*Photo by Prerna Dudani.
Have you ever felt that your whole world was crashing down? That’s how I felt when Professor Housefield, during a lecture, gave us his definition of the word “design”. The definition consisted of 5 words and captured what I have been trying to get to through all my blogs! It was “Design is an idea given form” (Professor Housefield Lecture 11). It was simple, eloquent and to the point. Actually, his definition of “design” was closely related to the definition a “concept” which unifies content with form to deliver a message. So according to him, Professor Housefield, a concept in design is as important, if not more important, than the design/final product itself. When I thought of it in this way I didn’t feel so bad because in a way my whole blog is design; it is based on an idea, trying to define design, and I have given this idea form with every blog entry. And I’m trying to deliver a message about design to an audience. Thus, I have been designing all along!!
I had a similar epiphany about the nature of design when I heard Jonathan Ive, the senior vice-president of design at Apple whose innovations include the iPod and the iMac, discuss the importance of perseverance in developing an idea into a final product, a form. “Ideas are so fragile aren’t they? It’s so easy to miss an idea because they can be so quiet or to snuff an idea out. I think the sense of inquisitiveness, the willingness to try is so important for design and for developing those tentative fragile ideas into a real product (Stephen Fry in America, Episode 6). I think I had to rewind this 2 minute interview a couple of times to understand what Jonathan Ive was talking about. And even then I didn’t fully understand it until Professor Housefield explained his definition in class then, everything connected and the light bulb went off! What Jonathan Ive and Professor Housefield have been getting at is that design is not only about an ideas and forms, but it is about the process through which the designer actually recognizes an idea as a gem, gives the idea a chance and perseveres through the whole creative/design process to create a form/a final product; a diamond out of mere stone. An idea given form encompasses a multitude of steps and process that a designer must go through to design.
So actually, when I thought that my world was coming crashing down it was actually only expanding. Hence I plan to give my idea, defining design, a chance and persevere through the blogging process to not only come up with a definition of the word, but actually design in the process.
Credits:
Professor Housefield, Design 1, Lecture 11.
Stephen Fry in America, Episode 6, BBC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgob7Wz19As
http://designmuseum.org/design/jonathan-ive
*Photo by Prerna Dudani.
No comments:
Post a Comment