design
Jilber Najem and
design
Jilber Najem and

design is the embodiment of values. Design is the ultimate commitment to or compromise of one’s values.
And this is how we go about the world. We make sense of the world through interaction. Which ultimately means - we make sense of the world through objects, interfaces, landscapes of other people’s values.
The fork on your plate isn’t inevitable—it’s propaganda. Its design has been polished by centuries of iteration, yes, but also by centuries of forgetting. We stopped asking why a fork looks the way it does because it became too familiar to question. It’s not a tool anymore; it’s a dogma.
But supernormal isn’t about inevitability. It’s about normalization. When something becomes so ubiquitous, so embedded in daily life, it disappears from view. That’s not just true for objects—it’s true for the systems we live by. Markets, money, time.