder of greyworld  

Yes, I'm hoping it can. 

Jen Bilik, entrepreneur and founder of Knock Knock

Yes, but not visual creativity, I don't think. Intellectual creativity, more so. 

Oded Ezer, typographer 

Absolutely! 

Watch the Talk with Oscar Diaz