Design. A word that most people understand and are familiar with, but what does it truly mean? When you stop and think about design what pops into your head? What does it mean to you? This week, I’ve been thinking about what design really means, to define design as a whole, what it means to be a designer and what it takes to be one. When i stopped to think about what design meant i came up with this:
In my mind that summed it up pretty good. It talked about what design was and what it did, and that was all it needed to do. But as i started talking to my peers i realised it was more than that. As we started to talk amongst ourselves in small groups i noticed that design is more than just what I had first thought. Through a collaborative design process we expanded upon our ideas, altered them and evaluated exactly what design meant to us. Each member of each group had input into the creation and design of the definition, till we were all working together to create the most accurate definition we could. Without any elected leaders the whole class got involved in the discussion and was able to add their opinion on the topic, making the final definition one that everyone thought was accurate. In the end we came up with this:
A long and wordy sentence that summed up to the best of our ability the broad theme that is Design. Although it could have been more succinct, I found the final definition to be an accurate representation of what I already knew design to be. It looked at more than just what design was and what it did, it also touched on why we need design; how it works; and the nature of design itself. With this in mind I took to the web to see what professional designers defined design as. In my search I came across a round table discussion between professional designers about design and what it means. Here are some of the notable definitions:
Paola Antonelli; curator of architecture and design, Museum of Modern Art, New York, (2001, para. 22):
Erik Adigard; cofounder, M.A.D., (2001, para. 3):
Antonelli and Adigard look at design as more than just art and making something look pretty, they look at it as a way to creatively solve problems in the world. They look at is as a story telling device to communicate things to a wider audience and as an improvement to the world around it. In those ways the definitions given by these professionals are very similar to the one developed by my class. Antonelli's definition specifically resonated with me as she describes design as being a way to "produce something that the world didn't know it was missing" as it delves into the deeper meaning behind design, into why we design in the first place.
Having looked at what design truly means conversation drifted to what do you need to be a designer. What skills, what abilities, what mentalities were needed to be the best designers we could be. After a large group discussion, several key ideas came out. Our core factors of a designer are the ability: to implement ideas; to be flexible; to be collaborative; to have good time management; to brainstorm; to be innovative; to be hardworking; to be creative; and the ability to communicate well. Over the course of the discussion these 9 key skills were brought back to focus time and time again. They became the 9 core elements of being a designer.
As a designer one should strive to ace these skills and push themselves to be the best designer they can be. Personally I know that I'm pretty flexible and innovative, being especially good at problem solving, but struggle when it comes to managing my time well and the initial act of brainstorming. These weaknesses of mine are something I plan to improve over time, by setting myself small milestones to keep myself on target and set myself little brainstorming activities to try and stretch this skill.
Have you ever thought of yourself as a sandwich. Yes that’s right a sandwich, a big pile of ingredients stuffed between two slices of bread. Because I was asked to, and let me tell you it is an interesting experience. Defining myself as a designer in the artistic form of a sandwich proved to be much harder than I first thought it would be, because it's just a sandwich right? When I arrived home to start planning my sandwich I was struck with designers block, and because brainstorming is not one of my strong suits, I remained stuck for a while. Slowly ideas started hitting paper and my sandwich started taking shape. I looked at the size, shape, visual aesthetics, materials and taste of my ingredients and slowly but surely my sandwich took shape. Once I had a pretty good idea I took to the stores to get what I needed. Once assembled I took to the sandwich with my camera to capture the final giant product.
As both an IT programmer and a graphic artist, I felt the need to express both sides of my designing through my sandwich. For IT, I designed the sandwich with distinct layers as if lines of code, for art, I made the sandwich with bright exuberant colours for the colourful nature of my art. Throughout my life I have also found interest in many different forms of art, and as such I made my sandwich quite large. My first interest as a designer was that of photography, specifically photography of nature and flowers. As this was a huge part of why I became a designer I used handpicked fresh lettuce and small decorative flowers, as well as other fresh vegetables as a centrepiece of the work. As my work started to evolve I started to look into social commentary as a part of my work and so I made the bread I used thick and grainy for the deeper meaning behind the work I do. A lot of the graphic design that I do involves interesting, oddly shaped objects and for that reason I have used the odd shape of capsicums within the work. On top of all these visual aspects, the sandwich includes a lot of prominent, strong, attention grabbing flavours such as the red onion and aged chilli and cheddar. These show the bold and expressive nature of the art that I love to work with. To top it all off I have included some cherry tomatoes off to the side to represent how my art and design style is still growing and being developed as a whole.
Then it came to photographing my sandwich. I needed the perfect environment to showcase the work. To most truly represent myself as an artist, I took it outside to the nature that had so inspired my artistic nature in the first place. Displayed perched on a kitchen stool, I photographed it in front of some of the plants in my garden, with the light of the sun peering down from the tree line above. By taking it so, I believe the essence of the sandwich was depicted on camera effectually. Overall, although a bit simple in appearance, I felt the sandwich effectively captured who I am as a designer and my own personal style. And thus, the Sandwich Jess was complete.
Design. A word so deep and complex that no one truly understands it. Design is more than just what most people believe it to be. Design is creation. Design is storytelling. It is interpretive, collaborative and communicative. Design is innovation and problem solving. Design is design. It is different to everyone. Your understanding of design will be different to mine. Design is hard, it is time consuming. It requires re-evaluation of ideas and lots of planning. Until now I have thought of design as something that just happens, as something you do, but it's more than just that. It is all of these things. It is a process, an idea, and a way of thinking. In truth, now there is only one way I can think of how to describe design and that is:
Antonelli, Paola & Adigard, Erik (2001, January). “A Conversation About The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.” Conversation hosted at Wired. Accessed March 13, 2017. https://www.wired.com/2001/01/forum/
