Defining the imperative: design

The goals throughout this blog have been to explain the diversified fields in design and eventually understand why design is important and how it affects society. So, in order to understand the importance of design in society, we need to recognize the definition of design. Design is in everything we see, every single item that we touch, see, and sometimes smell is created through a process of design. Design is imperative in today’s society. It is simple yet overwhelming, because in order to achieve a successful product, most designers conduct research, experimentation, in a trial-and-error process, as professor Housefield mention in class “90% perspiration, 10% inspiration." Finally, design is the way designers develop an idea into a form.

Now that we know the definition of design, we can understand why it is important. We live surrounded by materials/products created by designers for the people, where a concept has been transformed into a visual and tangible product that satisfies society’s needs. Designers observe society's needs, analyze them, and then they try to find a solution for that problem. For example, we as human beings need food in order to acquire the energy our bodies needs, then designers created utensils so we could use while eating. Then, this is the reason spoons are like spoons and forks like forks.

The way we eat, dress, and behave are all being defined by different fields of design. What we eat or the utensils we use for eating were created by designers, the way we dress is determined by the seasonal clothing manufactured by fashion designers, and the way we behave towards materialism is molded by the democratization of design.

The main goal of design is to create materials and products that will satisfy human needs. Alice Rawsthorn mentions in her article, What defies defining, but exists everywhere?, that design is a “process of conceiving and creating things in the hope of making life easier and more enjoyable” for society. People created design in order to solve problems the society encounters in daily life.

References:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/arts/18iht-DESIGN18.1.15327742.html

Photo:

http://forkometry.wordpress.com/silver-fork-pendants/