design 101
today was holly's first day of school. i told her phil had to take a picture of her just as her mom used to do. she is teaching a child development class as well as a fashion/design class. i had been thinking about writing a blog on such a topic but wasn't motivated to do so until she needed one for her first day [remember, geared audience is high school sophmores]
it is everywhere; design is in everything. look around and name one thing that hasn't been created by another. the kleenex's? no, some poor man sat a computer figuring out how to fold those soft pieces of paper so that you pull one after another; i bet you never thought about him before. the grain pattern in the wood of your table? long before it ever came into being as a table, the seasons formed the shape of the grain. the curve of your fingernails are even designed by your own clipping or by the way they've been used in your daily activities. there is absolutely nothing you can touch that hasn't in some way or another been changed or designed by another. you are a designer and you didn't even know it.
not all of this design has been good. i bought an inexpensive, trendy running watch the other day. i loved how it looked on my wrist but could not for the life of me figure out how to reset the time. ever have that problem? we have designed shoes which top the fashion charts but contort our toes to unnatural, painful shapes. vehicles which are better suited for carrying troops around in iraq are now taking kids to soccer practice. good design is responsible design.
some people opt for beauty in design. to them, the color and style of an shirt are more important than the quality of the material or the ease in wash. others may choose a cell phone based on the capabilities it provides, disregarding the number of covers you can get to go with it. however, for something to be designed well, beauty and usability must be in balance. an object that is beautiful to its core is no better or wrose that one that is only pretty if they both lack usability. all the many factors of design must be in harmony and one should find pleasure in use; attractive things really do work better.
regardless of your belief of our origin of existance, everything is in a state of evolution. we are shapped by the experiences around us. when i burned myself as a child on a hot stove, i quickly learned that "red" indicated "hot" and therefore never touched it again. i remember the first computer my dad ever brought home. i slipped in the five inch floppy disk and shrieked in delight at the green words before me. color was no where to be found, much less email or instant messenger; DVDs were only a figment of the imagination. how far we have come.
embark on design not as a quest to reinvent the wheel. good designers do not start from scratch. begin by making something done once better, more responsible, more inspiring.
you are already a designer; now create like one.
it is everywhere; design is in everything. look around and name one thing that hasn't been created by another. the kleenex's? no, some poor man sat a computer figuring out how to fold those soft pieces of paper so that you pull one after another; i bet you never thought about him before. the grain pattern in the wood of your table? long before it ever came into being as a table, the seasons formed the shape of the grain. the curve of your fingernails are even designed by your own clipping or by the way they've been used in your daily activities. there is absolutely nothing you can touch that hasn't in some way or another been changed or designed by another. you are a designer and you didn't even know it.
not all of this design has been good. i bought an inexpensive, trendy running watch the other day. i loved how it looked on my wrist but could not for the life of me figure out how to reset the time. ever have that problem? we have designed shoes which top the fashion charts but contort our toes to unnatural, painful shapes. vehicles which are better suited for carrying troops around in iraq are now taking kids to soccer practice. good design is responsible design.
some people opt for beauty in design. to them, the color and style of an shirt are more important than the quality of the material or the ease in wash. others may choose a cell phone based on the capabilities it provides, disregarding the number of covers you can get to go with it. however, for something to be designed well, beauty and usability must be in balance. an object that is beautiful to its core is no better or wrose that one that is only pretty if they both lack usability. all the many factors of design must be in harmony and one should find pleasure in use; attractive things really do work better.
regardless of your belief of our origin of existance, everything is in a state of evolution. we are shapped by the experiences around us. when i burned myself as a child on a hot stove, i quickly learned that "red" indicated "hot" and therefore never touched it again. i remember the first computer my dad ever brought home. i slipped in the five inch floppy disk and shrieked in delight at the green words before me. color was no where to be found, much less email or instant messenger; DVDs were only a figment of the imagination. how far we have come.
embark on design not as a quest to reinvent the wheel. good designers do not start from scratch. begin by making something done once better, more responsible, more inspiring.
you are already a designer; now create like one.
posted by jill m at 9:54 PM
1 Comments:
I like your comment about the Hummers. I think it illustrates a paradox in the United States that goes way past design issues though. As a country we cannot afford to supply our troops with adequate equipment in Iraq, yet any soccer mom in Johnson County can easily brave the parking lots in her glossy H2.
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