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The Student Life an ongoing journal by Donald Lehman |
....who is Donald Lehman? |
March 17, 2002  by Donald Lehman “It is assumed in the first place that the architect is not a builder, but a gentleman. It is assumed in the second place that the builder is not an architect, but a man of business. In the third place it is assumed that the builder’s workman is incapable of intellectual responsibility and that, though he is considered a grand chap’ and often of great technical experience, you can’t trust him to do anything without measured and precise directions and drawings…. The whole thing is completely inhuman. And the result is what anyone might expect but a few people see- a world in which buildings are not only dead but damned.” - George Nelson, architect / furniture designer “My teacher talked about Industrial Designers in class today. He said, ‘You guys are too concerned with aesthetics’. Say we want to put a screw in a location to make sure a product will hold together, you guys will complain and say it looks ugly. Basically, you guys make our job a lot harder.” - Jon Moore, 2nd year engineering student The basic goal I think many ID students come into college with is trying to stay away from math and science and calculators and anything having to do with numbers. Somewhere along the way in high school we grew to loathe taking math classes and found that art and design was the way to express ourselves to the world. Who in their right mind would want to spend the rest of their lives doing this inane little task work that seemed to accomplish nothing? Design. Design is the way to change the world. Color people’s lives. Make things simpler. Easier to use. More fun. Satisfying. Design is the answer. Or my answer anyway. Then what about engineers? The common misconception that designers have of engineers is that sort of geeky guy sitting in the corner, working out math problems and seeing how much faster they can make next year’s processor or how much cheaper they can make a certain part. They don’t care about the user experience. Forget about aesthetics. From their viewpoint we are the exact opposite. We make stuff look pretty. We’re trying to make a statement. It’s art. Ouch. Boys and girls, step back into your corners for a second here. First off, let the record state that the vast majority of designers are concerned with more that with just good looks. We also strive to make things easy to use. We care how much someone has to pay for a product and we want that product to be better then the one that preceded it. We designers should also not make stupid judgments about engineers. Can we actually believe that engineers have no care for how easy a product is to use? Or that they don’t care how nice the look of a product is? By nature, there should be a little bit of pushing, shoving, and name-calling going on. It shows that both sides care deeply in what they are doing and it results in better products for everyone. But somewhere along the way, animosity grew between our two majors with each side thinking the other will eventually try to undermine it. You have to hope this mindset doesn’t survive into the real world, but judging from some of the bad products you see in stores, it has. OK, so maybe we don’t see eye to eye on things. Maybe we have a point in believing that there is too much emphasis placed on faster/ stronger and not enough placed on better/ rewarding. And engineers have a point in thinking some of us should get off our high design horses and envision products that do more then just look good and cost an arm and a leg. We don’t have to sit around, singing koom-by-yah or making s-mores for each other, just respect that the other guy has their own belief system on what makes something great. “Freakin’ engineers!” “Damn art kids!” Sigh. “Is it art? Is it science?” Design of the Month Club: Hoberman sphere  The aesthete is attracted to them for the same reason the math professor would be: They are geometrically pleasing to the eye and too much fun to put down. By the way, Chuck Hoberman, the engineer who designed this toy, also created the unfolding stage that was used at the Salt Lake City games for the medal ceremonies. |
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