Design
2020-05-27 Filed in: various
After seeing yet another fascinating video on TED, this time by Yves
Behar - called "Creating objects that tell
stories", I'm realizing that "design"
is the one word which best describes my passion
and drive.
Design is what has made me tick for the past decades, and will do so for decades more to come, I hope. Design has no age limits. Design is about the why, the who, and the how - asking "why" things work the way they do, "who" figured it out, and "how" they did it. Design is about beauty, of course. But design is also about social structures, when trying to understand what floats to the top of a group, a community, or a society. And design is about power and politics, when you think about which designs succeed in changing the world we live in.
Design is a lot about creativity, obviously. Design is where mind meets substance. Design is where emotions and rationality dance with each other. Like quantum physics, design is about entanglement. You can't just sit and dream, waiting for the right design to come to you. Nor slave your way through to a good design. Design is about tension, and about balance. And design doesn't fit a 9-to-5 schedule (me neither, so now I have an excuse!).
But above all, design is about the future. Those of us involved in design, are those who want to shape that future - literally of course, but also figuratively. Designers look forward. Designers want to make this world a better world. Not by forcefully changing directions of what is happening now, but by looking beyond today's horizons and describing the places we could be in tomorrow. Design is not a methodology of "push", but one of "pull".
People (and things) are the way they are today, often for overwhelmingly valid and explicable reasons. Bodies (in both senses) in motion have a way of continuing on their previously chosen paths. Design is not about today's path, but about tomorrow's choices.
FYI, I'm writing this as a reminder to myself that I should be less concerned with what is happening today and more focused on what can be tomorrow. And because it gives me the opportunity to mention that I'm immensely proud of our daughter Myra, who wants to be... a designer. I can't think of many things more fulfilling, both for her and for us, than to want to actively be part of our respective futures - and to contribute to shaping it.
Design is what has made me tick for the past decades, and will do so for decades more to come, I hope. Design has no age limits. Design is about the why, the who, and the how - asking "why" things work the way they do, "who" figured it out, and "how" they did it. Design is about beauty, of course. But design is also about social structures, when trying to understand what floats to the top of a group, a community, or a society. And design is about power and politics, when you think about which designs succeed in changing the world we live in.
Design is a lot about creativity, obviously. Design is where mind meets substance. Design is where emotions and rationality dance with each other. Like quantum physics, design is about entanglement. You can't just sit and dream, waiting for the right design to come to you. Nor slave your way through to a good design. Design is about tension, and about balance. And design doesn't fit a 9-to-5 schedule (me neither, so now I have an excuse!).
But above all, design is about the future. Those of us involved in design, are those who want to shape that future - literally of course, but also figuratively. Designers look forward. Designers want to make this world a better world. Not by forcefully changing directions of what is happening now, but by looking beyond today's horizons and describing the places we could be in tomorrow. Design is not a methodology of "push", but one of "pull".
People (and things) are the way they are today, often for overwhelmingly valid and explicable reasons. Bodies (in both senses) in motion have a way of continuing on their previously chosen paths. Design is not about today's path, but about tomorrow's choices.
FYI, I'm writing this as a reminder to myself that I should be less concerned with what is happening today and more focused on what can be tomorrow. And because it gives me the opportunity to mention that I'm immensely proud of our daughter Myra, who wants to be... a designer. I can't think of many things more fulfilling, both for her and for us, than to want to actively be part of our respective futures - and to contribute to shaping it.