The Design of Time

Arguably, one of the inventions that most changed the lives of human beings was the clock. Before this invention, time was told by the seasons. The time of day mattered less, and the time of year mattered more. Monks were the first users of clocks in the fourteenth century, to tell when to go to prayers, and slowly the practice of keeping time was adopted throughout the world. The time of day became more important when machinery and factories were invented, and workers started being paid by the hour. The concept we most associate with time is money; saving, spending, borrowing, wasting, budgeting-- these words can refer to both money and time.

Even now we are experiencing a change in how we interpret time. With digital clocks, time-telling has become more exact. You are more likely to hear that, "it's 12:16" rather than the more general, "a quarter after 12". Our lives continue to become more dependent on time, a more exactness being put on the amount of time we live in.

Who designed time this way? In other cultures, ones outside of the technological world, time has a slower pace. The time of day matters little, and tasks are completed at a more relaxed pace. In our society though, we rush to class, rush to work, rush to complete everything in the limited amount of time we are given in the day. As a student, I find myself wondering where my time goes; I find myself trying to squeeze in an inordinate amount of activity into the day so that I can complete my studying and have time to socialize.

The aesthetics of time are also important: the design of a clock can have a huge affect on how time is told. Like I mentioned before, digital clocks make us consider a more exact time. This can either be forgiving or make us feel as though we are more behind schedule. Personally, I have my time in the morning designated so I have to leave at exactly 8:45 to get to my 9 AM class on time. If I leave at 8:43 or 8:44, I'm early, but if I leave at 8:46, I'm late. With an analog clock, I just have to leave at a quarter to 9. Unfortunately, there aren't any analog clocks in our dorm, and I'm usually running late. The design of a clock can make it harder or easier to tell the time as well: don't you hate those clocks that just have lines, rather than numbers or other distinct markers? I find them much more difficult to tell time on, especially if I'm in a hurry.

Time is something that we often forget has been created. While time moves at its own pace, we are the ones who have divided it up and put so much stress on the usage of time. How would our lives be different if time had been designed in another way? How do the designs of clocks affect how we tell time?

Comparison and Contrast: Another Type of Conversation

In 2005, the Musée d'Orsay created a program in which contemporary artists were invited to have their pieces displayed alongside one in the museum, which houses art from the 19th century. Joel Shapiro created his work Study, 20 Elements (2004) to reside alongside Carpeaux's Dance (1863-69). While these two pieces have a uniquely direct link, as Shapiro's was created in response to Carpeaux, there are many aspects of these artworks which can be explored in comparison. 

Jean-Baptist Carpeaux created The Dance in 1863-1869 for the Paris Opera building. Asked to create a sculpture around the subject of dance, Carpeaux put the spirit of dance in the center, surrounded by a group of female dancers. The spirit leads the dance, urging on the dancers around her. The feeling of movement is presented both vertically as the spirit moves upward and around the piece as the dancers circle the central figure. Carpeaux's piece was quite controversial because of the detailed female nudes it portrayed, and many requested that it be removed from the opera house. 

Shapiro uses brightly painted wood to create his Study, 20 Elements. In his other work, Shapiro often uses rectangular blocks of wood to represent figures and movement. This work features a central yellow block as the largest and most prominent image, and smaller blocks move around its base. The use of color leads the eye upward toward the largest block: the two smaller yellow blocks create a direct line towards it, while it contrasts with the others closest to it. The piece has an air of being off-balance, it's hard to believe that it is free-standing. The whole thing looks very light; the onlooker feels as if he or she could pick it up with one hand. 

The pieces are very similar in many ways. The unity of the shapes, whether they be dancers or rectangles, are all similar but unique. No two figures are the same in Carpeaux's piece, while no two rectangles are the same in Shapiro's work. Shapiro's work also reflects the dynamic of Carpeaux's piece; both pieces have a similar feeling of movement. The overall shape of the works is similar too: both lead the eye upwards to a peak and have a light atmosphere, though they are more bottom-heavy with details. 

This piece seems quintessential in our discussion of design as a conversation and the need for collaboration in art and design. The creations of Shapiro and Carpeaux are directly linked: Shapiro draws inspiration directly from the core design elements of Carpeaux's work. There is no actual conversation here, because Carpeaux will not be able to respond anytime soon, but these pieces give a clear example of how elements of design can be transferred. 

Design as Conversation

As I've mentioned before, collaboration is key to design. There is hardly any design that hasn't been influenced or inspired by something else. Designers draw inspiration from a multitude of sources, including from each other. There is an eternal exchange of ideas that goes in the art and design world, a back and forth as designers try to improve on each others' work. However, design discussion is taking place in other places besides the classrooms and studios of designers: take a look at Gap's new logo controversy. 

Gap created the new logo (on the left) in an attempt to update Gap for the new generation. However, there was so much negative reaction to the attempted change that Gap agreed to return to the old logo. The conversation was not only between members of the public, but between the public and the owners of Gap. Everyone had an opinion on the new logo and wanted to share it via the web; in turn, the owners of Gap listened to their buyers. The mass uproar also demonstrates how much investment people make in brands: one woman said she would no longer shop at Gap if the logo changed. In my opinion, the discussion this change created was good for Gap's business; no matter whether people liked or disliked the logo, the brand was getting noticed.

The conversation of fashion design is ever-changing as well: take Lady Gaga's meat dress that has accumulated so much attention. 

Lady Gaga purposely creates looks that garner attention, she wants people to be shocked and discuss the meaning behind her ensembles. The meat dress in particular was a comment on the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy in the military. She says, "If we don't stand up for what we believe in, we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're gonna have as much rights as the meat on our bones." She also added that she's "not a piece of meat". She creates her image in a way that invites controversy, that invites a discussion of what statements she makes with her outfits. In doing so, she creates awareness of social issues; rather than only promoting her own fame, she makes an effort to reach out and help her supporters. Her conversations are with the media, challenging our social norms.

Should Design be Moral?

Morality-- rules for living the "good life". Do designers need to take morality into consideration when creating pieces?

Whether or not they are required to make moral choices, more and more designers are creating in ways that are conscious to one of the world's most current problems-- the environment. Going "green" has been a trend for several years now, as designers take note of the state of our planet. Bags, shoes, clothing, home decor-- all of these things and more are being made from recycled material.

Mark Langan is one of those designers that creates out of recycled material. Using old cardboard boxes, he makes beautiful sculptural pieces. Some of these are fine art, some are company logos (below is a logo for the clothing company Propr). Langan hopes that his art will contribute to the recycling movement, that people will see his art and realize they too can contribute.

In my opinion, designers do need to take some level of morality into their work. Not every piece needs to be a strong statement, or communicate a lesson for humanity. However, taking small steps, like making an effort to use recycled materials, should be on designers' minds. Langan admits his contribution to the environment is small, but something is better than nothing. As designers begin creating environment-friendly products, consumers will buy those products; even small contributions contribute to this cycle. Going green is without a doubt one way that designers can be moral. 

Creativity from Without

Not all designers and artists look within to find inspiration from which to create their art. Andrew Goldsworthy, for example, gains inspiration from materials he finds in nature. His ephemeral art does not come from self-discovery; he is more concerned with discovering the meaning within his media. 

Drawing inspiration from media falls into every designer's lap now and again. Designers are not always given free range; often, designers are asked to create from certain materials, or they must create with what is available to them. In our Stone Soup activity, we were asked to create a piece of design from materials that each of us provided. There was no planning involved in our media choices; each person brought what they had and we created with it. 

Designing based on media can also be a choice, many designers allow inspiration to come from the materials they have around them. Not all design has a deep philosophical meaning; the primary goal of most design lies in its ability to please aesthetically. Linda Hoke uses brightly colored cups in installation art to create beautiful wall pieces. She draws inspiration purely from the cups and colors, sometimes going out of her way to find the perfect color of a vintage slurpee cup. In the same way that Goldsworthy creates design out of items found in nature, Hoke creates design out of items that are traditionally used for a completely different purpose.

Inspiration can come from anywhere at anytime. Each designer has a different way of finding inspiration; designers can draw inspiration from within and from without, and many designers are asked to do a little of both. Drawing inspiration from without allows the designer to re-invent their world, whether it be rearranging nature or manipulating cups. 

As design students, there is no doubt that we will at times be forced to create from certain materials for an educational purpose. Additionally, we will probably not have access to pricier art supplies, and we will have to creatively use what we have available. These challenges will force us to explore the world outside of the one we know and are comfortable with. In doing so, we will probably find a more effective way of drawing inspiration from within ourselves as well as without.

Stone Soup

The sharing of media, ideas, and the creative process that constitutes Stone Soup demonstrates core aspects of design. This unique process of shared art shows how a simple activity can demonstrate how instrumental collaboration and the design process are to design as a whole.

Collaboration is inherent in design. Multiple designers are often asked to work on projects together, creating a conscious collaboration. Additionally, consciously or not, designers participate in trends; from fashion to interior, almost all designers are influenced by the zeitgeist. What really constitutes the zeitgeist, translated to mean "spirit of the time", is the collaboration of designers and artists of a certain time who are influenced by each other in their creations. We can see these time-period influences in fashion design, architecture, and art that are classified by time period, i.e. the Renaissance, Modern Art, etc.

In Stone Soup, we collaborated much more literally. Materials are shared, the process is shared; everyone contributes something. The communal art process demonstrated how collaboration can play a pivotal role in design; by ourselves, none of us could have created what we did all together. Each person adds a little bit, and by the end we had a fully formed piece of art which has not one designer, but eight.

Our experience with Stone Soup demonstrated another aspect of design very clearly: the importance of the design process. Lauer specifies the design process as first thinking, then looking, and finally doing. The process went slightly differently for us; we looked at our materials first, then did a little thinking, but for the most part our Stone Soup was "doing". The persisting question of whether to classify the word design as a verb or noun was simple on the day we did Stone Soup: it was without a doubt a verb. Our piece would have turned out differently had we spent more time in the "thinking" stage; not necessarily better or worse, but doubtless it would have had a completely different design.

The process of Stone Soup is one that I would like to revisit-- its employment of so many aspects of design is not only fascinating, but also enjoyable. 

Making Your Mark

Signatures fit into design in a completely unique way. They can be found at the base or on the back of almost every work of art. Artists and designers, though, are not the only ones who create a signature; signatures are used every day to authorize, make agreements, and prove identity. Writing a signature is almost a thoughtless task: we are asked to do it so often that we forget what our signature really constitutes. The origin of a signature differs from person to person, and most are difficult to reproduce.

Handwriting on its own is unique to each individual; when asked to repeat the same letters over and over, sometimes multiple times a day, the letters take on a unique character. Human error means that signatures are never exactly the same, but of all the things we write, they come the closest. Our handwriting is our own design, and a signature is a summary of that design.

Letters are the most abstract of images: a picture of an eye and the word "eye" can mean the same thing to us, but the word is a much more abstract version of that thought. A signature is like an abstract picture of a person; the signature has as much identity as a picture does. This identity is utilized in many aspects of our society: signing bank documents, housing documents, birth certificates, and more. When one cannot agree to something in person, one can send his or her signature as proof of agreement. 

In the end, every person develops some sort of signature, some way of identifying themselves on paper. 

Earliest Memory of Design

Dr. Seuss's books were my first experience with design. When they were read to me as a child, and later as I read them to myself, I was fascinated with the design of colors and shapes that Dr. Seuss, used to create his fantastic stories. In the same way that Dr. Seuss made up nonsense words to fit into his rhyming scheme, he used his illustrations to make a world that matched his imaginative visions.

My favorite book by Dr. Seuss has always been The Sleep Book (pictured above) because of its incredible landscapes. The book features an explanation of how people all around the world (Dr. Seuss's world that is) go to sleep, and every page has a completely different design scheme. The patterns of the designs fill up the whole page; each one truly is a different world.

As a child, I especially enjoyed the movement of each of the pages. Like in the pages shown above, Dr. Seuss uses stairs to create an illusion of depth in each page. The reader's eyes follow the stairs to the line of the water, which leads back down to the base of the stairs. Each of his pages gives the reader a similar feeling of being transported around the page. Rather than having one or two central focus points, Dr. Seuss designs his pages to be a full interactive experience.

Besides the layout design of the pages, Dr. Seuss takes on the identity of an architect, creating whimsical buildings for his characters to live in. The doorways and windows are almost always rounded, rather than square, and the railings ands staircases are always curved. Even the boat pictured above is stylized. In this way, Dr. Seuss employs design to create another world; he challenges the conventional idea of buildings to transport his readers.

The final aspect of Dr. Seuss's work that always intrigued me was his characters' interaction with their world. Not only does Dr. Seuss re-design architecture, but he re-designs how his characters act in their surroundings. His characters sleep above doorways, over stairs, and in keyholes. Beyond creating a whimsical environment, Dr. Seuss's characters themselves embody whimsy.

Dr. Seuss's books are a childhood staple, and for me, they demonstrated how the design of our world can be re-imagined.

Introduction

The name of this blog, "Deign to Design", is a play on words. "Deign"is simply the word design without an "s", but the name can have a deeper connotation.

As we explore the question, "What is design?", we tend to find that there are design elements in every thing that humans touch. The computer I'm writing this on, the keyboard I'm using, this website-- all of them have been designed. The almost omnipotence of design is truly fascinating.

In a world where we are surrounded by design, many fail to notice the elements of design in the world around us. Have I really looked at this couch I'm sitting on in my dorm room? Have I appreciated the smooth wooden arms contrasting with the woven navy blue cushions? Have I inspected the delicate yet suspicious brown stain and wondered how it compares to the scheme of the couch? Perhaps we think we are above design, that it seems to have no concrete meaning in our lives. Who cares about that chair or that table; we need them to use for sitting or eating, but it doesn't really matter what they look like. We are too busy working and going to school to appreciate the world that we, as humans, have created.

Designers deign to design. They lower themselves to that task which goes so unnoticed everyday. Designers toil to build the world that we live in, to create from nothing the way that we live our lives. After hours of striving to be creative, innovative, and to please aesthetically, designers have their work taken for granted. Designers are the ones that deign to take note of design too; observing the world with different eyes, drawing inspiration from the mundane as often as the fantastic.

Deign to design, deign to notice design, deign to notice the world we live in.