The little “essay” that could

1. Tad less than half the required words, but a mark of 62.5%! Who would’ve thought? Did I deserve it? Find out for youself…

2. “If I were a young designer, I would be certain today that my trade is a very difficult one. For it has reached a major turning-point, and nobody quite knows how to bring the many different features of it’s physiognomy into focus, as part of a social situation the connotations of which are too fleeting.” Alessandro Mendini

3. Mendini�s statement with regards to young designers is a pertinent one. In the last century many people have thought, spoken and theorised on design, trying to solve it�s problem and shed light on it�s secrets. What is Design? What is a Designer? Who can be a Designer? Great minds have struggled with these elemental questions � how is a young designer supposed to cope?

4. One solution is just not to think about it. This works fine until, invariably, someone asks you �so, what do you do?� �I�m a Designer,� replies our Hero(ine). The look of confusion crosses the face of the uneducated layman who then asks the dreaded question, �what sort of design?�

5. What sort of design indeed. In such a situation it is reasonable to expect someone to answer by telling them their field of expertise, but that isn�t really answering the question. The question that was asked, wasn�t really the question that should be asked. In a perfect world, everyone would understand that design is just design. Because in that perfect world, there is a perfect definition of design.

6. We should be so lucky. In our imperfect world, we have but a few conflicting ideas, all of which changes depending on one�s point of view. Thomas Hauffe puts design as being �between art�and industry� [1]. Victor Papanek, on the other hand, said, �Design is basic to all human activity. Any attempt to separate design, to make it a thing-by-itself, works counter to the fact that design is the primary underlying matrix of life.� [2]

7. The wide variation between these two views serves to illustrate the difficulties in defining design. While they are not polar opposites, they are nonetheless quite different. Hauffe has design placed on a scale, where one end is pure aesthetics and the other pure functionality, and the challenge is to find the balance in between. His conception of design stems from it�s history, noting that because of the increased division of labour as a result of the industrial revolution (the beginnings of the factory line etc) the first draft of a project and it�s actual production no longer lay at the hand of the same person, and thus creating the basic requirement for the profession of a designer. It is also multifaceted; the field of design has now grown to the point where there are a number of focal points or areas where one might specialise.

8. Papanek differs from Hauffe in that Papanek believes there should not be the profession of design because design is apart of human life. �Design is composing an epic poem, executing a mural �reorganising a desk drawer, educating a child. (It is) the conscious and intuitive effort to impose meaningful order.�[3]

9. So, what is a designer? Hauffe says a professional, Papanek asserts everyone can be, and Mendini believes it to be a tradesperson. Who�s right? Perhaps they are all correct, depending one�s perception. As Hauffe states, ��in principle, anyone who plans and makes something can call him or herself a designer.�[4] On the other hand there are many musicians in the world, but only a select few would call themselves “Professional Musicians”. The most widely held view is that a designer is a professional, just as an architect or a doctor is a professional. While this may be the case, Greg Votolato notes in the introduction of American design in the 20th Century that in the last 25 or so years there has been enormous interest in the field of design and such a simplistic definition is not enough. There is a genuine need for an enquiry into why people design.

10. Votolato proposes that a possible partial definition of design could be that �fun is one of the basic objectives of play; and play can be defined as the exercise of imagination and experiment for personal pleasure.� Votolato draws parallels between children gaining pleasure and satisfaction from making buildings with toys and adults gaining pleasure from planning a new garden lay out, arguing that whilst the end product is important, there is still satisfaction to be gained from the process of planning a creation. In many ways this mirrors the �professional�s� way of working; we all accept that the act of �designing� is really the process of research and planning, not the final outcome. From this perspective Papanek appears to be �more correct� in his assertion that everyone has the innate ability to be a designer.

11. Perhaps Mendini�s idea of design being a trade provides a compromise between the two. While the idea that design is in the same vein as carpentry and plumbing may offend some people�s sensibilities, the idea does have some merit. A trade invokes the feeling of intimacy, a smaller studio where the designers are more �hands on� and craftsperson-like in their work, much like how the Bauhaus was set up originally.

12. Taking a step back and looking at the discussion so far, it�s easy to see that nothing has been resolved. One wonders whether it can ever be resolved � over the course of history the way designers have worked and the output have changed so much that perhaps if we did find that elusive definition things will have changed already, rendering it useless. Perhaps we should instead look at what power we hold in the world, and what we can do with it. Maybe this is the major turning point Mendini was talking about � reconciling design�s many areas and specialties under one name and concentrate doing what we do best. Designing.

[1] Hauffe, Design: A Concise Dictionary, p8 [2] Papanek, quoted from Votolato, American Design in the 20th Century, p7 [3] Papanek, quoted from Votolato, American Design in the 20th Century, p7 [4] Hauffe, Design: A Concise Dictionary, p13

Bibliography Hauffe, Thomas. �What is Design?� Design: A Concise Dictionary. London: Laurence King, 1998, pp7-19. Votolato, Gregory. �What was Design? Who is a Designer?� American Design in the Twentieth Century. Manchester, Manchester Uni Press, 1998. MacDonald, Edward. �The Education of Young Design.� Eye 12, 1994.

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