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The Student Life an ongoing journal by Donald Lehman |
....who is Donald Lehman? |
April 27, 2002  by Donald Lehman I came into college wanting to design iMacs. The iMac was my “it” design. It was revolutionary. It was something no one had seen before. It was something everyone was talking about. It made people think differently about computers. It was bondi blue (Which wasn’t the reason it was successful, but that’s a whole other rant). It was one of the factors in me wanting to go into industrial design. But not just because of the great design. Because it brought ID forward to the public’s consciousness. In to my own conscience. I personally hadn’t seen much about industrial design before I read an article about how Jonathan Ive was helping to save Apple with his “retro blob”. The iMac didn’t appear out of the ether, someone had actually designed it. This realization was a big deal to me. If you think about all the things that people just take for granted; how their car works, where their food comes from, Bob Barker will never age, so on and so forth. Think about all the people that you explain ID to. That shocked look on their face is because they had never thought about it twice until you said something. ID was one of those things until I found out about the designers behind it. It became something I knew I could do. And it led to my addiction. Anything Apple did just added to the reasons on why I should be in ID. I read Apple Design by Paul Kunkel numerous times. (Did you know that the designers of the original Mac was not frogdesign but Jerry Manock and Terry Oyama? Steve Jobs himself is on the design patent because he played such an influential role.) I started hanging up the little product info sheets that Apple gives out. My bedroom walls looked like a translucent mess until they started going with silver and white color schemes. The first computer I could call my own was the slot-loading iMac Special Edition (in Graphite). I walked around the house muttering about breathing sleep lights and easy access case design.  So, I was coming to college gung-ho on the fact that I was going to be working for Apple in 4 years time and being a part of changing the world. But then a funny thing happened on the way to the ball. My dad saw that Time Magazine cover on design and picked it up for me. Marc Newson? Karim Rashid? Philippe Starck? Alessi? Rubber radios? More reading, more obsessions. I started taking woodworking courses and I like them so much that I plan on taking a bunch more. My walls are now covered equally with Apple propaganda and clippings from Design Within Reach. Luckily my roommate Steve puts up with it, although when I start ticking him off, he threatens to burn my G4 Cube banner. As for what I want to do now, I can’t decide. I love furniture design as much as product design. Added to all of this: I’m taking a class right now where we have to design the interior and exterior of a store. Looks like interior design is going on the list. While we’re at it, we might as well throw graphic design on the pile. Sigh. Anyone in the market for a product/furniture/interior/graphic designer? Anyone? Anyone? “Yeah, But Is It Design?” Design of the Month Club: The Rubber Band I think Terence Conran was the one who said the paper clip was one of the best designs of all-time. Rubber bands rank right up there and maybe surpass it. It stretches. It contracts. It can be used as a bracelet. A ponytail holder. A weapon. The original function was to just hold together letters and envelopes. It’s one of the more pedestrian designs out there, so much so you could argue it’s not design. But, could it be redesigned? Besides the obvious changing of color, size, and materials… I think you would be hard-pressed to make improvements to it. In other words, a near perfect design. |
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