Design and Culture

But in contemporary society, there is no single definition that covers design completely, or even fields of professional practice as graphic or industrial design that adequetly cover the diversity of ideas and practices as once existed. (pg3 wicked problems in Design thinking book THE IDEA OF DESIGN)

In 1988 Australian design theorist and philosopher Tony Fry published his book Design History Australia. In this book Fry provides a contemporary perspective of design and its history. The book covers a wide variety of topics related to design history that are focused on the field of industrial design. Design History Australia provides reasons as to why a history of Australian design is important as well as giving a critical analysis of texts written on this topic. Fry also highlights the importance of designers having knowledge of design theory and he suggests a method of design study that he deems appropriate for Australia. In his final chapter Fry applies this method to three case studies: The Great White Train, MacRobertson’s Ltd and Australia’s

The task of the industrial designer is described in Henry Dreyfuss’ “Joe and Josephine”, as being twofold. To convey these two tasks, Dreyfuss utilizes his example of the female and male line drawings from which according to the text are used by designers to create for both sexes adequately. Further, the tasks of an industrial designer are “To fit a client’s wares to Joe’s and Josephine’s anatomies, and to explore their psychology and try to lessen the mental strains of their pressure age” (Dreyfuss 168). The industrial designer is to heavily consider the possibilities regarding the combination of both the female and male bodily structure as well as path of thought. According to Dreyfuss, a designer is to resolve these tasks by removing all

Prince George’s Annual Traditional POW Wow is an event put on by the Prince George Friendship Centre, it takes place at the Carrie Jane Gray Park. It is rich in energy and historical popular culture. Hosting the powwow is a way of ensuring the rich heritage of the aboriginal people is preserved. The word Pow Wow, or pau wau, means a gathering of people coming together to trade. Explorers misinterpreted the ceremony of medicine men dancing, thinking all natives gathered to sing and dance in this manner.

Today, people can feel the changes that have happened to the design, and how the design is different from what we used to know. The design is not merely about how the product looks, but also it is about how the product works. The success of the design process depends on new and creative ways of thinking. In her article " ZIBA Design and the FedEx Project," Maggie Breslin describes the changes in thinking and working ways that being done by ZIBA design, which is a product design company that provides consulting about design and innovation. The article relies on the FedEx project as a case study on ZIBA design to illustrate the idea that design process might shift. The change in the design process periodically focuses on three major subjects:

They aimed to design produce that would be simplistic in design, but could also be mass produced in factories. A lot of the main Bauhaus designers even attempted to design an 'International Style’, that would be acceptable for use in all countries, cultures and traditions around the world.

The practice in design research includes academics and practitioners elaborating on the topic between peoples and places. This section forms a progressive theoretical research and precedent works that influenced by ideas development and evaluation as a reflective process.

Design. In today’s society, this particular word has been loosely used and overburden by the lack of understanding of true design. Hearing Ian speak about the common cliche ideas that shaped the many minds of what they think design is was quite amusing. Being in the audience that consists of many artists and as an individual pursing a career as a Graphic Designer, it is frustrating yet surprising to see how Ian really defined design. Ian

The Bauhaus school was founded in 1919 in Weimar by German architect Walter Gropius (1883 - 1969). In 1923, Walter Gropius introduced the agreement between “creative artists and the industrial world”. The Bauhaus is most famous for the idea of combining forms and functions. They combined both fine arts and design elements to create a curriculum that trained artists and designers to be capable of producing both functional and aesthetic work. One of the main goals was to bring design and technology together. During the Bauhaus period, Fine art and craft were combined together and aimed toward problem solving for an innovative, modern and industrial society. Nowadays, the Bauhaus legacy continues in modern designs, such as minimalism, or design brands like IKEA. In this essay, I will analyze Bauhaus’s influence on modern design, including architecture and furniture design by exploring different examples from different periods of time.

The 50’s were the most revolutionary years for design. The war had ended and there was economic stability, only to bring out the quirkiest side of designers and artists. More people were curious about modernism and were extremely welcoming to the way designers were experimenting. The trend of bubblegum, neon and pastel colors, space based and atomic themes and abstract art dominated architecture, clothes, crockery, furniture, cars, etc. Smaller post war houses demanded light, stackable and compact furniture, thus leading to the rise of Formica, chrome, vinyl, plywood, fiberglass, aluminum and plastic furniture. But that didn’t stop designers from experimenting with wood and leather. Charles and Ray Eames and Robin and Lucienne Day were the pioneers of modern architecture and design. What separated these couples from other designers was the brilliant combination of art and form in their creations, which

When it comes to a boycott that relies on culture, would you think it works and succeeds? The answer simply is no. A boycott that depends on a culture does not work and succeed due to the fragile foundation it bases on; culture. Usually, the consumer cares about two things at marketplace when they do shopping: the commodity quality and the price. The consumer always seeks high quality products, and affordable prices. However, the consumer does not care about the personality and the identity of the producer that makes the commodities he buys. The client does not worry for example if the lingerie he wears produced by homosexual, lesbian, gay, or bisexual person. Second, the customer does not think about the shoes he wears if produced by niggers,

Postwar, American design was made in terms of what could be fashionable and superficial. The school of Industrial Design catered to this by creating stylized objects with extreme ornamentation and distinctive visual qualities. Their triviality came across through a use of obsoletism, in that they made their objects to break down or easily replicable. In using this, their aim was to get people to buy.

There is a strong relationship between human material culture and the development of human cognitive abilities. Around the 2.0 Ma period there was a widespread of evolutionary change across a vast range of mammals (Foley, R. and Gamble, C. 2009), one of the largest factors contributing to the growth of cognitive abilities is a larger brain size (Delagnes, A.and Roche, H. 2004). A larger brain allowed for humans to expand their thinking which enhanced their lives. A significant step in the history of humans and technology is when they started using tools (Wynn. T. 2009). "The enhanced working memory that appears to have accompanied the evolution of modern humans enabled much higher levels of innovation, thought experiment, and narrative complexity" (Wynn, T. and Coolidge, F.L. 2004). The changes in human cognitives abilities can be reflected by changes in human material culture.

‘When intelligent designers of the late 19th or early 20th century looked at the anonymous artifacts of 18th- and 19th-century industrialization, they saw great beauty in the simple, engineered structures, and set

We are all part of an interlinking system, a system that needs balance with humanity and nature at the forefront. As Designers it is important that we take self interest out of design and instead collaborate within our physical environment and make sure that from the get go, our designs should work around a collaborative system that has a wide breadth of professional fields and influence from existing infrastructures found within our world. Victor Papernak writes “eighty percent of the environmental impact of the products,services, infastructures around us is determined at the design stage.” I have chosen to explore collaborations within the natural world, our industrial ecology and social design as examples of how important working together with other professionals and the environment we live in are for the bigger picture. In Victor Papernak’s book Design for the real world, Papernak uses an anecdote to stress the importance of collaboration for successful design.