Y UN PASTEL
This work questions the criteria that define what we consider good design through fiction. Set in a fictional workplace, it narrates a investigation (whodunit) to judge a workplace incident: six junior designers —each with different creative approaches— are accused of breaking the rules by developing unusual products. The project takes the form of an audit and is structured through documentary analysis of evidence, evaluation matrices, testimonies, and more, with the aim of reconstructing what happened.
Six employees and a cake proposes a reflection on how we judge what is right through the transgression of rules that, far from being absolute, respond to conventions around functionality. This suspicion —combined with the vertigo of entering the professional world— drives the creation of this narrative, which begins as an exercise in intentional bad design. Constantly oscillating between extremes, the project presents itself as a chaosmos that invites ongoing questioning of the discipline.
Six employees and a cake proposes a reflection on how we judge what is right through the transgression of rules that, far from being absolute, respond to conventions around functionality. This suspicion —combined with the vertigo of entering the professional world— drives the creation of this narrative, which begins as an exercise in intentional bad design. Constantly oscillating between extremes, the project presents itself as a chaosmos that invites ongoing questioning of the discipline.
Graphic
Illustration
Editorial
FW 2025
“While the goal is to spark a smile or ignite a debate, the fiction has been created with seriousness. This is an attempt to portray the downward slope one feels when starting to become disillusioned with their own field—where, if you dig deep enough, nothing seems to make sense. This project was made with the care of wanting to take a profession seriously, a profession that, to this day, leaves many open questions for someone who feels fear, who feels the vertigo of stepping into the professional world.
Will we do it right?”
As the book The Manual of Design Fiction says:
“It embraces the real world, with all its messiness” (Bleecker et al., 2022, p. 14).
This perspective fits perfectly with the way the project has been conceived, taking the form of an editorial piece. It is written as if it were an audit, with the aim of recreating what happened from a judicial point of view. It remains an investigation built around some “absurd” products that never appear explicitly.
“Before thinking of them, I decided they would take the form of the opposite of what we would consider an ideal industrial product; in this way they would be worthy of triggering a situation deserving of investigation within a commercial entity. [...] To be able to set up a situation where these structures collapse from within in an innocent way is a beautiful revolution. No blueprints, prototypes, or renders. [...] We see strange utensils, difficult to understand, that seem random and that, after an inspection in the context of the narrative, make sense” (Poy, 2025, p. 10).
After reading it, we can understand the products thanks to the archived evidence, the testimonies, and even the evaluation matrices used by the company. Through these, we come to understand rather that it is the company that has not understood anything, because these products fall outside its grids. Precisely the matrices they use to evaluate assess, with 10 different rules, how good the products are. Matrices named “Evaluation Matrix of the Good Design,” which make direct reference to the 10 rules of Dieter Rams’s Good Design. These, with poorly rounded scores, are the material of the narrative that most clearly demonstrates the absurdity behind the entire trial carried out. The absurdity of wanting to measure aspects such as functionality or aesthetics as mathematical values.
Will we do it right?”
As the book The Manual of Design Fiction says:
“It embraces the real world, with all its messiness” (Bleecker et al., 2022, p. 14).
This perspective fits perfectly with the way the project has been conceived, taking the form of an editorial piece. It is written as if it were an audit, with the aim of recreating what happened from a judicial point of view. It remains an investigation built around some “absurd” products that never appear explicitly.
“Before thinking of them, I decided they would take the form of the opposite of what we would consider an ideal industrial product; in this way they would be worthy of triggering a situation deserving of investigation within a commercial entity. [...] To be able to set up a situation where these structures collapse from within in an innocent way is a beautiful revolution. No blueprints, prototypes, or renders. [...] We see strange utensils, difficult to understand, that seem random and that, after an inspection in the context of the narrative, make sense” (Poy, 2025, p. 10).
After reading it, we can understand the products thanks to the archived evidence, the testimonies, and even the evaluation matrices used by the company. Through these, we come to understand rather that it is the company that has not understood anything, because these products fall outside its grids. Precisely the matrices they use to evaluate assess, with 10 different rules, how good the products are. Matrices named “Evaluation Matrix of the Good Design,” which make direct reference to the 10 rules of Dieter Rams’s Good Design. These, with poorly rounded scores, are the material of the narrative that most clearly demonstrates the absurdity behind the entire trial carried out. The absurdity of wanting to measure aspects such as functionality or aesthetics as mathematical values.
POY, Laia. Seis empleados y un pastel. 2025.
BLEECKER, Julian; FOSTER, Nick; GIRARDIN, Fabien; NOVA, Nicolas. The Manual of Design Fiction. Venice, California: Near Future Laboratory, 2022. ISBN 978-0-9905633-3-4.
¡swipe the pictures!
ha sido acusado de incumplir
las normas de diseño según las
directrices de la empresa ▇▇▇▇.
Se le investiga por la creación
de dos (2) inventos que no siguen
los principios fundamentales del
Good Design.
ha sido acusado de incumplir
las normas de diseño según las
directrices de la empresa ▇▇▇▇.
Se le investiga por la creación
de dos (2) inventos que no siguen
los principios fundamentales del
Good Design.
ha sido acusado de incumplir
las normas de diseño según las
directrices de la empresa ▇▇▇▇.
Se le investiga por la creación
de un (1) invento que no sigue
los principios fundamentales del
Good Design.
ha sido acusado de incumplir
las normas de diseño según las
directrices de la empresa ▇▇▇▇.
Se le investiga por la creación
de tres (3) inventos que no siguen
los principios fundamentales del
Good Design.
ha sido acusado de incumplir
las normas de diseño según las
directrices de la empresa ▇▇▇▇.
Se le investiga por la creación
de dos (2) inventos que no siguen
los principios fundamentales del
Good Design.
ha sido acusado de incumplir
las normas de diseño según las
directrices de la empresa ▇▇▇▇.
Se le investiga por la creación
de dos (2) inventos que no siguen
los principios fundamentales del
Good Design.
“There is also an approach to Duchamp’s ready-mades, and not only because of the way they are conceived, but because behind them lies a core reason for existing: the desire to transgress norms.” (Poy, 2025, p. 10).
“The result of all this: a narrative that aims to provoke a first impression that is funny and tender with the juniors’ objects and “fixes,” but that ultimately wants you to throw your hands up in disbelief at the “Superior Committee of Excellence” and its subjective evaluations.” (Poy, 2025, p. 11).
“In the end, this question of good or bad design, the central axis of the project, has turned out not to be so much. If the essential thing about a product is that it fulfills its purpose, I believe this fiction has ended up revealing something deeper. […], precisely, questioning the purpose of things.” (Poy, 2025, p. 175).
POY, Laia. Seis empleados y un pastel. 2025.
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