MYTHS ABOUT MODERN DESIGN

“Design is a Non-Technical Profession”

Kumar Skand

(Image Source: http://www.kpucadd.com/hang/industrial-design/)

The recognition of Industrial Design as a professional discipline is often riddled with paradox, uncertainty and myth. As the designer George Nelson (1957) once commented:

“Industrial design differs from architecture and engineering in one interesting way — it is the only profession that became a myth before it reached maturity.” [1]

The impact, limits and methods of evaluation are largely unclear owing to the strong uncertainty in defining the field of design, both by industry and the public. Also, of prime importance is the question as to how it is related to other practical and academic disciplines.

Design serves to act as a bridge, cutting across aesthetics, engineering, management, art and other disciplines which are well established and founded on research and theory. However, it does not seem to have the same solid base of its own. The major deficiency of Industrial Design is believed to be a lack of tradition. Yet, there are times when some designers believe that they are members of one of the world’s oldest professions.[2] The argument whether it lacks contextual history, theory, research and criticism is often a subject matter of debate. Going by the Western belief, its emergence seems to be linked to the Industrial Revolution that brought in the concept of mass manufacturing.

However, ‘Design’ in its entirety is not just limited to ‘Industrial Design’ and the concept of mass manufacturing. Design has both tradition as well as contextual history (for instance, the traditional Indian household items such as the ‘Sil-Batta’, though considered as being archaic, are often considered as masterpieces of good design standards and still very much form an integral part of our kitchens). [3]

Image: ‘Sil-Batta’

(Image Source: http://foodfellas4you.com/coming-back-comfort-food/)

In the present age of mass manufacturing with a strong emphasis on increasing productivity, the impact and recognition of Industrial Design as a professional activity continues to increase. One of the real contributions of Industrial Design is that it has carved out a unique way of doing things by uniting ‘Quality’ with ‘Quantity’ – the two terms which were previousl deemed not to have a  concurrent existence.

In countries such as India where the history and origin of Design as a professional field of study may or may not be a prominent topic of debate, its ‘nature’ surely seems to be the one. People believe Design to be a ‘non-technical’ field of study and something which is highly associated with the likes of artists and craftsmen.

In a country where the usual herd mentality of the masses is to either see their kids grow up to become Engineers and Doctors (owing to well-structured educational curriculum and seemingly better job prospects), people tend to get more inclined towards opting for ‘technical’ subjects offering core competencies.

In such a scenario, fields like Industrial Design do find takers, but not many. A large part of the apprehension may be attributed to the fact that people dismiss Design as an area which is not related to the nuances of technical and logical thinking and approach. Rather, it is projected as a discipline which is more oriented towards Fine Arts and Aesthetics.

The term ‘technical’ as defined in the ‘Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary’ is: ‘pertaining to art, esp. a useful art or applied science’. Further, ‘The Compact Oxford Dictionary, Thesaurus and Wordpower Guide’ defines the same word as ‘having to do with the practical skills of a particular subject, art or craft’, and ‘having to do with the practical use of machinery and methods in science and industry’. Hence, going by the definitions of the word in the two dictionaries, the word ‘technical’ seems to have a more broad-ranging meaning, encompassing art as well as science and their practical uses. [4]

Talking about myself, my exposure towards this attractive but lesser-known domain started some three years back when I started preparing for getting admission into the institutes of repute offering Masters in Automobile Designing. With different institutes offering widely varying Degree programmes in India and abroad (for instance, ACCD in California offering an M.S. in Design, Hochschule Pforzheim University in Germany offering an M.A., NID in India offering a Diploma back then and the IITs offering an M. Des. Degree), I became all the more confused whether this would mark a transition in my career from a purely technical domain to a non-technical one.

With so much ambiguity over the Degree programmes being conferred differently, it was but natural for me to wonder if Design is a profession, then which one is it – ‘technical’, ‘semi-technical’ or ‘non-technical’.

With time, the apprehension subsided as I gradually became aware of the course structure, curriculum and the ever-increasing impact it has in our lives. I realized the broader scope of Product Design as the superset of Transportation Design, and an even larger encapsulation of Industrial Design of which the Product Design is just a part. And since it is interrelated with technology and science on one hand and social sciences on the other, I gradually formed an opinion that it is probably ‘semi-technical’ in nature.

However, it was not until I had joined the Master’s Programme in the School of Planning and Architecture did I realize the complex and highly technical nature of this field of study. I realized that Design serves not just as a bridge between Science and Art or Science and Social Sciences for that matter, but a highly intertwined field of research and development that is an amalgamation of Science, Mathematics, Arts, Logic, Cognition, Ergonomics, Aesthetics, Psychology, Social Sciences and Management Studies.

Design can, therefore, be pulled in 3 major directions:

Art and aesthetics: form and appearance of products.

Engineering and natural sciences: making products that work.

Human sciences: communication and relationship between products and people.

And a designer is sometimes expected to possess the combined talents of Archimedes, Edison and Michelangelo. [5] The next few paragraphs would probably serve as the means to substantiate and strengthen this belief.

Most of us are probably aware of the two cerebral hemispheres – the left cortex concerned more about Logic and the right one being associated more with Creativity.

(Image Source: http://ucmas.ca/our-programs/whole-brain-development/left-brain-vs-right-brain/)

Design, as I found out, is probably one of the very few disciplines of practice, which tend to make substantial use of both the right and the left hemispheres simultaneously.

Disciplines like Mathematics and Computations which are associated with logic and algorithms, work on the basis of a set of well-defined rules and procedures (often repetitive in nature). We apply logic to arrive at a set of corollaries and theorems, which once proven, can be committed to memory and utilized time and again with little or no synthesis involved further, and arriving at the same results sans exceptions. For instance, 2 + 2 = 4 holds true under all conditions universally and the computed end result may either be ‘true’ or ‘false’ (a discrete outcome). The same logic holds true for Science (Physics and Chemistry) as well. There is seldom such a thing as being ‘partially right’ or ‘partially wrong’. The result is an absolute.

The Colour Theory in design studies is also based on Mathematics and Logic (colors following definite Additive and Subtractive procedures; Complementary, Split-Complementary and Adjacent colour schemes are to name a few). There are a set of basic rules to be followed for making an effective palette synthesis of matching colours. This is not at all arbitrary or random as was thought of earlier. Further, the colour scheme synthesis of various tints, tones & shades that may or may not gel harmoniously with each other is also relatively complex than the usual problems of Permutations & Combinations encountered in everyday Mathematics. (Ever wondered why the two-tone colour scheme looks more apt in automobiles and railway coaches or why the cricket jerseys of Australia and New Zealand look better than, say, Bangladesh and Kenya?)

Image: Colour Schemes

 

(Image Source: https://coloursandmaterials.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/colour-system/)

Product Design theorists have propounded and largely supported the ’95-Percentile Theory’, which implies that a well-designed product is one that is designed taking into consideration the needs and requirements of at least 95 percent of the target user group. This is necessary in order to garner wide customer acceptance and usability rate. This is nothing but the practical application of Quantitative Analysis and Statistics. It is the practical involvement and application of Mathematical and Management Theory modelling of Normal Distribution, (fixing appropriate ‘acceptance’ and ‘rejection’ regions) and Six-Sigma Analysis.

Industrial Design Theory, which when put into practice, is nothing but the Operations Management of the manufacturing processes, which strives to achieve a unique balance between the ‘Economies of Scale’ and the ‘Economies of Scope’ in order to ensure profit maximization. The only difference probably is that Design takes a micro-level whereas Management Studies adopt a more macro-level approach. Both these studies, however distinctly different they may seem, have many more things in common than meets the eye.

Design seems to be more rational and thought-provoking than the formally-taught Science which is discrete in nature. With Science, the outcome is generally binary (an absolute right or wrong). However, Design serves to fill in the gap between the levels of being ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Nothing is ‘true’ or ‘false’ in its absolute sense. The acceptance and rejection are always measured in terms of relativity to each other and priorities which further depend on numerous other factors and trade-offs. Thus, design thinking involves a far greater practical and logical approach to arriving at an answer than simply terming it as being an absolute ‘black’ or ‘white’.

Hence, if we are to compare Science and Design, we might as well think of the limited set of integers (Science) as compared to the entire range of rational number line (Design).

Design is, I believe, similar to our universe – large, vastly unexplored and often incomprehensible beyond a certain level.  This might be the reason why we tend to dismiss the logical and technical nature of this highly complex world. We are probably more comfortable in playing with the binaries (on-and-offs) rather than attempting to decipher the complex logic behind why, for instance, products and designs appeal differently to different sets of people and at different levels. The answer to this question probably lies in some complex algorithm which hasn’t yet been figured out and hence, the reason why it becomes probably easier for us to dismiss all that which is beyond our scope of understanding as simply being “Non-Technical”.

 

Conclusion

Design in itself is a broad domain that serves as a bridge, connecting various other domains of specialization such as Science, Arts, Mathematics, Analytics and Management Studies. Certainly, there appears to be a substantial degree of coherence between Design and other ‘technical’ subjects. In my quest to check the validity of the prevailing myth, I have tried to find an answer by establishing the correlation between Design and other disciplines. I believe that the myth of design as a non-technical profession is unjustified and that Design should be accepted as a coherent technical profession.

 

References

[1], [2], [5]  Mayo, S. (1993). Myth in Design. International Journal of Technology and Design Education.

[3] Mukherji, A. (2010). Who designed the sil-batta?. [Blog] Available at: http://anishashekhar.blogspot.in/2010/06/who-designed-sil-batta.html [Accessed 5 Apr. 2016].

[4] Mukherji, A. (2011). How much and what sort of technology do you need?. [Blog] Available at: http://anishashekhar.blogspot.in/2011/10/how-much-and-what-sort-of-technology-do.html [Accessed 5 Apr. 2016].

Bibliography

Blogs

Mukherji, A. (2011). How much and what sort of technology do you need?. [Blog] Available at: http://anishashekhar.blogspot.in/2011/10/how-much-and-what-sort-of-technology-do.html [Accessed 5 Apr. 2016].

Mukherji, A. (2010). Who designed the sil-batta?. [Blog] Available at: http://anishashekhar.blogspot.in/2010/06/who-designed-sil-batta.html [Accessed 5 Apr. 2016].

Books

Coomaraswamy, A. (1909). The Indian Craftsman. London: Probsthain & Co.

Journals

Mayo, S. (1993). Myth in Design. International Journal of Technology and Design Education.

Websites

Co.Design. (2015). 4 Myths About Silicon Valley Industrial Designers. [online] Available at: http://www.fastcodesign.com/3047907/4-myths-about-silicon-valley-industrial-designers [Accessed 5 Apr. 2016].

Harvard Business Review. (2012). Six Myths of Product Development. [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2012/05/six-myths-of-product-development [Accessed 5 Apr. 2016].

McKay, S. (2013). The myth of the creative-right vs analytical-left brain : debunked – Your Brain Health. [online] Your Brain Health. Available at: http://yourbrainhealth.com.au/left-brain-right-brain-myth/ [Accessed 5 Apr. 2016].

smetimes.in. (2016). 10 myths about industrial product design. [online] Available at: http://www.smetimes.in/smetimes/in-depth/2012/Jun/28/10-myths-about-industrial-product-design.html [Accessed 5 Apr. 2016].

ucmas.ca. (2016). Left Brain Vs Right Brain. [online] Available at: http://ucmas.ca/our-programs/whole-brain-development/left-brain-vs-right-brain/ [Accessed 5 Apr. 2016].

Wikipedia. (2016). Design engineer. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_engineer [Accessed 5 Apr. 2016].

Wikipedia. (2016). Industrial design. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_design [Accessed 5 Apr. 2016].