Designing is the imagining and bringing forth of new worlds – E. Christopher Mare.
Design is everywhere. Design is everything. There is no one definitive definition that defines design. Design is not just about aesthetics. It is not the geeky kid who is picked the last in a gym class to make teams look even. It is not employed at the end of a product development process.
Instead, design is as fundamental as the air we breathe. Design is in the way your feet fit into your slippers, the way we uncork a wine bottle, the way we get the cap off a tube of toothpaste, the environments we work in, the way we order a pizza. We don’t notice these things because we assume they ought to be there and ought to work in a particular way.
To design means, among other things, to plan, to anticipate according to a devised course of events in view of a goal and under the influence of environment. Design is a complex activity.
Design must be understood as a word that describes both a process and an outcome. It is the process of turning ideas into material things. Designers design most of the objects, spaces, and even services that we interact with.
“Design is the creation process through which we employ tools and language to invent artefacts and institutions. As society has evolved, so has our ability to design” - Charles Owen.
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers says, “In most people’s vocabularies, design means decoration. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation.”
Chairman of The Idea Factory, Arnold S. Wasserman, perceives design as “the integration of art and technology for the creation of products, communications and environments that serve human needs. Design is creativity directed toward a purpose.”
Today’s consumer has shifted from conventional commodities to novel experiences that satisfy not only their basic needs, but also superior ones including sensorial, intellectual, emotional, and cultural needs. Creating novel ‘experiences’ for consumers necessitates focusing on, besides their basic needs, deeper aspects of their lives, their emotions, aspirations, which becomes the prime objective for a designer.
We see design as a professional business activity (as opposed to a form of art) that can add value and increase competitiveness of products or services by interfacing with aesthetics, science and technology. Design is a process involving the exploitation and transformation of creativity and innovation into the development of tradable products and services. It is multi-disciplinary, and may embrace the sciences of materials technology, engineering, ergonomics, manufacturing and aesthetics.
The UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) defines design as ‘Design is a structured creative process. Design is readily associated with industrial product design for manufactured products — specifically the ‘look’ of a product. However, the application of design is much broader, for example designing for function; for aesthetic appeal; for ease of manufacture; for sustainability; and designing for reliability or quality and business processes themselves'. |
