introduction to design- module 1

8/8/2019 Introduction to Design- Module 1

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Introduction to DesignA synopsis of the module

6/20/2010

Disha KaushalStrategic Design Management


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INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN

A Summary of the Module

Though officially our classes started with a session by Professor M P Ranjan but I feel that my

introduction to design started from the moment I stepped into the NID Gandhinagar campus. Right from

the waiting area below the hostel to the foyer in the new building block everything is so beautifully

designed keeping the weather of the place in mind. It is a well spaced out and well ventilated campus

which gives enough breathing space to young budding designers.

All our sessions with all the speakers and all the documentaries led me to think about how much

potential design has to majorly alter our lives. Be it the objects that surround us in everyday life or the

fonts we see used and overused in our commercial activities, design has impacted our lives in a much

deeper way than we realize ourselves.

Thus it becomes very important for us as young designers to understand the greater meaning of design.

Design has always to be understood in a context. Good design has to be innovative, long-lived,

conservative and constant in every detail, and it should make the products aesthetic and

understandable. It should be as little design as possible.

The module provided us a valuable insight to the greater purpose of design which is to have a point of

view in whatever we see. We learnt that design lies not in the product but in the process. Design is a

quest for form, the aim of which is to provide maximum unity with the nature. Our job as a designer is to

not use any frame of reference and to design products that will stand the test of time.

The biggest problem that we will face as designers will be that of sustainability. The solution to which

lies in the production processes themselves. We should learn from designers like Andy Goldsworthy

whose work finally is in unison with the nature. It is born from nature and goes back to it.

On the whole it was a great learning experience which provided us a lesson for life.


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Raindrops and Footprints-Reflections on Design Enabled Development Models for India

By- Professor M P Ranjan

The talk Raindrops and Footprints, by Professor M.P. Ranjan, gave us the opportunity to reflect on

these series of insights and to map out the contours of the theory of design based crafts interventionsthat have emerged from the National Institute of Design over the past 50 years of exploration and

design action in the field. He talked about the glorious past of the prestigious institute we study in. NID

was set up in the 1960s, at a time where worldwide design thinking had started and which is primarily

the reason why Dr. Nehru had invited Charles and Ray Eames to prepare the India Report on the basis

of which NID was set up in 1961. NID has been a pioneer in industrial design education after Bauhaus

and Ulm School of Design in Germany and is known for its pursuit of design excellence.

His personal background of having been born into a family of a craftsman carpenter, who later built his

business enterprise in the manufacture of wooden toys and furniture for children, provides an extended

backdrop for this investigation and reflection into the models for developments that emerged and were

tested through repeated interventions in the field.

He talked about the Activity Theory which theorizes that when individuals engage and interact with

their environment, production of tools results. These tools are "exteriorized" forms of mental processes,

and as these mental processes are manifested in tools, they become more readily accessible and

communicable to other people, thereafter becoming useful for social interaction.

He even quoted Professor Bruce Archersaying that experience itself does not create knowledge. It is

the reflection on experience that does.

He even talked about how the local handicrafts of a region could be developed and documented by the

designers by mapping the creative resources through a village incubate system wherein first we select

candidates, then contact them, engage them and confirm their beliefs. Thereafter we study and

understand the problem through a Macro-Micro Survey of the people, place and culture. Next we

explore and experiment to develop insights and build prototypes and get feedbacks and listening with

empathy. Then we reline concepts, share and publish them to finally help them collaborate to be

partners in the shared value. This he explained through the Jawaja project (1974), the Bamboo field

study (1975-1981) and the Katlamara project (2002-2007).

Prof. Ranjan even shared with us Bruno Latours 5 Principles of Design. Namely,Humility (Propose Vs

Build); Attention to Detail (Macro - Micro); Meaning & Semiotic; Context - Tradition & Culture; Values &

Ethics.

He said that as designers it is our duty to bridge the gaps through finding opportunities for education in

design thinking with values. This can only be done through mediating tools like negotiation, networking

and Knotworking.


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OBJECTIFIED

A Feature-length film by Gary Hustwit

Objectified is a documentary about industrial design; its about the manufactured objects we surround

ourselves with, and the people who make them. The term objectified has two meanings. One is to be

treated with the status of a mere object. But the other is something abstract expressed in a concrete

form, as in the way a sculpture objectifies an artists thoughts. Its the act of transforming creative

thought into a tangible object, which is what designers in this film do every day. But maybe theres a

third meaning to this title, regarding the ways these objects are affecting us and our environment. Have

we all become objectified?

Objectified is a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. Its

about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a

daily basis. Its about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability.

In this film, according to Dieter Rams (Kronberg, Germany), design is for nature it is to remove

arbitrariness and uselessness from objects. Good design is innovative, long-lived, conservative and

constant in every detail, aesthetic, and makes product understandable. And as the company Apple put

it it should be as little design as possible.

In the movie, the designers urge us to look at design in a bigger context and at an object-user

relationship level. They say that design is a quest for form. In fact designers understand what people

want better than they themselves do. In design the hardest part is to remove, remove and remove until

we can get maximum unity. It is the duty of the designer to create products that will stand the test of

time. The purpose of design is to give the new now, the next now look so that the people would

want to buy it. Design should give individual character even to something that is to be produced

industrially to give it life and an identity. So we should use human culture while designing. IDEO

believes that design is something that should get better with use.

Today the biggest challenge we face as designers is sustainability which should be inculcated as a habit

in design thinking, production processes, conceptualization and usage. Then and only then designers will

become culture generators.


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Talk By Professor Sethu Raman

The talk, by Professor Sethu Raman, provided a valuable insight that design is fundamentally how others

look at things, how they conceive and translate it. The role of the designer is mainly to be empathetic.

We have to look beyond the EGO and design for the OTHER. We have a baggage of emotions and

senses. We are having variety of experiences in our everyday lives which give birth to our experientialself. We all seek for ways to attain pleasure and seek virtual things to fulfill our never -ending ever-

changing desiresfor which we need designers. Our world is very complex and highly stressful that is

why we have so many gadgets to make life simpler. Increasingly we are moving to a virtual world so real

becomes virtual and virtual becomes real. What nature cannot do for us, human beings have created for

themselves.

Thereafter, he gave us some insights about the core principles of design. The first core of design is

planning. The need of an object could be an extension of the sensory need that is why technology is

actually gradually controlling us otherwise we will become cyborgs. How it has happened is because our

brain is divided into 2 parts. One (the right brain) is visual and processes information in an intuitive and

simultaneous way, looking first at the whole picture then the details. The other (the left brain) is verbal

and processes information in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting

them together to get the whole. Design is a combination of the activities of the left and the right brain.

Designers are the people who learn by doing. This is primarily because of the mirror neuron which helps

us mimic things. Experience is a kind of observation pattern so to visualize we have to record it by doing

it ourselves. For the universe to exist we need a balance of the right and the left brain.

After the Industrial Revolution took place, our lives were ruled by mass production and the concept of

the other was highlighted. In the 1920s the Bauhaus school of design was starts in Weimer in

Germany. Before this all the traditional knowledge was inherited, so they told that this knowledge could

be taught and that anyone could acquire this learning. Design aptitude can be taught and the grammar

for this has to be acquired from nature. This school had a euro-centric design approach. Then came the

Ulm School of Design which had a more scientific approach. They looked at design as a problem solving

technique.

Professor Sethus thoughts were that design was about giving a form-- we do it for the other, but it is

also for self satisfaction because we too fall into the larger umbrella of the other. We are all striving

for excellence. Nature has already got this property of excellence, but this is a qualitative experience.

For designers to be successful one has to be discontent. Designers try to make an object from the

existing state of others to the desired state of others. Design has to be understood in a context and that

the product is the narrative of this design thinking. Design has the capability to make the world

harmonious. We have created lots of problems to solve which we need to bring a point of view to what

we see. Now we are looking back to nature to learn the forming process and to attain sustainability from

an ecological perspective. Today technology has freed designers from a lot of constraints so whatever

we can think can be made. Design is bringing sensibility to the tangible world so we are continually being

charged to do it. Design is all about being human. So today we have collaborative which is the key to

designing in today information age.


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Summary about the film Helvetica

Helvetica is a feature film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the

creation of one typeface (which celebrated its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation

about the way type affects our lives.

In this film they have shown how typography has evolved and become an integral part of our lives

through the journey of the font Helvetica, which was developed in the early 1960s. Helvetica was

developed by Max Miedinger with Edard Hoffmann in 1957 for the Haas Type Foundry in

Mnchenstein, Switzerland. In the late 1950s, the European design world saw a revival of older sans-

serif typefaces such as the German face Akzidenz Grotesk. Haas' director Hoffmann commissioned

Miedinger, a former employee and freelance designer, to draw an updated sans-serif typeface to add to

their line. The result was called Neue Haas Grotesk, but its name was later changed to Helvetica, derived

from Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland, when Haas' German parent companies Stempel and

Linotype began marketing the font internationally in 1961, they later changed the name from Helvecia

to Helvetica which means Swiss font. The advantage of Helvetica was that it was clean crisp and had a

neutral character. Due to its neutral and transparent character, Helvetica had become a very popular

font for major branding and advertising campaigns, which led to its use and overuse. Therefore after a

point people started finding it boring. Another reason for this was that a lot of companies who were

sponsoring the Vietnam War were using Helvetica as their typeface therefore it was regarded as the face

of the Vietnam War was which discouraged many designers from using it. As a result what happened

was that a whole new range of fonts developed which were grunge or hand-written in nature and

Helveticas downfall led to the emergence of new styles in typography.

Introduced amidst a wave of popularity of Swiss design, and fueled by advertising agencies selling thisnew design style to their clients, Helvetica quickly appeared in corporate logos, signage for

transportation systems, fine art prints, and myriad other uses worldwide. Inclusion of the font in home

computer systems such as the Apple Macintosh in 1984 only further cemented its ubiquity.

Helvetica encompasses the worlds of design, advertising, psychology, and communication, and invites us

to take a second look at the thousands of words we see every day. The makers of the film brought an

interesting insight that the meaning is hidden in the context of the word and not in the typeface itself.

The smoothness of the letters of Helvetica makes them human and authoritarian at the same time. It

is the typeface of socialism it is a rare typeface which is able to bridge the gap between simple, plain

design and valuable sensible design.

Interviewees in Helvetica include some of the most illustrious and innovative names in the design world,

including Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Wim Crouwel, Hermann Zapf, Neville

Brody, Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, David Carson, Paula Scher, Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-

Jones, Experimental Jetset, Michael C. Place, Norm, Alfred Hoffmann, Mike Parker, Bruno Steinert,

Otmar Hoefer, Leslie Savan, Rick Poynor, and Lars Mller.


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Summary of the talk given by Gajanan Upadhyaya

The following were the insights of design given by Gajanan Upadhyaya.

Observing

Designers need to be observing a lot. As a designer himself Gajanan Upadhyaya alias GU had been very

much observing from childhood. His daily walk till the school from his home made him more observing

in nature.

Experimenting

Observation and experimentation go hand in hand. GUs experimentation with new things started at an

early age which he explained with his real life story of experimenting with tailoring at his friends tailor

shop. The other example that highlighted his crave for experimenting with new things was his design of

chair with strings used for building ships.

He was very much fascinated to do new things.

Decisions and Reasoning

According to him nothing can be designed without making prior decisions. Reasoning on the design is

very much important. How to think and how to counter questions on the design is more important in

the development of good design.

Compactness of design/Minimalism

Most of GUs designs are made parallel just for the sole reason that it could be folded and stacked. This

very well expresses the usage of minimalistic design approach and futuristic thought of space

constraints that may arise in future.

Good product design

According to GU a good product design consists of the following features.

The product should tell you how it is made. It should have as little design as possible

It should be environmental friendly Every part must narrate its use or relevance. It should have an aesthetic value.


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Summary of the filmBauhaus- the face of the 20th

century

The Bauhaus school was founded in Weimar, Germany by a famous architect called Walter Gropius. It

was the focal point of avante garde ideas in the 1920s different from any other school that existed at

that time. It was born under catastrophe at the time of World War I.

The school existed in three German cities (Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932 and

Berlin from 1932 to 1933), when the school was closed by its own leadership under pressure from the

Nazi regime. The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of focus, technique,

instructors, and politics.

There was simply no other art school anywhere in Europe which could put the revolutionary ideas of the

1920s so fully into practice. It tried to find a way of dealing with life on an aesthetic level. It was founded

with the idea of creating a 'total' work of art in which all arts, including architecture would eventually be

brought together. The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist

architecture and modern design. The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments

in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.

The contribution of Bauhaus consisted in the fact that it was developed as a visual science. The Bauhaus

was conceived as an idea by Walter Gropius who while serving as an officer in the Great War dreamed of

a school of art and design that would help change the world. The mechanized slaughter made Gropius

long for a world where machine would be tamed for the benefit of man. After the war Walter began to

make his utopian dream come true. He formed an art school inspired by the form of a gothic cathedral.

His school was supported by public funds. The school was founded in Weimar because it was the

control-house of the nation buzzing with academic, theatrical and political activity.

Walter Gropius established workshops where the students known as apprentices were trained asartists and craftsmen. It was wrongly thought that everything was based on handicraft. In fact things

were mass produced through machines. The backbone of the Bauhaus was its workshop where the

students learnt not by designing on paper but making things. Craft skills were taught by master

craftsmen while aesthetic information came from artists. He employed teachers like Wassily Kandinsky

to teach painting. As he felt that the painters of the time had done some constructive thinking. They had

developed a philosophy of artistic space and color in form. Kandinsky taught design in an art context. He

taught about the color theory, 3-D design, and texture.

Bauhaus invented modern art due to lack of materials during the great depression. In the Bauhaus

school objects of daily use were mass produces. Another important feature of the school was the

theatre workshop which made people think in terms of material. In 1923 the Bauhaus went public

through an exhibition. In 1925 the Bauhaus reopened in Dessau as a crystallized cathedral of

functionalism. It was a symbol of constructivism. Over here photography was exploited as a means of

modern communication through photo montages and double exposure. Typography and graphic design

got a new life through new san serif fonts and in turn advertising was affected. Later it was shifted to

Berlin in 1932 and finally closed down in 1933. But its teachers and students spread around the world

especially in Chicago which became the proving ground of a crystalline future.


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Summary of the Talk by Professor Pradyumna Vyas

Professor Pradyumna Vyas said that design has to be understood in the cultural context. It is all about

empathizing with people. It is the people-centric contextual use of technology. In todays environment,

designers have to be very responsible because every action has an equal and opposite reaction as per

Newtons Third Law. Hence, being designers we have to understand the consequences and at times

foresee them. Over here, scenario building becomes very important as nothing happens in isolation.

India has a very rich tradition and wide spread heterogeneity. This very aspect of diverse culture and

lifestyle in India can also be the deciding factor for design brief. India has a strange cultural and

geographic division where we follow a natural trail. Thus it becomes very complex to design for India.

The socio-economic division makes it even more difficult. It is the only country where Stone Age and

Space Age co-exist even today.

The cultural milieu of India can be divided into many parts. First the traditional India which is rich in art,

culture and religion. Second the Mughal India known for its intricacy, geometry, architecture and

patronage to handicrafts, then the Colonial India which gave us the Industrial Revolution. Post

independence came the Nehruvian Socialist model of the License Rajwhich encouraged the handicrafts

and cottage industries and SMEs. Then the IITs came in 1956-58, the NID in 1961 and the IIMs in 1962.

Thus in a span of 5-6 years technology, design and management developed simultaneously in India. Post

1980s came the contemporary globalised India which was an open economy with joint ventures, IT

Revolution and the Retail Boom.

He then talked about the Indian society at large which can be studied in two parts. First is the Agrarian

ethos, at the core of which were family values. This society hailed upon tolerance, adaptability, concern,

sensitivity and togetherness. Here objects were venerated and products valued. Thus material shaped

minds and mind shaped products which were controlled, adapted, shared, reused and recycled. Next

came the industrial ethos which had its roots in technology and ushered a new culture which led to the

disintegration of the family. Its central values were individuality, I-me-myself, acquiring more and

more for the future due to insecurity. This led to the dissociation with the product and the material and

association with the brands. This led to the present scenario where we have rootless products, aspired

needs, mass production, automation, explicit knowledge and quality control. The globalised economyhas given birth to a Ctrl+Alt+Delete culture. The psychological obsolescence was deliberately built in the

product. Thus energy consumption and depletion of natural resources brought about eco concerns

amongst designers. In the end he quoted Gandhi, saying, The earth has enough for every mans need,

but not any mans greed.


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Summary of the film Rivers & Tides

Personally I feel this land artist Andy Goldsworthy likes the idea of flow and form in nature. The very

magnificence of nature is largely depicted in his work. Accessorization of the surroundings with the

elements of nature such as ice, wood, stones, leaves and water bodies personify flow through concentric

forms.

Art for me is a form of nourishment, he tells us. Goldsworthy seeks the energy that is running

through, flowing through the landscape. He has an excellent understanding of materials. He had no

commercial boundations and worked for himself with great perseverance. Some would say its altering

the nature but the important aspect of his art forms is that in due course of time they would adapt to

nature.

The film is an insight into the mind and motivation of a wonderful artist. How strange for most of us to

see someone who must work... no matter the conditions, else his reason for living ceases. To see

Goldsworthy's sculptures come alive and to see his reaction to each is extremely voyeuristic. This artist

creates because he must - not for money or fame. It is his life force. When you see his failures, energy

seems to expel from his body like a burst hot air balloon. It is not the dread of beginning again; it is that

he takes his energy from his work. Watching him create just to have nature takeover and recall his work

is somewhat painful, but nonetheless, breathtaking. He discusses flow and time in the minimal dialogue

and there appears to be little doubt that the artist and the earth are one and the same. When he says he

needs the earth, but it does not need him ... I beg to differ.

Andy Goldsworthy knows that most of his pieces will not last long because of where he makes them.

Some of his works stand and remain in the landscape; others decay, melt or are blown away. His work's

transitory nature, in fact, is a central part of the sculptor's creative efforts to understand the energy that

flows through him and through the natural landscape that nourishes his vision. In this contemplative and

beautifully insightful film, we see Goldsworthy as he works to understand that energetic flow,

represented often by water, by wind or simply the passage of seasons. Both carefully composed and

fluid, RIVERS AND TIDES keeps its focus on the artist's vision and work, giving us room to ponder our

own relationship to the energy coursing through the natural world.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.helveticafilm.com/about.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg

http://painting.about.com/od/rightleftbrain/a/Right_Brain.htm

http://www.objectifiedfilm.com/about/

http://www.objectifiedfilm.com/blog/lets-get-objectified/

Bauhaus-the face of the 20th century- a film by Frank WHitford

Objectified- a film by Gary Hustwit

Helvetica- a film by Gary Hustwit

Rivers and tides by Thomas Riedelsheimer

introduction to design- module 1

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