Within the context of sustainability, the topic of regionality is coming into focus. Why is that?
Simply because we've become accustomed to global supply chains – to shipping raw materials and product components around the world. We're used to just-in-time processes that minimize the storage and personnel costs companies have to pay. Due to the constraints of the pandemic, the companies that produce locally have suddenly become winners. People are suddenly questioning whether our current global supply chains are really the right way to go. They are concerned about the carbon footprint of organic blueberries being flown in from Chile.

The changes in the area of mobility are also quite striking – especially for us in Germany, given our dependance on our strong automotive industry. In many countries, there are already target agreements to ban all combustion engines. Electric pioneers like Tesla are already worth more on the stock exchanges than the big players that dominated the automobile market ten years ago. Added to this are the developments in the area of networked mobility and the question of whether people will really need to drive to the office every day in the future, or whether they can (or want to) get used to working from home.

Last but not least, there is a an ongoing transformation in shopping behavior. People are shopping more consciously – and increasingly online. Brick-and-mortar stores will have to respond more flexibly, and the era of large department stores seems to be over. It is impossible to predict what this will mean for city centers. Perhaps in the future there will only be flexible pop-up stores in the city centers.

How will the design of products and brands change as a result of the current trends?
We're going through a transformation in the expectations of consumer. Of course these changes must be reflected in design. We've already talked about the big topic of sustainability. For us at Peter Schmidt Group, developing sustainable solutions is already a natural part of the design process. The way people's perspective on the topic is changing is very interesting for designers. We conducted a study to examine exactly what sustainable products should look like. Surprisingly, we found that bright colors and cheeky slogans are by no means at odds with sustainability values.

Any design is sustainable that is available to as many people as possible, that does not exclude anyone – for example, because it's hard for people with impaired vision to recognize. The topic of barrier-free design is becoming increasingly important. There is also growing awareness for factors such as non-discriminatory imagery and inclusive pictograms. These are all areas where we designers need to be aware of the social significance of our work.

Two other topics of increasing importance for designers are empathy and relevance. Roughly speaking, empathy in brand management means that brands must be adaptable enough to empathize with the specific requirements of diverse target groups. They have to develop solutions and messaging that are as individual as possible while at the same time remaining distinctive. That makes empathy a decisive factor for relevance. In a competitive environment that is increasingly multi-layered, brands have to communicate exactly why people should choose them over the competition, as concisely and to-the-point as possible. In short, design will have to establish an even stronger personal connection – and communicate it as pointedly as possible, in a way that is immediately recognizable.

An example for what this can look like is a design element we call the Pulse, which we developed for Deutsche Bahn. It's a line with rounded corners that is quite logically derived from the brand's existing visual identity, and it unfolds its full potential in digital applications. What is does is, it behaves in a way that provides orientation for travelers and enhances convenience by imparting information and conveying emotions. The Pulse can be excited when the train pulls into the station, or nod affirmatively when you've checked into your reserved seat. It can also empathize with you when something doesn't go as smoothly as planned. This one little design element is capable of establishing closeness, responding to individual situations, facilitating interaction, and building trust. Sounds kind of like a person, doesn't it?! And that's exactly what it's all about.

Let's get back to sustainability. I can imagine what it means to conserve materials in packaging design; it reminds of the things like the "zero waste" movement. But what is possible with digital media?
By now, word has spread that digital media also consume a lot of resources and leave a gigantic ecological footprint. After all, digital media and the operation of server infrastructures require vast amounts of energy. This expense has to be calculated in – and can be minimized. At first glance the savings often appear small; what difference do a few kilobytes make? But when you extrapolate this to an entire year, you quickly achieve impressive potential for massively reducing energy consumption.

What specific solutions can you think of in this regard?
We're used to using different fonts in our digital communication. We use italics or bold type, depending on the occasion. As website designers for example, we often work with semi-bold, extra-thin or particularly narrow type weights. Each of these variants is another file that has to be uploaded when people access the website. In the past few years, more and more "variable fonts" have been introduced that comprise just a single file that is infinitely scalable. That may sound unspectacular, but it saves up to 75% of the data volume. Google has converted its fonts accordingly, and saves more than 1000 terabytes week for week. That sounds a little more impressive, but still very abstract. So maybe this comparison will help: That amount is roughly the entire amount of energy the BASF plant in Ludwigshafen consumes in an entire year.

That's a very meaningful technical solution. Can you also change the world with design? And if so, how?
We designers can make the world more beautiful, more useful, and ideally more sustainable. There's a lot we can do. Can we change the world? We can support communication messages that lead to change and help improve the world, of course. At their best, those messages are iconic and enduring. But we designers are not a movement. Still, we are empathic and can identify with people's problems and look for way to solve them. With that, you can already achieve a lot.

What creative idea touch or impressed you most recently?
When I think about this question I realize how small my cosmos has become during the pandemic. I now limit myself to just a few routes, usually it's the same old drive to work. Then I realize how much I miss the inspiring coincidences and chance discoveries. In museums and galleries, but also just in everyday life. In the middle of this monotony, however, I did notice a few things – like the large-scale Fritz Cola advertisement at the Kunstverein museum in Hamburg, "Dear heroes, where would we be without you" – alongside a drawing of an arse.

Last year I also noticed the visual identity of a psychiatric clinic. Nothing spectacular, but a decisively executed redesign with great illustrations that gets to the heart of a topic that's difficult to communicate. That did move me. We designers should be able to touch people and get to the heart of the message concisely, so that all the target groups can understand it.

And another project comes to mind: the book "Made in Fukushima." It's a coffee-tabler, incredibly well designed, printed on rice paper – made from rice grown in Fukushima. The background of this story is that nearly ten years after the reactor catastrophe, and thanks to the latest technological progress, the rice growing there meets the highest criteria for food and is considered uncontaminated. But what sounded like an economic rescue plan for the farmers turned out to be an unsuccessful effort in the end. Hardly anyone bought the rice. And that's exactly what the book is about. For me it's an impressive example of what design can achieve, namely to raise people's awareness for hidden issues that are often overlooked in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

What does the future look like for designers?
The trends we foresee affecting society and our customers naturally apply to us and our work as well. If we want to enable brands to act empathically, we have to be empathic ourselves. And we have to prove the relevance of our design. It's not enough anymore to just make pretty things; we have to be able to explain how our design contributes to the solution of a problem. Can it motivate people, raise their awareness, prod them to take action? Can it initiate business processes?

If the success of design is measurable, we can demonstrate how our work can reduce costs in the long term. Increasingly, we as designers are called upon to be consultants – we supply our customers with rational arguments that help them make economic decisions about investing in design with a clear conscience.

Another thing that's exciting for me is that we designers usually think visually and haptically. This is already rooted in our training. Now, however, we are being confronted with the topic of acoustics. The issue of how brands become distinctive through voice assistants and chatbots, or what kinds of sounds they use, is something we now have to consider. Imagine you've been developing a visual identity for a brand for decades, and suddenly the question lands on your desk, "And what are we going to do when we might not have any more visual interfaces at all in three years?" That can irritate you for a moment, but soon you realize how this new perspective inspires you to ask completely new questions. 

If there was one change you could wish for, what would it be?
I would wish for humankind to take the truth of science seriously.

The interview is published in the book „Wie wir uns morgen unterhalten lassen und informieren wollen“ ("How will we be entertained and informed in the world of tomorrow?"). It also includes articles from, among others: Eckard Christiani, Prof. Sarah Diefenbach, Robert Habeck, Rainer Hank, Olaf Hartmann, "Mr. Media" Thomas Koch, Christian Lieb, Prof. Lothar Mikos, Moritz Rauchhaus, Friederike Riemer, Moritz Riesewieck, Prof. Maren Urner and Felix M.Wieduwilt.