Introduction to Design

What is Design? 

Design is what links creativity and innovations. It shapes ideas to become practical and attractive propositions for users or customers. It may also be described as creativity deployed to a specific end. Design is all around us, everything man-made has been designed, whether consciously or not. 

This is a simple definition from former Chairman, Sir George Cox in the Cox Review:

The design of things is the history of things. There is a difference between making things and a good way of making things. This is where design comes in! With regards to this point, Dame Vivienne Westwood pleaded to the people to: “Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody’s buying far too many clothes. . . It doesn’t mean therefore you have to just buy anything cheap. Instead of buying six things, buy one thing that you really like. Don’t keep buying just for the sake of it. I just think people should invest in the world. Don’t invest in fashion, but invest in the world.”

The thing about design is that it changes due to time, technology and innovation. To design something you need to know its context, which means that you need to know your history, culture and surroundings prior designing anything! To better understand the difference between invention and design we can look at the example of the calculator. The first calculator machine was invented by Blaise Pascal in 1642, which looked nothing like the calculator we are accustomed to nowadays. But since then, due to the passing of time, its design has evolved to the present one, to which we pay more attention to ergonomics as well as function.

 What does design Mean?

Design can mean or imply various things. For instance how things look is the decorative design. But it also deals with how things work which is the functional design. Hence the well known statement of Form follows Function.

Fortunately in the 21^st century we managed to have a balance in appearance and function thus functional things can also be pleasing to the eye!

Bibliography:

Mat Hunter, What design is and why it matters. [online] Available at: http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/about-design/What-design-is-and-why-it-matters/ [Accessed on 2^nd October 2013]

John Dunne, September 2013, London Evening Standard. [online] Available at: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/buy-fewer-clothes-says-fashion-designer-vivienne-westwood-especially-if-youre-poor-8819634.html  [Accessed on 2^nd October 2013]