Design Perspective From Timelines

"I believe one should design for the advantage of the largest mass of people, first and always. That takes care of ideologies and sociologies. I think one also should try to elevate the aesthetic level of society. And to watch quality control always, while insisting others do, too." (Quote by Raymond Lowey)

As an Industrial designer myself, I believe the most important thing for an Industrial designer should know and reckon is in their designs they should always consider the advantages that their designs will give to the largest mass of people. Aesthetics, quality, and ergonomics are considerations after one has thought about the advantages that that product will give. Ever since people started relying on one another; design has become an important part of society. When societies started to develop, many problems and issues were addressed because everyone is different and cannot conform to a specific design. However through design considerations, people were able to find solutions to help the mass population. During my research on passed/past, lighting, and functionalism, I have found that not only design change but also society changes as well. For each timeline, I focused to think about how designs have been developed and how it changed our society to adapt to it.

For the first assignment, I wanted to show the conversion of how communication systems were developed and changed into products that we use in our daily lives. This idea felt important to me because human interaction is important in societies and especially important for businesses men. In our modern society, I never saw anyone without a communication device on them. In the past, humans have always found a way to communicate to each other using different methods such as: drawing, writing, telephone and so on. Nowadays, portability and design became essential because much has changed from the past. How has communication devices became essential to people? What made it important and what other functions does it do besides communicating? These were the question I asked myself when I started the first timeline.

I remember when I was in elementary school, the development of cell phone industries were raising. I thought that cell phones were only useful for business men and grownups at that time, because I really did not think kids needed an expensive device at their age. It was when I went to middle school when cell phone industries started to bloom. Every kid in my class started to buy one and compare each other’s abilities and aesthetics. I never could have asked my parents for one because I knew how expensive they were. However, after several months without a cell phone kids started to tease me because I was a minority in my class. After persuading my parents to buy me a cell phone I immediately bought the newest and coolest phone. It made me popular for that reason only. At that time, I just wanted acceptance from my peers, but now I realized that design can also change a person’s quality.

When I received the second assignment, I thought more about what light gives to people rather than its original function. I chose to incorporate “mood” as a theme for my second assignment because I was more interested how light can affect humans to behave and think differently. Whether it will make them happy or relaxed, light is essential for humans. For an Industrial designer, I think it is also important to not only think about the product itself but also the environment it will be placed in.

While I was researching I learned an important lesson about light and how it was different from other designs. The most obvious function it does for humans is that it provides brightness into a certain area, but lights are also appealing to the eye. When one is in a dark room humans immediately are attracted to the light because it is the only thing they can see. Light improves advertisement, which is why store signs and billboards are all based on light. Once it all made sense to me, I realized that light designs are based on how bright they are. It was different from other designs because when we see a beautiful design we just see its exterior. However, for light, it is the light that is more appealing to people rather than the aesthetics of the light bulb. It made me realize that for a designer the aesthetics of a products function is also a factor to be considered and thought of before hand.

I, as an Industrial designer, think that Functionalism is the most important thing to think about when designing a product. For the third assignment, I chose to go with a wheelchair because it clearly expresses its function by its appearances. It is important for me to learn about functionalism because nowadays simplicity sells more than aesthetics. If one cannot understand something by just looking at it, it will just be an aesthetically pleasing object without the consumer knowing its purpose. Nowadays most people are too busy or lazy to read a manual which brings up the issue for designers to think more about the simplicity of their designs.
Wheelchairs were built to provide movement for people with walking disabilities. Although many years have passed since the first wooden wheelchair was built, the appearance did not change much from its original form. It has been more than 300 years since the first wheelchair, but why has it not changed dramatically? My only assumption for this question is that it was designed perfectly for its function. Wheelchairs have been used for so long that it gave hope to people to move again. It also allowed society to build special parking lots and elevators for handicaps. The wheelchair has changed society to adapt to its design by giving people hope to be a normal human again.

Ever since technology has developed in societies, people have found the importance of design and modified it to become better than it used to be. However, it also made the world a better and easier place to live in. Some people might think design is something that is always aesthetically pleasing but I want them to know that it is not. Design is what makes a person feel better in the morning, afternoon, and night. Design is a symbol of hope and future. Design is a thing that can change the world.