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.