REFLECTIONS ON DESIGN: LOOKING TO THE PAST TO DESIGN FOR THE FUTURE
In order to look to the future, sometimes we must look to the past. Design philosophy is a relatively new concept – recognized as an academic discipline, humans have had thoughts on design for thousands of years. Most design philosophy is done by reflections or manifestos by designers themselves, while other writings are done by academics who decipher works of art through the disciplines and connect those to other psychological or academic theories. What is often overlooked is what we can learn from how designers view their own thinking methods, and their ideas on design as they were or are a part of the design world. In order to examine designer’s manifestos we must look at both those writings done by designers and scholars on design as a whole.
This project aims to examine these writings to better understand how designers have crafted their own corners of the design world, and decipher how each designer’s philosophy can be boiled down into a way of thinking on design in order to apply those houses of thought to the designing of objects and art in general. In this project, four backpacks were designed and created in the style of each of these designers, each with their own twist.
The Dreyfuss
Henry Dreyfuss was one of the earliest American designers with his activity in the industrial design world being in the 1930s and 1940s. Dreyfuss believed that the person comes first when it comes to design, and he is pretty firm on that. In his own design firm he created Joe and Josephine who are two fictional characters who represent how humans interact with the world. In Dreyfuss’ description of them, he puts emphasis on their central role in their design: “No matter what they’re doing, we observe their every position and reaction. They are a part of our staff, representing the millions of consumers for whom we are designing, and they dictate every line we draw” (Dreyfuss 26). Dreyfuss was able to use these design strategies in all of his best designs, from the princess telephone, to the marketing design for American Airlines, and even the famous round Honeywell thermostat.
Dreyfuss’ approach to research and designing for systems is holistic. Dreyfuss believes that in order to be a good industrial designer, designers must put themselves into the entire system, even if that means getting a job within the company that they are designing for just for researching purposes. Through visions and revisions, a product must be perfect in order for it to move on to the consumer, you must learn the challenges and solve them before they can even happen within the consumer use. As Dreyfuss puts it: “A craftsman making a single clock can afford to experiment. The designer working out a model for a manufacturer who will make 40,000 clocks every day can not” (Dreyfuss 88). This quote intrigues me as I think about craft or artisan goods v.s industrial goods. How can we bridge the two? In Dreyfuss’ theory, we must try and include more experimenting in industrial designs -- including risk taking-- and more thinking about systems and analyzing concepts in these small scale goods. Just because they are small scale doesn't mean they can’t or won't be well thought out.
With my Dreyfuss backpack I really wanted to figure out who the Joe and/or Josephine would be. I decided that there would only be one character to design for and their name would be Jo. Jo represents the modern person. Jo could identify as any gender and could be any age. Jo really cares about the materials that were used in the production of this backpack, so I decided to use 100% cotton canvas that was dyed with walnut hulls. This created a beautiful texture and color combination that anyone would love. The Dreyfuss backpack is utilitarian and without frills. This one is for Jo:
The Vignelli
Massimo Vignelli was an inspirational designer of the 50s born in Italy, and is best known for his work with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the New York City subway system maps. Vignelli’s house of thought fell into one phrase that he coined: “design is one.” This has become one of his best selling books and the cornerstone of his teachings. Design is one encapsulates the idea that good design follows the same concepts throughout all platforms: 2D, 3D, conceptual, etc. Vignelli is famed for saying “If you can design one thing, you can design everything” (Vignelli 2). Vignelli’s approach to design, besides the idea that design is one, relies heavily on the grid. His geometric ways allowed him to make beautiful modern pieces that were also beautiful. Through the use of the grid, which can vary based on need, everything can be well designed.
With the Vignelli backpack, I wanted the colors and proportions to be perfect. I chose the colors based off of the colors that Vignelli is famously known for: vibrant yellows, blues, greens, and reds. Vignelli’s bold colors not only pair well with the curved and well proportioned shapes, but they need the final products boasting those colors need those attributes to be well balanced. All of the pattern pieces and original shapes were hand drafted and all adhered to the grid: even numbers, perfect curves, and proportional widths and heights. From the circle pocket to the bold black cotton straps, this backpack is ready for the 70s or 2020s.
The Rams
Dieter Rams is best known for the industrial design work that he did for Braun. His motto “less but better” contributes to his minimalistic style and thought process. Rams became the chief design officer at Braun in 1961 and remained in that position until his retirement in 1995. Rams’s relation to systematic thinking was that it wasn’t necessarily important to understand the system that the product was coming out of, but where it was going into and how it would fare. Rams’ thoughts on design usually come back to materials; as one of the first industrial designers to bring in new materials such as plexiglass, he is seen as one of the most influential designers. Rams not only experimented with new materials, but he kept up a knowledge of new and unusual materials and studied them before incorporating them in his designs. One could say that the designs were born out of the materials.
Rams’ designs showed restraint and also timelessness. He is often known for his work being quiet. “In a world which is filling up at a disconcerting pace, that is destructively loud and visually confusing, design has the task in my vie to be quiet, to help generate a level of calm that allows people to come to themselves” (Lovell 141). Instead of giving the public what they wanted, or what is trendy, Rams gave people what they needed.
The Rams backpack is all about materials. Like pioneering plexiglass into record layers, I decided to pioneer the use of plastic and leather. I had never worked with these materials together before and had never seen it done. This backpack has a timeless silhouette and color scheme with a fun and functional peep hole. When its life is over the plastic can be recycled (but I doubt that anyone would ever let it die).
The Hara
One of Kenya Hara’s most robust theory on design comes from his teachings at Musashino Art University in Japan where each year he teaches a graduate level design course called Ex-Formation which results in a show and publishing of all of the student’s work. Ex-formation is a term the Hara coined meaning the opposite of information; Hara believes that good design comes out of unlearning the system and reintroducing it with a set of new eyes. The re-approach method of his work allows creativity to flow as it never has before.
It is clear that Hara is the most contemporary of the designers that I have chosen to go into depth with because there are small reflections of many of the other “design forefathers” in his work and thinkings. While thinking of the whole like Dreyfuss, intentionality like Vignelli, and materials like Rams it is almost as if his theories on design bring us to a complete 180 of traditional designing.
For the Hara backpack, I wanted to “unlearn” a certain word and re-approach it like Hara instructs his Ex-formation students to do. The word I chose was gleaning. I chose this word after I saw the french documentary Les glaneurs et la Glaneuse (The Gleaners and I) by Agnès Varda. Gleaning has a large and beautiful history and the word is most synonymous with the 1857 painting “The Gleaners” by Jean-François Millet. The commodity being gleaned in this painting is wheat, but it reminded me of a flax harvest. When flax is harvested, it is bundles in the same fashion as wheat and often transported the same way.
I wanted to transfer the new learning of gleaning to my backpack and did this by way of the material and form. I used 100% linen which lead to a beautiful drape that I didn’t quite expect. The irregular shape was inspired by the bundles of flax and the low position in which it is carried is in the same position that flax was carried. The braiding of the straps lead to a very comfortable support, and echoes how the process flax fibers are stored after they are processed and before they are spun. This backpack had a lot of intent behind it and all of the intentions created beautiful results that were only semi-consciously produced.
