Symposium 1: Defining Design & Designing Design

January 26th, 2010

Reading: Form & Distinction by Ole Thyssen

Presenters: J. Butts Jr, Annika Yates & Dani Hill

1. Now knowing that a design element must serve a function, how is the design of an object informed by the system in which you belong? Chose a design that fits within your system and discuss how it exposes that system?

I am a communicator. Well, we all are communicators, however I particularly communicate a lot. I spent majority of high school on the speech and debate teams, I serve as an Admissions Ambassador and tour guide at my home university and I’m majoring in Communication Studies. Now that is a lot of talking.

But what is it that allows us, especially in today’s society to communicate so fluently? I believe our rapid sharing of technology has led to great advances in the communication system. Therefore, the cell phone best fits and highlights the parameters of my communication system.

What began as a simple, mobile version of the standard telephone, has transformed leaps and bounds into a social networking and information-sharing device used by millions. Tweets from our friends keep us in the social loop, while CNN News Break text messages keep us informed on the world’s latest happenings. Internet phones have us surfing the web from the seat of our toilet and text Google makes the Yellow Pages a thing of the past.

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Yes, the technology is remarkable, but what makes the cell phone so successful at communicating? Obviously, it’s a phone. But the real reason cell phones are successful tools of communicators is their price. Cell phones are affordable; often free with a service contract, giving majority of the population access to an array of wireless means of communication.

2. Thyssen's cynical point of view regarding art and design system suggests that we are all "cogs in the machine" and that everything to bed done has been done before and everything that will be created will be made obsolete immediately. So why continue pursuing design?

Despite Thyssen’s cynical point of view regarding the design system, I believe we are more than “cogs in the machine.” As designers we hold immense power. Design can be forward thinking. Design can break boundaries. Design can inspire. To say it has all been done before is nonsense. Of course, you can’t create something out of nothing, but by no means has everything already been created.

As technologies develop quicker products become obsolete faster. For this reason it is crucial to keep pursuing design; design helps push limits. We’d never have laptops thinner than 1-inch if the first computer hadn’t filled an entire room. Today’s skyscrapers could never reach over half a mile if our first buildings weren’t made from wood. Our cars still don’t get very good gas mileage… but greedy oil companies at the root of that issue are an entirely story.

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To stop designing because everything has been designed would be like saying we should stop writing books because every story has already been told. There will always be new stories to tell and likewise problems design can help solve. Take a look at the world around us. The threat of global warming is quickly mounting its attack against us. This is a new problem. One our society has never seen before. With forward thinking and bright ideas, design will save the world. Green buildings, green energies, green modes of transit, etc. are all outputs of the design community stepping in to play the role of super man.

Sorry Thyssen, I have to disagree. Your views may be just another cog in the machine, but my ideas stretch a little further outside the box.

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