DUTCH DESIGN WEEK 2009
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BAUHAUS SUMMER SCHOOL 2009
Thomas Edison got tired of sitting in the dark, so he invented a long-lasting lightbulb. Alexander Graham Bell got tired of writing letters, Karl Benz got sick of walking. In other words, once upon a time people would examine real problems they had in their lives and design products and services to solve those problems. Ah, the Golden Era.
In contrast, here's how to design a new product these days:
1. Write the names of 12 different technologies on 12 different Post-Its
2. Cover a dartboard with the Post-Its
3. Throw a couple darts at it
4. Combine the two target technologies into some cockamamie thingamajiggy
It's this kind of rich thinking that's brought us the USB coffee warmer, the remote-controlled LED candle and now, the Projection Telephone. The latter, being sold on IP Mart, projects Caller ID info on the ceiling when the phone rings, in case you're lying flat on the floor and are too lazy to look at the display. Plus, who still has a landline? Isn't this kind of like putting airbags in the Model T?
Edison, Bell, Benz, we miss you guys.
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Comments
Marketing departments are killing them daily...
I blame the design schools.
Having studied industrial design (product design emphasis) at a school that emphasized art, and de-emphasized understanding cause-and-effect, I noticed that most of the students "designed" ridiculous products combining buzzword technologies (carbon fiber, LEDs, Lithium-ion batteries, silicone, fuel cells, etc.) as if the inclusion of a hot technology constituted design. The instructors rarely ever sat us down and showed us the principles of geometry, physics, basic mechanical linkages, and ergonomics that true product invention/design is based on. Without knowing cause-and-effect, you can't manipulate causes to get effects you want. The design students who did this were doing this from their own experience tinkering, the rest bumbled through the courses "designing" crap that could never be made practical. And worst of all, the instructors never seemed to understand that this is a skill that can be taught.
Design is not just about aesthetics; if aesthetics overshadows useful function, the design becomes self-expression, and the designer ceases to be a designer and becomes a mere stylist.
Any designer working for more than 15 years today will tell you we live in the Mickey Mouse era of design - childish fluff reigns supreme, unchallenged by the glut of starry-eyed "designers" graduating every year to give us yet more junk. There's more money, less risk and time involved in designing one-line jokes for the gullible masses than in adding real value in people's lives by inventing solutions to actual problems. That part of design is gone for good, claimed by individuals putting a quick buck before the user's interests. We are all "consumers" now - behehe (sounds of sheep). Long live the know-it-all marketing departments of the world fearlessly leading us into this brave new age.