Sunday, October 26, 2008

Design Theory

What Should Industrial Design Be?

It is a known fact that Industrial Design has been around for quite some time. Since the dawn of man, he has created objects to solve problems and found ways to accomplish tasks in a more efficient manner than his predecessors. The engineer refined those objects and built them to stand against failure and the stresses of centuries of time. Prominent designers have come and gone, with sleek form and improved use and their work has been innovated toward the design conversation that has continued till the present day. The dilemma of the current day designer is how to take what has come before them, build upon it and find a niche of design that is new, relevant and applicable and still innovative despite the great design that has come before. These concerns can be overwhelming and nurture a curious mind. True innovation is the holy grail of the successful designer. It is what we all strive for, but few of us achieve.

First, I ask myself then, what is true innovation? Innovation can be a daily occurrence, but true innovation is a breakthrough, unprecedented in its application, idea, process, accomplishments and experience. How does one achieve true innovation then? What tools does the designer need to achieve true innovation? How does one equip themself for the task?

The designer who takes the time to develop and equip themself with a various range of experiences is the one who is able to find success. Design related skills consist of ideation, visual communication, oral presentation, modeling, fabrication, prototyping, knowledge of materials and processes and computer design skills. These skills allow the designer to convey his ideas in concept, visual representation and final product. The work of designers can be reached through methodical and taught processes, but what part of the designer shows up in the end result? If a cube can be made by a robot, why make one? When you look at the perfect cube one has made, do you know who made it? Maybe, but the lesson learned lies in respect for process. An ignorant designer is one who choses to turn his shoulder to the way things have been done, and only look at the present. How can one know where they is going if they do not know where they came from? Technology has evolved over time, but one must start somewhere, and one who jumps into the design game late must return to the beginning in order to establish their foundation in processes that have led to the current day. This is the importance of the tedious skills one learns in the design curriculum.

However, in my experience as a student designer, I have been instructed to define user groups, experiment, refine, and present final ideas, but only the standard design process according to the standard design manual. This process would never lead me to the true innovation I sought. I once explained my design process to a veteran of the design field. He asked me what my inspiration for my design was and how I went about my process. I began to explain to him about user groups and other standard design talk. He stopped me halfway through and asked me to explain my inspiration. Being early in my design education, using user problem was a very safe way to design, not straying from the path of all standard designers. The designer then proposed that I look to a humanist inspiration for my next venture. We parted ways and I thought it over the next couple of weeks. It occurred to me that I needed to change the way I went about my design process.

The humanist inspiration I was suggested toward should come from sources that stray from the common path of designers, ideally that which has never been visited. Take for example, a designer who takes inspiration for a chair he is making from other chairs. They are less likely to achieve true innovation than the designer who takes chair inspiration from an off-the beaten path source such as “the feeling I get when I skydived for the first time” or the scent of coming home in the summer time.”

In one of my recent explorations, I went back to a philosophy course that I once took, where we looked at Plato’s Republic. In his work, Plato defines the line between the craftsman and the philosopher: One works with his hands, while the other works with his mind. While the thought of one who only works with his mind is inspiring as a celebration of the human mind and a beautiful image of the ability to preach and inspire the masses through words like great leaders of the past, I also see great genius in the methodology and problem solving skills that the maker and craftsman has developed in societies where technology has evolved to a plateau of continued success through trial and error. Both ways of working are things the modern designer should include in his process. I look around the range of work that can be produced by a great Industrial Designer, and I see both the philosopher and the craftsman behind that work. One who does not work with his hands will not be able to understand the properties of what he creates, and one who does not work with his mind, will only repeat the past in their work which is directed by others. Both a traditional craftsman and a great Greek philosopher excel in their area of expertise and inspiration from both should be taken into the studio.

True innovation is also achieved through a exploration of personal passion. The great designers of yesterday explored many aspects of design in their early years, but refined their interests into one category of design which allowed them to focus and take time for detailed and thorough innovation. It is the body of work which makes them great designers.

The designer that focuses only on one area of study from the start of his education will ironically become the product of the same old mold of those who have come before him. It is the designer who investigates the value in a multi disciplined study, looks for inspiration in the strangest places and pursues the things they are passionate to who will complete his toolbox to allow full exploration and ultimate happiness. I say to myself and wish to reiterate to others that one should think as an intellectual, problem solve as a engineer, work as a craftsman, and truly innovate as a great designer.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Sitting


The steel frame chair is one that opened up many new form possibilties
previously unavailable in wood and cast iron materials. Steel has been around for millennia in the use of tools, but only in the last hundred years has it been used for furniture.

Light


The Past



How have objects helped one deal with the past? What is a way of dealing with the past that is tangible? I thought about this proposition for an amount of time and came to the pastime of viewing photographs of the past. Photographs are a moment in time, in a certain place with certain people, captured and frozen in still forever. I have visited some of the ways we have viewed photographs to the modern gadgets that allow us the same actions in today's world.