Hello,
I am writing an essay on meaning and I would like you all to open yourselves up in how you proceed when creating objectivity.
This may sound extremely vague, I’ll cut it short to a few guidelines. When you design something, how do you start on investigating to make sure that you have a particular concept in mind in order to “accurately” bring your meaning to the chosen context your design will be placed in?
Do you research the functional demands of that context? Can you even treat social demands as a functional input for the completion of the perfected object?
My big question is, can you afford yourself as a designer to claim that you perceive well certain social dynamics through a limited experience that ironically would never get you closer to, more like getting further away from it by pretending that you are?
Can you safely claim that future designers will know their consumers a little bit more in order to provide them an ideal environment to live in?
I remember one of my tutors saying “You can never know too much!”. Well who wouldnt agree to that one, the only problem is that I am wondering whether theoretical approaches to social problem solving through design is yet another Bourgeois Thechnocratic facade we are placing before ourselves as consumers. An inaccessible margin illusioned more accessible by us the designers but as empty as the previous consuming period.
I just would like to draw a margin whether designers should stop flattering themselves by pretending to be social when they clearly aren’t, because design by nature (unfortunately today) is of a high class elitist community and forgive me by saying that most of that community has always been in complete disconnection from the Lower classes values and meanings, history speaks.
I have nothing against the Higher classes taking in more interest to see what’s below because today I’d would definately love to see some sort link created inbetween rather than this huge void we see building up day by day. If that happens, dont call it Design, call it something else and be honest for once…
well? the truth is, for me I talk about process alot, but in reality I have this magic bag of old chicken bones…
some times I paint stuff red? other times blue? whatever the client wants, you know how it is!
Oh man do I know how it is!! I have this project right now, a sweet project. I came up with this amazing concept / design, the kind of design that you now deep down is going to be one of the best of your life. You only get a few of those types in your life, the sweet ones, you know!
So I take the design and present it to the client, they love it! then they start to fuck with it! a bit here, a bit there? then I realize that the client has no idea what they are talking about and even less understanding of how great of a design they have in front of them! COCKSUCKER!!!
So, sorry the thread question was about process. Yes I have and use one all the time, same one I always. However now I think I am going to add an 8th step where I take a shotgun to someone’s head, ether mine or my client! COCKSUCKER!!!
So, sorry the thread question was about process. Yes I have and use one all the time, same one I always. However now I think I am going to add an 8th step where I take a shotgun to someone’s head, ether mine or my client! COCKSUCKER!!!
your problem is simple - your not a designer. Any good designer will know, design to sell. Maybe your selling to marketing, engineering or the consumer. Your still selling.
The only reason you feel the client is a cocksucker is when you take ownership in your design! That’s your first, most amature, most unprofessional and biggest mistake.
Quit being a jackass and concentrate on your job. You get paid to design. Changes or no changes, your NOT the client! If you want to take ownership in something, go into sculpture.
i agree…
there are many designers out there with great ideas,
but only few of them know how to sell these,
the rest jof them just gets frustrated and their ideas re-shaped.
and who made you the expert?
Ok, lets see? I am the senior designer at one of this country’s best known Design studios. I work with the biggest manufacturers in this country. In the past year have developed over 5 major projects and products that have gone to market (not my best year, I will admit). For some jack ass punk kid like you to start lecturing ME? How about you send me your name and next time you apply to one of my company’s studios I will make sure you get the job. That way I can show you what the real world of design is all about! I will also ride your ass like a Mongolian camel jokey!
My previous post was me just ranting a bit due to frustration and it was said in jest. I wrote it because I did not want to say anything to the client or my staff. But if you are telling me that you have never sat at a presentation and watched a good project go off the rails through no fault of your own? Then you have never taken part in any real product development!
“ride your ass like a Mongolian camel jokey”. HAHAHA!
Good one! but now I know who you are! I have only ever heard one designer ever use that phrase befor.
Hey guest and HUMAN if this guy is who I think he is dont mess with him. He is really a nasty vindictive and UGLY guy. He is also what he says he is.
HAHAHAHA, Mongolian camel jokey, good one!
“I am the senior designer at one of this country’s best known Design studios.”
And I am the collective psyche of Ive, Dyson, Starck and Rashid, Embodied in the form of a 14 year old autistic savant design prodigy. I work with even BIGGER manufacturers than you. In the past year I have developed 287 major projects (2514 minor ones) Don’t doubt me… It’s true. I swear.
Its funny how anonymity takes away any accountability and sane conversation on these forums. Someone asks a valid, thought provoking question and all they get is this egotistical banter on who is a better designer.
I sure hope you’re lying and someone doesn’t have to call you their boss.
I do not want to defend crap posts on this board but as I said, I think I know who One m(s)ad Designer is. If it is him he is actually a good boss but defiantly not famous, he is also not THE senior designer, he is A senior designer The studio he works for IS one of the biger ones though, thats true.
With that said I totaly agree with you!!! why did core stop enforcing registration? the forum was better (or at least smarter) when every one had to register.
Mongolian camel jokey, Ha, that still cracks me up though.
I take offense to the comment about the mongols riding camels
they are probably the most adept horsemen in the world
Getting back to the topic; When I started out with my studio, it was just me, sort a freelancer with a physical studio location and a business card. At that time I really did not have a design process. I would give the client basically what they asked me for, if they wanted a coach I would give them a couch, if they wanted a coffee table I would give them a coffee table (I was doing mostly furniture back then). After a few years I started to get more and more clients and they all wanted some thing different. I found it hard to design five different coaches all at the same time for different clients. This is when I started using a process to break the design projects into more easily “digestible stages”, this way I could be working on multiple projects but have them all at different, manageable stages of development. Back then I think I had 3 or 4 stages, Research, concept development, design, engineering / manufacturing support. Now that my company has grown and the types and scale of projects that we do has expanded so has the design process. EVERYONE at my studio knows the process and works with it, they also help develop new aspects of it as it is always a work in progress. Now the process is broken down into 8 or 9 stages and each stage is broken into sub-stages to allow team members to more easily move around different projects (we are a small studio). Each stage has a deliverable that we hand over to the client. I fined this helps in two ways. 1. the client is paying big money and they feel good being able to leave with something physical at the end of each meeting, say like a research document or SLA model, anything really just makes them happy and they can show their boss that “real” progress is being made. 2. If you give the client a deliverable, say like a research document and you tell them “this is what we are doing” they can not come back later and say " hey, we had no idea that is what you ment" or " you said you would make it red not this ugly blue" once they accept the deliverable they know what they will get. This has saved my ass many times!
Thats basically how my process works and it is like scripture around here, you dont follow Process and you are going to hell!
riding? thought they were making jokeys about the camels.
The design process depends on the question in mind and a good decision on the different ways you can garther the right information, absorb it, understand it and then synthesize the conclusions in the form of a product. But I agree with the point that the client’s views are often the starting point.
The big trap (I believe) is the fact that often, designers tend to form solutions based on their own vision of the perfect world. I think this also has to do with life itself that has locked people in an experience-tight container. ID is work having to do with people and their “needs”. One has to observe people and surely, if they do, the success of their solutions will be closer to perfection. However, keep in mind that there cannot be perfection.
Hope my views helped…
i don’t think the process is limited to research, clients, factories, trends, etc. the best way to deal with it is to take care of all angles concerning the project and look for hidden ones.
before the process comes knowledge and experience. if you have the talent to gain it in a limited time sentence set by your business constraints then you’re indeed a good designer and data manager.
i think the elitist element becoming pronounced more vividly today is the result of too much too soon consumerism plus a matching parallel hyper transfer from one product to another. it’s as if the barbie has come alive and now ken and barbie have to have all the video games with all the neat gadgets inside!!
and at the same time you see business planners exploiting this phenomenon and moving horizontally in market. just how many 256 meg mp3 players can you buy to match your attire and your functional mood.
i don’t think these matters have that much to do with the process itself but rather a lack of technological parallel in a pluralistic society that ignores true function for a false getting a kick out of a product.
that’s why you see until this silo of mass consumerism is not filled fully you won’t find companies willing to risk other ideas and processes.
in the modern society economic and cultural challenges subdue the process and actually what we call the process is merely an attempt to convince ourselves that we’re right on track with our designated programme.
Is this “ufo” the dude from CarDesignNews? Sure sounds like the same verbal diarrea.
Talk to people that use or are going to use what you are designing. Put on some music that you like and start sketching some ideas. Show some of your sketches around to people and see what they think. Keep some of there there opinions in the back of your mind and sketch some more. Make some 3D models that allow people to touch the object and realise it. Pay close attention to how they interact with it and what they say, how other people react around it. Move futher with 3D modeling and make prototypes or savvy 3D digital renderings which represent the closest final version of the proposed design in 3D : this is critical for the ‘pitch’ presentation. Present some flashy renderings and a finished 3D final model (mockup/prototype) of the product design to the audience in an environment which fits the mood of the presentation…people layout, space, whatever other environmental influences you can affect in the presentation…everything counts.
merry Christmas you fucking amateur! Hows about you come work for me and I “ride you like a Mongolian camel jockey”?
i haven’t posted in cdn for maybe more than a year now. the site had little focus on design.
what the hell is diarrea? a new kind of dictionary?