1. Contextual & Critical Studies
Defining Design
Andrea Peach
Stage 1
Contextual & Critical Studies

2. The meaning of the word “design” is much contested
Definitions of Design
The meaning of the word “design” is much contested
This lecture will not try to define ‘design’ as such (to do so is dangerous!), instead we look at the different meanings of the term over time, in order to gain perspective on where design might be today.
We will look at some of the key writers and theorists who have considered ‘defining design’ as a way of trying to draw our own conclusions
Practice of design under continual revision, so is definition of design constantly being self-consciously constructed, and deconstructed
… as is … the definition of “designer”

3. Design v. to mark out; to plan, purpose, intend …
The shorter Oxford English dictionary
v. to mark out; to plan, purpose, intend …
n. a plan conceived in the mind, of something to be done …
n. adaptation of means to end …
One place to look for a definition of design might be the dictionary
But this is not always helpful …
Another place might be to investigate the historical development of the word, as applied to ‘making’ and ‘the arts’ generally
Historical development of the word as a practice is useful in exploring tension that exists today

4. “Disegno” Renaissance = drawing
The word ‘design’ originated in the Renaissance - meaning to draw
“1st phase of design” - John Walker
Time when drawing was tool used in planning and conceptualising phase that preceded making of paintings, sculptures etc.
Disegno = involved intellectual thought and separated conception from execution
Hierarchy between planning and making
Alec Issigonis Morris Minor

5. 19th Century ’Design’ replaced with ‘industrial art’ ‘decorative art’ or ‘applied art’
Second Phase Design - 19th century
Term ‘design’ beginning to lose some of its power
Debate in Britain - confusion with French ‘Ecole de Dessin’,
which taught only drawing
British Design Schools had a broader curriculum, teaching visual innovation for manufacturing
Henry Cole - 19th century design reformer - instrumental in establishing government ‘Schools of Design’ - by copying artefacts - these objects have formed the basis of the V&A museum today (once the S. Kensington Museum)
But ‘hijacking’ word ‘art’ had disadvantages - seen as less worthy, or just about the addition of ‘decoration’ to objects
South Kensington Museum 1864

6. 20th Century ‘Design’ re-established
By the early 20th century the term ‘Design’ was re-established
Becomes professionalised
Americans Walter Dorwin Teague, Raymond Loewy, Normal Bel Geddes, Henry Dreyfuss - call themselves ‘industrial designers’ - but were involved with designing cities, furniture, cars, trains, graphics, = all things which were meant to improve life and living conditions for the masses.
Their influence helped to re-establish the use of the word design in Britain today
Norman Bel Geddes - ‘Futurama’ 1939 World’s Fair

7. Horatio Greenough Louis Sullivan Form follows function …
American Sculptor 1739
Form follows function …
Louis Sullivan
American Architect 1896
When talking about origins of design theory there is one concept that has been fundamental in shaping how design was approached in the early 20th century
Form follows function - The mode of action by which a design fulfills its purpose is its function.
Key in Modernist thinking and method to design
Found to be problematic -
Implication in ‘form follows function’ is that as long as functional requirements are satisfied form will follow and be pleasing = however concept that what works well will necessarily look well does not always follow
Form and function are one …

8. David Pye The Nature of Design 1964
The art of design, which chooses that the things we use shall look as they do, has a very much wider and more sustained impact than any other art. Everyone is exposed to it all day long. Indeed, in towns there is hardly anything in sight except what has been designed. The man-made world, our environment, is a work of art, all of it, every bit of it. But not all good.’
Toward the middle of the 20th century, makers such as David Pye became involved in the writing and theorising about Design.
Pye was a craftsman, and came to design with the ‘eye of the maker’. Saw ‘making’ as a fundamental part of ‘being’ - took a very ‘democratic’ approach - saw design as ‘less rarified’ than fine art
Published many books and is still influential today.
Cover of book significant - the inner workings of a lock

9. David Pye The Nature of Design 1964 6 Requirements of Design:
1.It must correctly embody the essential principle of arrangement
2.The components of the device must be geometrically related
3.The components must be strong enough to transmit and resist process as the intended
Pye outlined 6 requirements of Design.
We can see that this is very restrictive and proscribed, and not appropriate to how design is approached today.
Follows the ‘functionalist’ tradition - which was later derided by Post Modernists

10. David Pye The Nature of Design 1964 6 Requirements of Design:
4.Access must to provided (as relates to 2)
5.The cost of the result must be acceptable
6. The appearance must be acceptable
How does one determine if the ‘appearance is acceptable’ ?

11. Victor Papanek
Design for the Real World 1970 (1995)
“Design is the conscious and intuitive effort to impose meaningful order”
1970s
Papanek very much a man of his time - interested in environmental concerns (much more awareness about the environment at this time - books like Rachel Carson’s ‘The Silent Spring’ and Earth Day in 1969
Design is the conscious and intuitive effort to impose meaningful order = we constantly try to understand our ever-changing and highly complex existence by seeking order in it’
Conscious = intellectualization, cerebration, research, analysis
Intuitive = sensing/feeling part of creative process, brings into play impressions, ideas and thoughts unknowingly collected on subconscious, unconscious, preconscious way
Design as a problem solving activity, can never, by definition, yield the one right answer: it will always produce an infinite number of answers, - some ‘righter’ some ‘wronger’ depending on the meaning we invest in the arrangement
Design must be meaningful – (meaningful replaces semantically loaded expressions such as ‘beautiful’)

12. Victor Papanek Design for the Real World 1970 (1995)
All men are designers. All that we do, almost all the time, is design, for design is basic to all human activity. The planning and patterning of any act toward a desired, foreseeable end constitutes the design process. Any attempt to separate design to make it a thing by itself, works counter to the fact that design is the primary underlying matrix of life.
Papanek tries to ‘denude’ design of any separateness.
But much of history of design is a history of individuals and groups who have striven to separate design from other commercial and cultural practices. - This bestows things, pictures, words, with ‘added’ value.

13. no longer refers to ordinary objects
Design has become a range of goods, services, shaped by the intervention of ‘the designer’
no longer refers to ordinary objects
The work of Pye and Papanek ceased to have real validity towards the end of the 20th century.
Largely challenged by Post Modern theory which looked at the rise of the consumer and consumption as a driving force in design

15. Pierre Bourdieu Cultural Capital:
Distinction - A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste 1984
Cultural Capital:
The ability to make distinctions between “cultivated” and “vulgar” taste.
Design’s value becomes self-consciously recognized. Good Design vs Bad Design vs Kitsch
Pushes design into a reflexive mode whereby its value becomes self-consciously recognised
Links the economic to the cultural - by way of title ‘cultural capital’

17. 1990s Interior from the Jeffrye Museum in London
Ron Arad shelves
Michael Marriot Chair
Test tube vases

18. Ron Arad The ‘DESIGN OBJECT’ Fantastic Plastic Elastic 1997
Bourdieu wrote about a bourgeoisie that was trapped in a ‘symbolic struggle’ to keep ahead with cultural goods
Much of current history and criticism of design supports Bourdieu’s ideas and falls within a specific ‘formal canon’ of what design is, and how it should be carried out.
Identifying ‘good design’ and ‘bad design’
The ‘DESIGN OBJECT’

19. Penny Sparke Design Pioneers of the 20th Century - 1998
This surprisingly continues today.
Penny Sparke follows the Pevsnerian tradition
Choosing objects of ‘good design’ -continues to builds myths that Barthes was talking about
Restrictive, because most people do not live with these objects
Design historians tend not to write about ‘the everyday’ - or difficult objects such as police equipment, sexual aids or military weapons

20. ‘What are increasingly produced are not material objects, but signs’
Shift in late 20th century design:
Object carries an emblematic status as an image
In the worst case contemporary design becomes an end in itself, a producing only ‘desires’ and losing all relevance to its public or its purpose of addressing human needs.
The way in which an object is communicated to its public (as a ‘design object) becomes its primary value : the object itself becomes an object of communication

21. Camouflage sniper’s gloves - 1917
Camouflaged sniper’s gloves 1917
Camouflage sniper’s gloves

22. Definitions of Design
Meanings of design are many and shift according to the context in which the word is used

23. Guy Julier The Culture of Design - 2000 Design is Interdisciplinary
Designers work with: product managers, researchers, marketing specialists, advertising agents, public relations consultants
Technological change, globalisation of economies, growth of brands has led to this interdisciplinarity
Reflected in the way Design is taught today and how design consultancies work
Traditional demarcations between disciplines (graphic, product, interior) have blurred

24. Mike Press Designer as Cultural Intermediary:
The Design Experience 2003
Designer as Cultural Intermediary:
“A designer makes their own definition of what it is to be a designer and how to use distinctive skills, knowledge and thinking of design to find a place in the world. This is particularly true in today’s age of the knowledge economy.”
Designer as cultural intermediary

25. Definitions of Design
The meaning of the word “design” is much contested
… as is … the definition of “designer”

26. Hella Jongerius 2003 a conversation that might have taken place…
Louise: How wide is the scope of design, actually? Does design count for something in society or does it operate only on the fringes of the cultural landscape?

27. Hella Jongerius
2003
Hella: It has to be about something. Commitment is crucial. Mass-production industry has been ruining the market with superfluous design products for far too long. I think designers have a role in this respect. We can do more than supply industry with original ideas; we could have a wider social responsibility

28. Hella Jongerius
2003
Hella: Designers have played a considerable part in creating the consumer society, so it would do us credit to instigate a new, more caring way of thinking about products.

29. Andrea Möller Droog Design ‘Bolle Box’ 1994
Netherlands - small country with large agricultural turnover. Excessive production of dung from farm animals
Bolle Box is dried cow-dung wrapping for one tulip bulb.
By taking cow dung home with them, tourists are helping to reduce the amount in the Netherlands
Bulb and packaging can be put in the ground together

30. Marti Guixé Droog Design ‘Oranienbaum candy’ 1999
As part of the Couleur Locale project Marti Guixe designed a lollipop that would lead to the growth of a tree. The orange pip left after licking the lolly is placed in the ground with the woodend stick next to it to mark the spot where the tree would grow.
The lolly’s useful life is only brief but the long term effect is far-reaching. Pips are usually thrown away without thinking, by turning this into a product, the act has been made deliberate.

31. http://www.studioit.org.uk Don’t forget to download Worksheet 1 from:
Scroll down to:
Contextual and Critical Studies / Support Files
CCS BA Stage 1 Critical Notebook Worksheet 1