In the book what is a designer Norman Potter said that for students to study design perfectly is to study simply by doing it and also take that old stand-by the broad view. Due to many principles starting at the beginning.
“A design capability proceeds from a fusion of skills, knowledge, understanding, and imagination; consolidated by experience. Within limits such a competence is definable, and will begin to form outlines within a formally structured teaching or learning situation. It is too much to say outright that design ability can be ‘taught’ or self-learned”.
Studying the past enable us to understand where we come from and where we are today. Design has a very broad spectrum consisting of many elements in our life. Among these elements, some are mechanical, some are ephemeral, some are interpretive, and some call upon unique solutions and some move toward those generalized type-forms that Gropius talked about. For instance, tutors might let students watch the images or films as many as they can trying to give students the view points from those successful workers, because sometime students might not be convinced or believe what the lectures said. In another case, when I studied at the Jin-wen junior college we had a project that had do the student’s the visual individual project that had the students do their own visual individual system. The VIS included the logo, the name, the color, developing the name card, envelope, and the letter paper according to the logo and so on. One of my classmates wanted to use the Chinese hibiscus to be the basic symbol for her logo, but my tutor questioned her, ‘do you know the meaning of the Chinese hibiscus? If you do not know the exact meaning of it deeply, how can you create such a logo representing yourself? From his words, I found that the design is not just from your casual drawing, but it is also related to the meaning of those symbols that you had to find these meanings to so it can support your work.
Secondly, Martin’s article is talking about Flusser’s point that design began with the meaning of the words and the ensuing discovery of identity. However, it is not just one thinking style for a designer to inspire ideas in my opinion. Many design lecturers ask students to think of ideas not just using one way but also using the ‘lateral thinking’ put forwarded by Dr. Edward De Bono, because this method keep students finding different ideas of one work and trying to incorporate them into their own.
For instance, when I was a senior high student, we had an advertisement competition and I choose mobile phone as my objective. At that time I thought it as a technology work, so I probably should use the high tech style to present. However, my thought changed after I discussed it with my teacher, who gave me a suggestion that I can combine the Chinese landscape painting and poetry into the mobile phone. Although my work did not win any award, the Mobile Phone Company broadcasted a similar design to mine on a TV advertisement three months later. That compiled advertisement did attract many people and was a good talking point.
Result for selling (see image 01~05). These images are kinds of idea to that incorporate two unrelated culture together. (Image 01~03) are Nokia’s new mobile phone. (Image 04) is Giga bite’s new Chinese design style laptop. (Image 05~06) are websites.
However, designers must know the basic knowledge in the commercial world, such as the organizational behavior, business conventions, customer culture and so on. Thereby, the designers will be involved in an intricate business environment in terms of marketing, costs, production techniques, user requirements that will compel them to conduct research in a fairly methodical way.
…”When we talk about the design of a lamp, for example, we may be concerned with the mental processes and the drawings and models that eventually result in that particular lamp; we may be concerned with the production process, the form and material of the lamp and how it is used; we could also be concerned with how the lamp was marketed, advertised, packaged and sold”.
It was totally opposite to Flusser’s idea that ‘design began not with science, not with the appreciation of fabricated, not with the vision of their creators, not even with the fabled first doodle on the back of an envelope.’ For my part, I can not agree with Hazel Conway any more. You should have an outline and find much information about your idea and do the research to support the outline before you explore your own idea. Then you can do the concept development according to the research and have the outline done before going to use the computer to do the final work. As you can see, both this general procedure and the research could support your own work. Actually, fine art and design are both artistic productions but they are not the same. To design is just like playing a game, you have to follow the rules to go through and break the rules to die. (Game over)
Therefore, there are conventions to follow in the design. Take Japanese design for example, many western companies find that the Japanese designer creates a work very perfect in detail when they cooperate with Japanese companies. In fact, this is the unique culture in Japan. The people who have to contact them might find that Japanese are so meticulous in every area, such as the detail of schedule, the products’ detail and so on. That is the reason why many of their goods can be so popular.
My self-directed design project is to make a three-dimensional animation music video, based on a manga called Nana. Nana is about two girls both named Nana (Nana and hachi) who are both from the countryside and are about to go live in Tokyo. The reason I am doing this project is because the personality of Nana is quite similar to mine, she is strong, tries to do everything on her and so on. Although this manga has already turned into game and movie already, I still would like to do the music video for it. At the beginning I was not good at drawing the human body, so I always used the light box to trace the image from the manga (see image 07~09). After doing the character setting I made the storyboard by taking the screen image from the real music video and uses Photoshop to edit them when I put the images on the storyboard, which consist of the character actions and the camera angles. Then I went to the music instrument store to research the instruments and draw the concert area, which is the environment. After completing all the concept developments I started the model and the environment on 3d max studio but my character was made on the programme poser, which is easier to use than 3d max studio. Although my character model was made on poser, the clothes have been made on 3d max. From working this way and going by the rules it was easy to determine the structure to work at. Its just like a building which has to be built step by step, can not be hurried and has to deal with details. After animating and editing the video I will add the soundtrack, which will finally complete the music video and the project.
In conclusion, the ‘goodness’ or ’rightness’ of a design can not easily be estimated outside the knowledge of its purpose and its circumstantial background. For the designer, good design is the generous and pertinent response to the full context of a design opportunity, whether large or small, and the quality of the outcome resides in a close and truthful correspondence between form and meaning.
“This is designer’s way of seeing: He has a sort of pineal eye (partitioning just like a computer in fact) that enables him to perceive and control eternity. And he can give orders to a robot to translate into the here and now that, which is perceived and manipulated in the eternal (for example, to dig canals or build rockets). In Mesopotamia, he was called a prophet. He is more deserving of the name of God. But thank God he is unaware of this and sees himself as a technician or artist. May God preserve him in this belief.”
Martin expounded Flusser’s viewpoint over all, which I think is good but not enough, because becoming a designer needs many experiences and knowledge to negotiate with clients and customers. They have to understand what the market needs, which way can attract people and how the use of less media or money to make the maximum response. A good design product or an advertisement can be the classic that will be discussed from generation to generation.
Images
01 Nokia 7380
02 Nokia 7370
03 Nokia 7360
04 G-MAX NB-1401
05 LeeHom Wang’s Website
06 2004 New Year Card from TSMC
07 The band
08 Shin
09 Nana
Bibliography
Books
Martin Pawley, ‘Introduction’, Vilem Flusser The shape of thing: A Philosophy of Design, Reaktion Books, London, 1999.
Norman Potter, ’Design education: principles’, What is a designer: things, places, messages, Hyphen Press, London, 1989
Hazel Conway,’ Design History Basics’, Design History a students’ handbook, Routledge, London, 1999
Janet H. Murray, ‘Transformation’, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 1998
Lev Manovich, ‘The interface’, The Language of New Media, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 2000
George P. Landow, ‘Hypertext as Collage-Writing’, Peter Lunenfeld, The Digital Dialectic: New Essays On New Media, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 2000
Internet Sites
List of image
01 Nokia 7380 Page 4
02 Nokia 7370 Page 4
03 Nokia 7360 Page 4
04 G-MAX NB-1401 Page 4
05 LeeHom Wang’s Website Page 4
06 2004 New Year Card from TSMC Page 4
07 The band Page 7
Myself
08 Shin Page 7
Myself
09 Nana Page 7
Myself
Martin Pawley, ‘Introduction’, p.1, in Vilem Flusser The shape of thing: A Philosophy of Design, Reaktion Books, London, 1999.
Norman Potter, ’Design education: principles’, p.25, What is a designer: things, places, messages, Hyphen Press, London, 1989
Hazel Conway,’ Design History Basics’, p.4, Design History a students’ handbook, Routledge, London, 1999
‘The Designer’s Way of Seeing’,p.42, in Vilem Flusser The shape of thing: A Philosophy of Design, Reaktion Books, London, 1999.