What is not design?
Are you a designer? Or someone who have always wondered what is it that designers exactly do?
If yes, what is design for you? “I make pretty logos and cute posters.” That’s what you reply your pesky next door neighbour. Believe me, you don’t wanna get them talking.
But have you ever had this epistemic curiosity of knowing ‘What is design?’ or ‘What is exactly is that you do?’. Well, I did. Let me take you through my exploration of the question and what I concluded out of it.
Like every designer’s first move I googled ‘What is Design’ (Yes, It’s our warmup exercise to google everything first. Just like an athlete stretches before his game :P). The result page was laden with words like art, drawing, plan, technology, looks, aesthetics, engineering etc. This made me rethink my quest’s direction.
Design is often confused with Art. Also, when it comes to Product design or Industrial design, the contrast between design and engineering makes most go topsy-turvy. Hence, now I wanted to define what is ‘not’ design before I explore what design is.
Design is not art.
I am a designer, does that make me an artist? Well, No and Yes. Though the boundary between art and design is vague, they are never the same. Art is about creating something that conveys or expresses emotions, ideas, or feelings of the author. Also, art is subject to the interpretation of the viewer. It conveys a different message to different people depending on many factors, for instance, their mood. A perfect example to illustrate this is the fabled painting ‘Mona Lisa’ by Leonardo da Vinci. Some think she is frowning, while some argue that she is smiling.
“If you see the Mona Lisa after you have just had a screaming fight with your husband, you’re going to see [the painting] differently,” study researcher Erika Siegel told the Daily Mail. “But if you’re having the time of your life at the Louvre, you’re going to see the enigmatic smile.”
Read more about this interesting study here.
Designers can also express their feelings and leave impressions through their work. There is nothing against that. But doing so is not their primary objective.
Whilst an art piece has disparate meaning for different people, a design is supposed to communicate a clear message. I bet you don’t want to run into a signboard that reads different every other time you look at it. LOL.
Design is not engineering.
Is this a wild comparison? One might argue. But being a Production and Industrial engineer myself, I feel that there is some dubiety between the two. The confusion is especially manifested when Industrial or Product Design is discussed.
Engineers deal with predictable factors, like a steel beam. They know how a steel beam will behave under certain conditions. Engineers integrate different parts of the product to work together. While designers deal with unpredictable factors like HUMANS and their emotions. They make the interaction between the product and humans better. That doesn’t mean a designer cannot code nor does that mean an engineer can’t design. But when a designer codes for production, he no longer will be designing. He will be coding. And vice-versa. In other words, Sometimes designers and engineers share responsibilities for tasks. Nevertheless, they should be aware of what tasks are design and what are engineering.
What is Design?
Although design is neither art not engineering in itself , it works in tandem to bring a cohesive outcome. To understand this further, let’s look at what a designer does. Though we are focusing on product designers, it is more-or-less applicable to any design discipline if not equally.
A designer starts with a problem. The goal is to solve this not-yet-solved problem or to solve it in a different way. Designing consists of the specification of the requirements needed to satisfy the customers and other stakeholders involved and as a result, solve the problem in consideration. i.e, after enough research and iterations, the designer produces a plan which considers many human factors like aesthetics, functionality, pleasure and ease-of-use, fitness for purpose, and quality, etc.
Engineers translate these set of requirements into technical specifications, refine them, and implement these specifications.
It is important to have a design/plan because the ‘engineering’ process is more time consuming and expensive. Thus a good design helps you save both time and money.
To wrap this up, Let’s try to define what is design based on what we learned so far. For me:
Design is the process of envisioning and planning the creation of something new or better for people which they perceive as beneficial.
This definition works well not just for product design but for any discipline of design. For instance, creating a good logo is a plan to make a better brand by being memorable, distinct, and discoverable. Making a poster is a plan to communicate better to their audience.
Have you ever faced this question? What is design for you? Tell me in the comments.
