Great Design

My views on what great design is and what great design isn't. 

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Final Design and Technology

During our final design and technology session, we had a talk from Rachel Sleight, a former designer at habitat and now working on her own projects. A point she made that I found quite interesting was the difference between large store based design processes for seasonal work and small scale design teams and personal projects. It is interesting how at larger companies the design process is much faster and higher pace compared to freelance design despite bigger teams working on the projects. In some ways I don't think this would suit me as I prefer to take lots of time over making decisions but I can also understand that it's good to have pressure on you to force you to keep moving forward and force you to make decisions and keep improving.

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Live forever

What is great design though?

Does it really matter how it looks or how it acts in everyday life? Or is it more about how well it performs when you need it most?w Sometimes the best design you'll encounter is the light on your keyring so you can find your lock after a night out or the pen that has an eraser on the end of it...

Because it's exactly what you need in that moment!

Does something need to be well designed to be great design? Maybe, I don't rally wanna know!

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: Time Something I've always found fascinating is time. I've always marvelled at the movement of clocks and watches and their mechanisms. For as long as there have been people we have been trying to understand time, be it a sundial, egg timer or stop watch. In this blog I'm going to look at the grandest of all time pieces, the grandfather clock. The first grandfather clock was built in the late 1600s and they have been keeping time ever since. Often a statement of grandeur as much as about telling the time, grandfather clocks are some of the earliest fully mechanical systems and have led to the development of most clocks and watches we still use today. The grandfather clock is tall, freestanding, weight-driven pendulum clock. The time it requires a pendulum to swing back and forth is determined by the length of the pendulum. The back-and-forth movement of the pendulum causes the weights to drop at given paces, which makes the hands move. The combined movement of the pendulum and the weights are what makes a grandfather clock work and keep such precise time. The clock faces are often beautifully decorated with images of local or religious significance. I find the combination of this very carefully designed mechanical instrument with high quality, intricate exterior finish interesting. It's a piece of art but more. The skill of the clockmaker is one that may not be fully appreciated in this day and age but clocks and watches are something that I will always find very interesting and will continue to enjoy. I consider this to be great engineering as well as great design.

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Quantity over Quality?

There is little doubt that the iPod Classic is an example of great design. It was the most successful media player of its era and one of Apple’s most successful products ever. It and Apple revolutionised the way we listen to music, but at what cost?

 With the introduction of the iPod (and other music players) we saw the dawn of the digital music age – MP3. When a track is recorded, it is saved in two full data formats; studio master copy (24bit/ uncompressed) and as a physical analogue representation – vinyl. Both of these formats are as close to a live performance as it’s possible to get. To fit a track on to a CD the file size needs to be reduced (hence – compact disc) to 16bit (sampled at 1.41 million bit/s). This causes a loss in overall quality due to the limitations of analogue to digital conversion in 16bit. Standard MP3’s have about one eleventh of the quality of a CD and are sample at just 128k bit/s.

The first iPod classic being released 16 years ago and had a capacity of 5GB. Apple’s current highest device is just 128GB, enough space for fewer than 50 studio master quality albums.                

 In short, the introduction of the memory constrained iPod and the MP3 format means that we have effectively sacrificed quality for quantity. The iPod was revolutionary and I do consider it to be great design but it also illustrates how advancements in technology can actually lead to decline in quality.

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What makes great earphones. What's most important? The sound quality? The longevity of the earphones? The aesthetic characteristics? The obvious answer is the sound, because that's what there for. But often this isn't the case. Many companies seem to focus just as much on the aesthetic, something I see as a problem. For me, the best earphones need a balance between the three. Sennheiser MM 30i Ear-Canal Headset. The images above are the earphones I currently own and use. They're designed by Sennheiser and cost £20 on Amazon. They're probably the best £20 I've ever spent! Indestructible is an understatement. My own set have been left in the rain for about a week, soaked at parties, been subjected to several full wash and dry cycles, basically, all manner of abuse! Yet, the sound quality is just as crisp and full as when I bought them about four years ago. I've owned other alternatives, like Apples EarPods (£25) or In-Ear Headphones (£65), but the build quality and durability of the Sennheiser's is almost immeasurably superior. In my opinion, that's great design.

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Something to think about. I'm not sure whether this is great design or even good design. Regardless of this, I quite like it! In case you're wondering, it's basically a 3D version of noughts and crosses. The reason I like it is because it shows how a fairly simple, low level concept can be extended and transformed into something much more interesting. As a physical object, to me, it's quite pleasing - all the pieces are identical, they interact smoothly and are easy to use and understand. As well as this, it's a much more challenging game as there are far more opportunities to win or loose because of the third dimension. I suppose that on some level, I do believe this is great design. It's simple and yet complex at the same time and this is something I find interesting and makes me think! (Unfortunately I don't have a date or designer for this 😫)

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To go with my last post, here are two examples of things I think are great engineering and great design and two things I love - music and food! 

A record player with a 7″ single: Great engineering. The phonograph was the first way to get real recordings in to people’s homes (1877).

A Box Appetit Lime Lunchbox by Black and Blum : Great design. With an internal compartment to separate food, a fork and a steam outlet for microwave use, it’s the prefect lunchbox! I love it!

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Great Design. Great Engineering.

As part of my course, I was asked to find two things. One I consider to be great engineering and the other with I think is great design. This got me thinking. What is the real difference between design and engineering? Before I went to university it’s not something I’d have ever thought about but after three years of studying I’ve started to build more of an idea.

For me, great design and great engineering are completely linked. I don’t feel that one can exist without the other. For example, someone can design a great concept for a product, but without proper engineering for production, it probably couldn’t exist. Equally, great engineering projects need to be properly planned and design for some many reasons. Depending on the project, there could be social issues, environmental issues, as well as things as simple as does it work. All of these can’t be resolved without design of some sort.    

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As promised! Here's a couple of (not very good) images of the wood fire I mentioned yesterday! Designed by a Scandinavian company whose name I need to find, the stove uses airflow circulation to regulate the temperature of the fire. Easy to get light, mega efficient, and - once installed - relatively inexpensive to run! Adding this to an aesthetic that I find pleasing in a modern building, I like this and would consider it great design!

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The First

As a product design engineering student, my perception of what is and isn’t good design is still developing. Through this blog I’ll share my views on what I like and what I dislike. 

The first thing I’m going to mention is a wood burning stove… 

There's a picture coming soon, I promise!