I Think Therefore I Design

What is design?

Is it knowing what color palette can take your living room from casual to classic?

Is it something an intelligent entity did a few thousand years ago?

Is it Herve Villechaize pointing out that you are about to walk into the women's restroom?



Or is it, as John Heskett argues in "Design: A Very Short Introduction", "one of the basic characteristics of what it is to be human"?

As appealing as the touch of luxury and sophistication brought about by a black and white interior is, I'd have to agree with John. Although HGTV and other popular media coverage would have you believe that design is on house arrest (limited to the house and backyard only, with supervised visits to Bed, Bath, and Beyond), any way that humans manipulate and shape the world falls into the spectrum of design. Our ability to design, our ability to shape the world to fit our own needs and desires is what separates us from the animals. For example, a chimpanzee might be able to use a stick to fish for a snack from a termite mound, but a human could design a super awesome termite killing stick that traps the termite, kills it, blends it into a delicious Termite Acai berry smoothie, AND does your taxes (All for 3 easy payments of $29.99!). The process of designing this EZ Termitizer Xpress (Call Now!!) for certain functions is the physical manifestation of human's ability for abstract thought. I think therefore I design.

When thinking of a design for something, one of the first essential questions is "What form should it take?" This question is often answered with the popular dictum: "form follows function". American architect Louis Sullivan, under the influence of Darwin's theory of evolution, first expressed this idea in a 1896 essay. Just as the stripes of a zebra help it survive, so shouldn't the form of our furniture help it function? If that's the case, than how do you explain this?

Is a chair more comfortable when it looks like it might walk away with you in it? To explain this, Heskett divides function into two concepts: utility and significance. Utility is concerned with the usefulness of things, the degree to which designs are able to serve their purpose. Significance is concerned with the ways in which designs can express meaning, usually in cultural contexts. While utility is more objective, significance is very subjective, and can change with time and location.

While Heskett uses the totally boring example of toothpicks it illustrate these concepts, I'll use an example more suited to my sense of humor: the potty. In America, we have the standard, boring old porcelain bowl with a lever to flush, with little need or desire for anything more. However, in Japan, the toilets are quite a bit more involved (God bless Wikipedia, they have an article about this). The average Japanese toilet looks like this:

The utility of this toilet is that it can get you really clean after a #2. The significance of this toilet is evident when comparing American and Japanese toilets. While toilets with buttons and dials are virtually unheard of in America, 72% of Japanese households have these high-tech toilets. These toilets are a reflection of the high value placed on cleanliness in Japanese culture. It also seems that the Japanese are less sensitive about their b-holes, as a common "game" in Japan is Kancho. I use the word game lightly, as the only rule is that you stick your fingers up someone else's butt and scream "KANCHO!" (Yes, there is a Wikipedia article about this too).