Defining Design

Andrea PeachStage 1

Contextual & Critical Studies

Definitions of Design

… as is … the definition of “designer”

The meaning of the word “design” is much contested

Design The shorter Oxford English dictionary

v. to mark out; to plan, purpose, intend … n. a plan conceived in the mind, of something to be done …

n. adaptation of means to end …

“Disegno”Renaissance = drawing

Alec Issigonis Morris Minor 1000 - 1962

19th Century ’Design’ replaced with ‘industrial art’ ‘decorative

art’ or ‘applied art’

South Kensington Museum 1864

20th Century ‘Design’ re-established

Norman Bel Geddes - ‘Futurama’ 1939 World’s Fair

Horatio Greenough American Sculptor 1739

Form follows function …

Louis Sullivan American Architect 1896

Form and function are one …

David Pye The Nature of Design 1964

The art of design, which chooses that the things we use shall look as they do, has a very much wider and more sustained impact than any other art. Everyone is exposed to it all day long. Indeed, in towns there is hardly anything in sight except what has been designed. The man-made world, our environment, is a work of art, all of it, every bit of it. But not all good.’

6 Requirements of Design:

1.It must correctly embody the essential principle of arrangement

2.The components of the device must be geometrically related

3.The components must be strong enough to transmit and resist process as the intended

David Pye The Nature of Design 1964

6 Requirements of Design:

4.Access must to provided (as relates to 2)

5.The cost of the result must be acceptable

6. The appearance must be acceptable

David Pye The Nature of Design 1964

Victor Papanek Design for the Real World 1970 (1995)

“Design is the conscious and intuitive effort to impose meaningful order”

Victor Papanek Design for the Real World 1970 (1995)

All men are designers. All that we do,

almost all the time, is design, for

design is basic to all human activity.

The planning and patterning of any act

toward a desired, foreseeable end

constitutes the design process. Any

attempt to separate design to make it

a thing by itself, works counter to the

fact that design is the primary

underlying matrix of life.

Design has become a range of

goods, services, shaped by the

intervention of ‘the designer’

no longer refers to ordinary objects

Pierre BourdieuDistinction - A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste 1984

Cultural Capital:

The ability to make distinctions between “cultivated” and “vulgar” taste.

Ron Arad Fantastic Plastic Elastic 1997

The ‘DESIGN OBJECT’

Penny Sparke Design Pioneers of the 20th Century - 1998

‘What are increasingly produced are not material objects, but signs’

Camouflage sniper’s gloves - 1917

Definitions of Design

Meanings of design are many and shift according to the context in which the word is used

Guy Julier The Culture of Design - 2000

Design is Interdisciplinary

Designers work with: product managers, researchers, marketing specialists, advertising agents, public relations consultants

Traditional demarcations between disciplines (graphic, product, interior) have blurred

Mike Press The Design Experience 2003

Designer as Cultural Intermediary:“A designer makes their own

definition of what it is to be a

designer and how to use

distinctive skills, knowledge and

thinking of design to find a

place in the world. This is

particularly true in today’s age

of the knowledge economy.”

Definitions of Design

… as is … the definition of “designer”

The meaning of the word “design” is much contested

Hella Jongerius 2003

a conversation that might have taken place…

Louise: How wide is the scope of design, actually? Does design count for something in society or does it operate only on the fringes of the cultural landscape?

Hella Jongerius 2003

Hella: It has to be about something. Commitment is crucial. Mass-production industry has been ruining the market with superfluous design products for far too long. I think designers have a role in this respect. We can do more than supply industry with original ideas; we could have a wider social responsibility

Hella Jongerius 2003

Hella: Designers have played a considerable part in creating the consumer society, so it would do us credit to instigate a new, more caring way of thinking about products.

Andrea MöllerDroog Design

‘Bolle Box’ 1994

Marti GuixéDroog Design

‘Oranienbaum candy’ 1999

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CCS BA Stage 1 Critical Notebook Worksheet 1