+ 20.02.2014

GOOD DESIGN

What is bad design? Is there bad design? An article from Sevra Davis (link) brings out that bad design takes many forms and in its worst, it can exacerbate a problem rather than solve it. She also questions if that can even be called design? Bad design can be found everywhere. Specially in amateur electronic design tools, which breeds quantity more than quality; it adds to the complexity and abundance of our world, rather than producing clarity.  The author is questioning if there are principles of bad design that we could learn from, to improve good design, and if bad design is a necessary part of the development of good design (in try and try again principle). Today's designer have the responsibility to promote good design. The professional designer needs to not only increase access to design tools, but also champion good design and raise the overall quality of design.

So what is good design?
Many design-related authors and organizations have been working to answer that question, and quite often made a list of principles good design has to have. Here are some main points that have turned up:

• Innovation
• Useful, functional, ease of use
• Aesthetically pleasing, beautiful
• Understandable, self-explanatory quality
• Discreet
• Honest, sincere
• Long-lasting, durable, enduring
• Thought through to the last detail
• Environmentally friendly, sustainable
• The least design possible
• Accessible
• Well made
• Emotionally resonant
• Positive emotions, narrative, symbols
• Socially beneficial
• Ergonomic
• Affordable
• Formal quality
• Symbolic and emotional content
• Product periphery
• Shape
• Colour
• Fun
• Convenient
• Enriching
• Brighter future for humanity
• Ethics
• Adequate in context
• Originality, surprising, impact
• etc.

For me, I believe, in a row of importance, the list would be following:
1) Functionality, useful, ease of use
I think the most important quality of a product is its usefulness. If a product can't perform what it's supposed to, it has no value. It's just a piece of material.

2) Innovative, degree of innovation
Even when a piece does what it's supposed to, good design would develop a way to improve the functionality. It might be to improve current way of use, or even work out even better way how to do something. Something new about the product is essential to make it good.

3) Aesthetically pleasing
The looks are essential. To have an object which does a good job and in a better way is good, but if I want to hide the object right after I have finished using that, it's not a good design.

4) Positive emotions, narrative, symbols
I believe after good looks, it's important that the product emits positive emotions, and makes the user enjoy and feel happy. Having a fun moment while doing everyday tasks lightens the day, which should be considered more while developing designs.

5) Long-lasting, durable, enduring, high-quality
In this world where so much products have a really short life-cycle, but the resources of Earth are decreasing, the designers have the responsibility to develop products that would serve the user for a long time, in good case for a lifetime or more.

6) Environmentally friendly, sustainable
On the other side, if the peculiarity of the product doesn't allow long life-cycle, the designers should be directed towards environmentally friendly materials and production methods.

7) Understandable, self-explanatory quality
The product has to be understandable. As Don Norman has said, it's OK to learn how to use the product once, maybe twice, but after that the use has to be understandable and logical.

+ 13.02.2014

DESIGN NOIR

Design Noir is part of critical design. It came to life through the book named Design Noir, by Anthony Dunne. The products of Design Noir create existential dilemmas. It bases on psychological dimension and expanding experiences which we get through the use of electronic products. The products of Design Noir are conceptual, pushing complex narratives into everyday lives. The user of Design Noir is a co-producer of narrative experiences. A mental interface between the individual and the product is where the experience begins. 

Placebo project

It's an experiment in taking conceptual design beyond the gallery and into everyday life. The authors (Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby) made 8 furniture pieces with aim to investigate peoples' attitudes and experiences with electromagnetic fields in the home. The pieces were made of MDF and usually one other material.

Once the objects are placed in homes, they develop their own life. Usually we don't interfere with these, until something breaks or we need to replace. The project was not interested in if the stories people believe in are scientifically true or not, but rather in the narratives people develop to explain and relate to electronic technologies.

The potential adopters filled out application forms detailing any unusual experiences with electronic products; after the adoption time was over, they were interviewed and taken photographs of with the objects, accentuating the details revealed during the period.

Designers can't solve the problems of electromagnetic networks, but they can change the perception of people. The objects in the project don't really remove or counter the cause of concern, but provide psychological comfort.

Though the volunteers who accepted to participate in the adoption process were certainly exceptional, they were still real people, not part of fiction.

The products were never meant for production, but rather just rentable products for short period of time.

The products:

 - 1) Parasite light - a lamp that only works when it's placed near an electronic product. It doesn't really feed off EM fields, but is battery powered. Instead, this and the nipple chair uses an electric field sensor to relate to the strength of field and releasing corresponding amount of light.

 - 2) Compass table - the table has 25 compasses set into its surface, which would spin when electronic objects are places on it.

 - 3) Nipple chair - when the chair is put into electromagnetic field, the two nipples set into the back of the seat start to vibrate and the sitter is made aware of the waves penetrating his torso. As the wiring for electricity is also in the floors, the sitter can put his legs on footrests higher from the ground.

 - 4) Electro-draught excluder - wall with pyramidal spikes meant to be put between an electric object and a person. The wall does not really absorb radiation.

 - 5) Loft - a lead-clad box on top of a ladder to store precious magnetic mementoes like answerphone messages, audio cassettes or floppy discs away from dangerous EM fields. Accessing the loft might become part of a ritual.

 - 6) Electricity drain - Some people collect electric voltage into their bodies, and release it by wrapping wire around their finger and connecting it to earth line. The chair claimably does the same: you plug it in and sit naked on the stainless steel plate. Where would people keep this object?

 - 7) GPS table - works fine only when sees the satellites perfectly. The owner should have an observatory, or at least a garden where to take the chair sometimes. The designers like the idea that people might feel a little cruel to keep the chair indoors.

 - 8) Phone table - a way to domesticate the phone. When person comes home, he puts the phone in the table's drawer. When someone calls, the table will emit soft light. It's much easier not to answer the soft glow than persistant ringing.

   One interview published was about the electricity drain. The user didn't sit on it to de-static herself, but had the object plugged into wall all the time, imagining that it would drain the electricity from around the room. She also said that while making phonecalls, usually her fillings hurt, but if she put a hand on the object, she could have longer conversations. She kept the object in the living room.

   Even after she was told that the object is a placebo object, she kept telling that she believes the object works, though the influence is very small. She also used the object to place clothes after ironing to de-static them. She said the electricity drain is a psychologically good product.

Link to the pdf, where you can also see pictures of all the objects


The Book Review: Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects by Regine Debatty

The reviewer chose to read the book because she didn't know about Design Noir. After finishing it, she recommends others to read it, as well, because:
 - Design Noir won't be a book about technology that will be outdated fast
 - Design Noir narratives the challenge of conformity in our everyday life

+ 6.02.2014

CRITICAL DESIGN

   Critical Design is using conceptual design proposals to challenge narrow assumptions and preconceptions about the role products play in everyday life. It's more of an attitude than anything else, a position rather than a method. A lot of people practice that without even knowing to call it Critical Design, and they certainly have their own way of describing what they do. Giving it a name simply draws more activity and attention to the debates related to it.

   Design as critique has many roots, for example Italian Radical Design in the 1970's, which was highly critical of prevailing social values and design ideologies. During the 1990's there was a general move towards conceptual design and noncommercial forms of design like critical design found it easier to exist, though the shift happened mainly in furniture world, and product design is still closely attached to mass market.

   The term of Critical Design origins from Anthony Dunne's book Hertzian Tales (1999). The main practitioners are Dunne, Raby and their graduate students from Royal College of Arts, though there are also other designers who work the similar way.

   The aim of Critical Design is to make us think, but also to raise awareness, expose assumptions, provoke action, spark debate, even entertain in an intellectual way.

   The world where we live in today has become incredibly complex, our relations, desires, fantasies, hopes and fears are very different from those at the beginning of the 20th century, but many ground ideas of design come from the early 20th century. The world has changed, but design has not; Critical Design is one of many movements stemming from changes in design, for it to stay relevant to our complex lives.

   Critical Design also can be humorous, though it's often misused. The goal should be satire, but often parody or pastiche are achieved, which reduce the effectiveness of the message provided. The viewer should experience a dilemma - is this serious or not? Is it real or not? Making up your mind is one part of the process, which can engage the audience in a more constructive way by appealing to its imagination as well as engaging the intellect. Deadpan and black humour work best.

   The biggest misonceptions about Critical Design could be that it's negative and anti-everything; that it's only commentary and cannot change anything; that it's jokey; that it's not concerned with aesthetics; that it's against mass-production; that it's pessimistic; that it's not real; that it's art. To comment the last, Dunne has said that it borrows heavily from art in terms of methods and approaches, but it's not art. Critical design is too close to everyday to be shocking like art is expected to be. It has to be "a bit weird" - too weird and it's considered art, too normal and it will be effortlessly assimilated. If Critical Design is regarded as art, it will be easier to deal with it; as design, it's more disturbing.

   Critical Design is a bit dark, but that's not some goal to achieve. Dark, complex emotions are ignored in design, where people are viewed as obedient and predictable users and consumers. One area Critical Design is questioning is the limited range of emotional and psychological experiences offered through designed products. Design is assumed to make things nice, and that limits us from fully engaging with a designing for the complexities of human nature. The negative is used to draw attention to a scary possibility in the form of a cautionary tale.

+ 23.01.2014

GLOBAL AND LOCAL DESIGN

   Global Design is a creative thinking process enabling a company to embrace a more coherent and sideway concept in its way of communicating, to achieve the best representation and efficiency or the brand or the product. Global design enables you to work in parallel on the product, its design, its production location, its packaging, the graphic communication, and its sale points (interior design). This is a proven method providing the company with tools to grow, assessing each step along the way, in order to assess its innovation capabilities. It also challenges the company in its capacity to respond to new challenges, while remaining within the global coherence of the brand. Example: Nespresso  and Apple didn't become the charismatic brand we all know by chance.
   Behind these success stories, there are real stories to tell, coherence from beginning to end. The initial ambition, the vision, the ideas, the innovation, the creativity, the R&D, the strategy, the hard work, the production, the image, the values, the design, the quality, the commercial strategy, the economic model, the price, the distribution network, the customers, the packaging, the speech, the sale distribution network, the point of sales, the brand name…the customers’ lifestyle to which the brand contributes, social identity components, assurance, pleasure, satisfaction… 
   Brands need to convince over the long haul. Seduction is no longer enough.Companies need to create a strong relationship with their customers and today, more than ever, customers are volatile; they test, zap… Regardless of who the client is, customers nowadays (professionals or individuals) have specific expectations of brands. One of the most pragmatic of these is the question is it “worth the expense”, moreover brands have societal, environmental, and cultural roles beyond their economic and commercial ones. The positioning of the brand chosen by the brand, its discourse, the company policy, its values are becoming part of the brand, bringing it to a new dimension where the relationship with the customer’s satisfaction has become complex.What the product or service is providing is now considered as expected, normal or else… For us, it is no longer enough to communicate and make it look attractive. We build a strong and lasting relationship with our customers, gaining experience over time to better understand and help.The relevance and efficiency of our ideas and solutions comes from this relationship, it is not only a question of creativity, it is first of all our capacity to explore the environment of our customer, to understand all the related components and dimensions in depth, and then to apply our capacity to articulate the mechanisms and develop the appropriate upstream strategy. The meaning comes from its essence, not its appearance.

+ 12.12.2013

UNDERSTANDING DESIGN:

150 REFLECTIONS ON BEING A DESIGNER 

BY KEES DORST

Details about the book:

Name:           Understanding Design. 150 Reflections on Being a Designer

Author:         Kees Dorst
ISBN:            9063690401
                       208 pages, hardback

Published:     2003, BIS Publishers, Amsterdam

What does it mean to be a designer, and what does it take to be a good designer? “Understanding Design” invites designers to think about what they do, how they do it, and why they aim for a certain effect. The book consists of 150 short, 1-paged essays about design, designers, design philosophy, tools of design, design education, working in a design team, working for enterprises and other. The stories have been separated into four main topics (Inside Design, About Design, Being a Designer, Around Design) to keep coherence, and go through everything from the philosophy and morality of design to practical guidelines on how to do and teach design. 

“Understanding Design” can serve as a first source of information for anyone interested in expanding their understanding of the area or see their experience and studies so far expressed in words.

Being a design student, of course I related to the book from my viewpoint mainly. I think it was an extremely good experience to read the book while working with the task given in project class. It gave me a lot of assurance when I was lost with the exercise. As it appears, uncertainty in my actions (or not taking action) is all part of design process. Another important thing I learned was that from time to time, it’s necessary to take a step back and not push forward with a concept that won’t work out, though it is really hard to tell when is the right time for this.  There’s no time limit how long a design process should last, and there’s no right way to do it. 

The writer doesn’t refer much to his own work, but instead, each essay gives general ideas about the subject, asking the reader to go through their own experience to verify the statements. Thanks to that, one starts to ask questions if he or she has experienced described situation, if one should experience it, and compare the offered solutions with what one has done himself. 

Dorst is offering a lot of advice in the book. For a fresh design student, that can be really helpful. Doing design projects in school is nothing like meeting clients in one end, engineers in the other, and trying to get design freedom between deadlines, budgets, technical issues and satisfying the customer. I think design projects in school are often made too comfortable for the students, so when they actually start to work, they will need a lot of adjustment time and learn to survive. The book gives a good peek into what’s expecting and what the students should pursue.

As said before, the best audience of the book would  be students of design areas, who are in need of practical advice. But Dorst also claims that the essays are a good read for more established professionals. I think, though, that the book is a bit unbalanced in some topics. Some essays give really basic advice about design process and how to deal with the issues encountered, which might become uninteresting for an experienced designer, but in the other hand the author goes really deep with the subject of design education, which, for a freshly graduated design student might be too early to relate. May it be that teaching his viewpoint of design education has become a subcouncious goal for him?

As I was researching for other reviews about the book, I encountered a following statement by Jesse Taggert (2006): “Overall, the one pages essay format is successful and approachable. They require little time to read and can be encountered in any order.” I have to disagree with her, as I found it hard to read continuously, because, as the author wants to have an introduction and ending to each essay, inside one topic, the beginning of one essay tends to repeat the ending of the previous essay. Usually, when reading a book, I don’t read just one page at a time, so reading a few essays in a row left me sometimes annoyed, as I kept going through the same thought many times. Such nuisance would not have happened if Dorst would not have forced the one-page essay format, but given each topic as much room as it needed. 

Further in the previously mentioned review she also mentions that the drawback of the format is that some ideas can’t be discussed in depth and some essays appear fatigued, and I agree to her opinion.

Overall, the book is a good read for throughout overview of designers and what their work includes. My suggestion, though, would be to try to read the essays in random order, to keep the freshenss of text. In a way, that approach would well suit the processes designers meet in their everyday work.



About the author:
Kees Dorst is a Dutch design scholar, educator, consultant and practicioner. He trained as an industrial designer at Delft University of Technology. He has worked for various companies and researched the ways in which designers work. He brought about 50 products to market as a product designer for various design firms. Currently he works as a Professor of Design at the faculty of Design, Architecture and Building of the University of Technology, Syndey. Kees Dorst holds professorship in “Entrepreneurial Design of Intelligent Systems” at Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands. He’s a founder and director of the UTS Design Thinking Research Centre and the NSW Designing Out Crime center. He has published 4 books and numerous articles; he’s lecturing at universities and design schools throughout the world.

Reference:

Taggert, J. (2006). Understanding Design.

Boston AIGA Journal of Design.

+ 14.11.2013

MY DESIGN IDOL

I don't think I have yet found a certain person/company I could fully consider my design idol, but I look up to Scandinavian design a lot.

   Scandinavian design started around 1950 in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The design style can be characterized by simplicity, minimalism and functionality. The Scandinavian design understood very well the idea that beautiful and functional everyday objects should be affordable to everybody. It was realized thanks to particular form of social democracy in the 1950's and also the increased availability of new low-cost materials and methods for mass production. The products of this movement often use form-pressed wood, plastics, anodized or enameled aluminium or pressed steel. 

   The Lunning Prize was awarded to outstanding Scandinavian designers from 1951 to 1970, and it had an important role in both making Scandinavian design recognized and also defining the profile of the whole movement. The concept of Scandinavian design has been a subject for many debates for last 50 years, but the democratic design ideals have survived and appear continuously in the Scandinavian, and also worldwide design.  From 2006, tradition of pan-Nordic design award has been resumed with the Forum AID Award.

Some of the companies whose design I enjoy:

Arabia from Finland - Arabia is a ceramics company, founded in 1873. Their products range around kitchen- and tableware. Currently owned by Fiskars.

Esteri Tomula Krokus for Arabia

Raija Uosikkinen, Kaj Franck TV-set for Arabia

Friedl Holzer Kjellberg for Arabia

Iittala from Finland - Iittala started as a glass company in 1881. They're specializing in design objects, tableware and cookware. Over time, Iittala has expanded from glass to other materials like ceramics and metal, while keeping with their key philosophy of progressive elegant and timeless design.The company continuously aims for creating modern classics.

Oiva Toikka Kastehelmi for Iittala

Klaus Haapaniemi Taika for Iittala

Tapio Wirkkala Chanterelle for Iittala

Bang & Olufsen from Denmark - Bang & Olufsen is a company which started in 1925 with a radio that worked with alternating current. The company was started by 2 friends, Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, in the attic of Olufsen's parents' manor house. Bang concentrated on technology, Olufsen dealt with business interests. The company designs and manufactures audio products, television sets and telephones. To this day, psychoacoustics is an important factor in their design. B&O often hires designers, not employs them in the company. From 1980's and onwards, the main designer for B&O has been David Lewis. From 1990's, B&O started to open retail shops to sell straight to customers, and production of audio separates was stopped, to suit the need for mini audio systems. Currently, the company is focusing on high quality audio and video products, as well as sound systems for automotive industry.

Beolit 39 radio, Bang & Olufsen 1939

Beoplay A9 wireless speaker by Øivind Slaatto, Bang & Olufsen 2012

Beolab 14 HiFi audio kit by Torsten Valeur, Bang & Olufsen 2013

Design House Stockholm from Sweden - Design House Stockholm was founded in 1992 by Anders Färdig. He used his previous design management knowledge to create a network of independent designers, which is still currently the platform of DHS. The DHS product collection was launched in 1997 with Block lamp. Rather than selecting designers to design a specific product, the Design House Stockholm lets designers present their personal ideas, of which some are selected for production. Brand philosophy: Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful. 

Harri Koskinen Block lamp Design House Stockholm 1996

Lina Nordqvist Family Chairs Design House Stockholm 2009

Jonas Hakaniemi Box Light Design House Stockholm 2008

Variér Furniture AS from Norway - Variér Furniture AS is a furniture company concentrated on designing and producing seats and chairs which are modern and healthy to sit on. The company was formerly part of Stokke, another Norwegian company established in 1932 with focus on strollers, cribs and high chairs for kids. Since 2006, Variér is a separate company, and has been building a strong brand based on long tradition of furniture building. The company's philosophy is called "A Human Idea", which started with the design of "The Original Kneeling Chair" or the Variable balans by Peter Opsvik in 1979. Today, Variér offers a range of task, dining, relax and lounge chairs over the world.

Peter Opsvik Variable balans Variér Furniture 1979

Olav Eldøy Peel Variér Furniture

Per Øie MOVE Variér Furniture 1984

+ 07.11.2013

THE DESIGNER AS AUTHOR

Based on essay: "The designer as author" by Michael Rock

What does it mean for a designer to be an author?
Author - the person who originates or gives existence to anything

   The article focuses on the issue of if designer (specially graphic designers) should be considered authors. One statement I remembered was about literature, that the reader can't "know" the author by reading his/her writings. If that is true, then the same could apply to designers and their work. I think if a designer has done good work, there are many things unnoticeable for the eye. If it' works as expected and doesn't malfunction/irritate, it can be considered appropriate design. Maybe the works of designer are supposed to go by unnoticed? Another literature reference from the article, about post-structuralistic writings - it's not anymore so important what author intended, but how the story works internally. "What difference does it make who is speaking?" (Foucault) The idea in literature moved from having no author (the first, oldest texts found), to more and more importance given to author, to the point where authors themselves say it's not important who says what is said (or - what is needed to be said). If the same scheme would be projected to designers, it would appear that the designers are still to claim the importance of authorism, still growing the strength of their voice. Currently, as referred through Katherine McCoy, the designers are moving beyond problem-solving and towards ‘authoring additional content and a self-conscious critique of the message … adopting roles associated with art and literature’.

   On the other hand, most design is done in a collaborative setting either between client and designer, or a group of designers, and the origin of the final result is very hard to pinpoint. At the same time, the figure of the author implies overall control over creative activity, and has been an essential ingredient of high art. The essay makes a comparison between movie creation and design creation, as both are results of collaborative work. in that part, the writer accents that both film directors and designers work on many projects, of which each inquires them a different level of creative potential. So not each project the movie director/designer takes part should be considered "author's work". In cinematography, the three measures considered to name a director the author are: good technique, individual style, inner meaning. All of these can be discussed and questioned, specially the last - inner meaning.

   In design, the correct intention is very important, turning the final work insistently practical. In the article, it seems as the works which have something extra, something self-motivating next to the practical aim could be considered to have an author. Also work that is complicated to such a degree that the designer needs to be called to make sense and construct the narrative. Also, the designer may create works which aim is to express their own views and statements. These works don't have the influencing relationship with a client, as they're not created for someone.

   Being an author means to take all the responsibility, all the control in one's own hands; for a designer, it's certainly a decision. 

   Another statement from the essay is as follows: If we really want to go beyond  the designer-as-hero model, we may have to imagine a time when we can ask: "What difference does it make who designed it?" I see the world needs more and more designers, as it's getting more and more complex on it's own. People need someone to solve their everyday problems, to live a better life. When I read a book named "Understanding Design" from Kees Dorst I noticed, when he was talking about design education, that the design practitioners that were guiding the young designers (can be named "teachers") already saw during the process where the design was heading to. In  that way, it would seem that each problem has a certain solution (or a few) that the designers with research and creativity tools would come to. If that way of thinking and solving problems could be developed in each designer, then I believe author of the design won't be important. The primary concern won't be who made it, but what it does and how it does it.