An understanding, long due.
I have had plenty encounters- one would think you would get used to them too- but I must acknowledge that there is no way under a thousand suns that one can say that this is ok.
To shed some light, I spoke to a man recently who like most others believes that design is the name of an exotic flower on an uninhabited island. Believe me — the Rafflesia has a better response.
So returning from the personification, I come back to my encounter that started with a casual conversation on what exactly I did. Just as I said I am a designer, his expression went from ‘Let’s look interested’ to ‘Wait! I possibly have seen a few good outfits on the weekend tabloid and the mention of some designer handbag my wife’s friend bought from her last trip to Europe — I know what she does.’
Fast forward to a slow reply- ‘You are a fashion designer.’
With time, I would like to pride myself of having built a good pokerface whilst politely correcting with the words — ‘Jewellery’ or ‘Brand’ in front of the lost word of design. On saying ‘Jewellery’ — I get replies ranging from — ‘Of course that’s important, especially for weddings’ to ‘Look! I am wearing it right now’ or better still ‘Jewellery is worn everywhere.’ Urgh!
But in all honesty, how I achieve the resting confused face from my audience is by attaching Brand Design and Strategy to what I do.
Most people don’t realise that the world they engage with — whether on a daily basis or just the casual information snacking — is all designed together and adapted to make their lives socially imaginable with context to their changing environment in the 21st century, 20th century and even before that. To perform a simple litmus test — let’s remove anything designed — tangible and intangible — out of our thoughts. Is it a possible form of existence?
No. It’s not.
Everything around us is ‘made.’ The act of making, bettering, adapting and growing is all design. While many think of it as a field in its nascent stage, I contest that it is the basis of our very existence and the world around us. It makes me wonder how we forget what design truly is and it’s often missed, that it is as powerful as it is beautiful.
Even if I just take clothes as a study on the popular example — we must understand that the evolution in the design of clothing has shifted with the change in the design of a plethora of factors — form, material, technology, social avenues, political environments and economic implications. When so many designs change simultaneously, we hit our first conclusion — lots of designs change together — hence the word - adaptation.
If designs don’t change, our biggest fear isn’t stagnation but error. Some errors having catastrophic implications while others impacting our everyday lives. For instance, back in the 1970s, the Three Mile Accident in the US, drew the world’s attention on what some wrong buttons or too many buttons on a nuclear launch panel can do. We don’t have to see a mushroom shaped catastrophic blast cloud coming towards us to realise that the design of a simple on-off switch was flawed and didn’t explain its purpose in a straightforward manner, no matter the user. On the same note, a car company by the name of ‘Lincoln’ had to nearly recall 13,000 cars back on account of placing the Sports/Cruise button marked ‘S’ right next to the Start/Stop button. As it’s evident that a driver concentrating on the road and the traffic has a split concentration, he may accidentally press the Start/stop button instead of the Sports mode, only to find their cars coming to a nasty stop, hopefully avoiding an accident.
While I urge you to understand these terrible implications of a so called — ‘design is not a necessity’ approach — I would appreciate if you introspect on the simple and numerous times a day we consume design.
Simply put, What I mean when I say ‘I am not a fashion designer’ — what I truly mean is that — ‘ALL THAT IS DESIGNED IS NOT CLOTHING.ALL THAT IS DESIGN, DOES NOT END AT YOUR WARDROBE OR THE OUTFIT OF SOME SUPERMODEL YOU SAW ON AN INFLIGHT MAGAZINE.’
In all these years, it’s never been that I am upset on someone not knowing what is it that I do — it’s the ignorance that I see towards it that baffles me. So, as a step forward, I would like to draw your attention to the title of the painting attached with this article made by the world famous sculptor, painter, architect and poet, Michelangelo. He expresses through this fresco that God created man. Even though, I am not the forward authority on how we were created, I can vouch for the fact that we have designed our life here on Earth since we have existed.
That is truly how powerful design is- investigate it for its universality, dynamism and beauty alike. And one day, surely enough, we will find ourselves wearing Iron Man suits that actually work. Or at least have an informed conversation on how we can disrupt our environment to become a better place with design as the voice in our heads. Alongside Jarvis, of course.
Fin.
Sources:
Picture credits: Wikipedia
For more insights: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident
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