Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
15th Annual 4T Symposium "Design, Populism and Politics", İstanbul, Türkiye, 12 - 14 Ekim 2023
Following the 1980 coup d'état, over 23,000 associations were
closed in Turkey; the freedom of association remained extremely limited during
the early 1980s. Formally educated industrial designers in Turkey showed a solid will to gather around a professional association in the
late 1980s. Two regional alma mater groups were competing
for leadership, Ankarans and İstanbulites. A meeting was held in İstanbul, and
the groups decided to work towards establishing an association separately, one
in Ankara and another one in İstanbul.
Industrial Designers Society of Turkey (ETMK, Endüstriyel Tasarımcılar Meslek
Kuruluşu) was established in 1988 in Ankara. It remained the sole professional organization until the establishment
of another society, the Industrial Designers
Association (ENTA, Endüstriyel Tasarımcılar Derneği) in İstanbul in 2014.
ETMK’s struggle to claim a voice and visibility in design matters coincided with Turkey’s official
ambitions -joining the EU customs union- in the early 1990s; ETMK’s first contact
with the governmental bodies concerned intellectual
property rights and design protection. The Turkish Patent Institute was headed
by a senior colleague known to the ETMK board members, and the commission
responsible for redrafting the Turkish intellectual property law included ETMK
members as the representatives of industrial designers. This six-month-long
collaborative work resulted in long-term alliances with the Turkish Patent
Institute, the local intellectual property community, and specialized courts.
In the early 2000s, ETMK’s commitment to developing an inclusive and bottom-up
strategic plan led to a strategic vision crowned by a high-profile project
-Design Turkey Awards- with a triple target: governmental bodies, the business
world, and the public. Design Turkey has become ETMK’s most visible and regular
collaboration with external partners, including the ministries of economics and industry and
Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM, Türkiye İhracatçılar Meclisi); ETMK’s
generative contact with the ministries and business world resulted in new
alliances and expanded ETMK’s role in matters of design policy.
The 2000s also marked a boom in economic actors’ interest in industrial design.
To the dismay of contemporary-minded designers with high ambitions and
four-year university diplomas, the cultural and financial capital of Turkish
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were more in line with the human
resources recruited from “industrial design” vocational high schools and
two-year “industrial design” programs in vocational schools of higher
education. Since SMEs constitute a significant
part of the Turkish economy, the clash of expectations was worrying. ETMK
members and the design community were outraged by the unfair use of “industrial
design.” The options were the legal battle or
political struggle; the political struggle option was perceived to be the most
cautious.
During the early 2000s, the industrial design community observed another
concerning development in the architectural education community. The
Communication Group for Head of Schools of Architecture (MOBBİG, Mimarlık
Okulları Bölüm Başkanları İletişim Grubu) was conducting regular meetings
during which the status of several disciplines,
including interior architecture, landscape architecture, and industrial design
was debated in the absence of the representatives of corresponding groups. The
discussions described industrial design as a
subdiscipline of architecture. The immediate response of the industrial design
education community was to establish an Academic Council of Industrial Design
Departments (ETAK, Endüstriyel Tasarım Bölümleri Akademik Konseyi) in 2005.
ETAK has been active since then and meets twice annually.
In 2009, the Turkish Design Advisory Council
(TTDK, Türk Tasarım Danışma Konseyi) was established as the first governmental
body dedicated to design policy in Turkey; along with a number of governmental
and non-governmental bodies, the president of ETMK has also been a member of
the council. The council’s work has been headed by the Ministry of Industry and
Trade, and the Turkish Patent Institute has run the secretariat. The first significant move by TTDK was the preparation of
the “Design Strategy Document 2014-2016” in 2013. ETMK voiced the design
community’s concerns over the vocational high schools and two-year programs,
and the draft document included the establishment of a chamber of industrial
designers. However, the document's final version
did not have this action plan. Instead, the
Vocational Qualifications Authority (MYK, Mesleki
Yeterlilik Kurumu, est. 2006) and ETMK were jointly appointed to develop a
definition for the industrial design profession. The turn of events was
impacted by the executive board of ETMK, which
served between 2012-2014; the board was attracted by MYK’s administrative and
financial model: ETMK was going to be the authorized certification body to
conduct courses and certification exams and gain
income. The executive board changed in 2014. MYK informed the newly
elected board that the Outdoor and Industrial Advertisers Association (ARED, Açık Hava ve
Endüstriyel Reklamcılar Derneği) was
interested in developing a definition for the industrial design profession. It
took two years for the newly elected board of ETMK and several senior ETMK
members to reverse the previous board’s policy and block entry to the
industrial design profession through an exam conducted by MYK-authorized
certification bodies as an alternative to four-year university programs. The
whole experience revealed the fragile status of the profession, both internally and externally. With the initiative of
several ETMK members, a Professional Commission for Industrial Designers was formed under the Chamber of Architects in 2016. The
commission has been working towards expanding the number of industrial
designers registered to the Chamber of Architects so that they can
establish an independent chamber for industrial designers in the future. The commission has also been working on regulations
concerning the profession of industrial design; in 2022, the commission’s “Ethics Guidelines for Industrial
Designers” and “Guidelines for National Industrial Design Competitions” were
approved by the Chamber of Architects’ General Assembly.