Heskett starts the book by addressing the misconception of design as inconsequential, useless or a mere play ground for the creative. He however fights this (assumed) general consensus about the role of design by saying, “Design is one of the basic characteristics of what it is to be human, and an essential determinant of the quality of human life” (Heskett 2) which I found to be one of the most important parts of the book…or at least a good summary of the argument he is trying to make in this book. He also addresses in this first chapter the confusion about design that stems from its very name and the fact that “design” has so many meaning and connotations today. He says that design at it’s core is the “capacity” for humans to adapt things in nature to their own use and further that through generations of adaptation most of nature (or the world that surrounds us) has become manipulated by us in some way. To me this is what makes design so exciting and full of possibilities, the fact that thinking of design this way makes it seem like you can do absolutely anything with it. Or course, we must face a meeting of pure design and feasibility. Heskett then goes on to talk of the history of design and how knowing the history of design is a must in terms of understanding design itself. What makes us able to adapt our surroundings so easily to us is basically our hands. On a day to day basis we rarely think about the incredibly diverse things our hands can do and the many things we can train them to do. Right now I am moving my fingers in a complex pattern to create the very text that you are reading right now. However, it’s not our dexterity alone that creates our ability to design its also what Heskett calls our ability to see “form related to function.” I like to think of it in terms of human creativity in that we see something in nature but we don’t simply recognize that form we see beyond what it simply there, we see other ways to utilize its form or the object itself to benefit fit us. It was with these very basics that design started, but the key to where we are today was learning, growing and building upon the designs that our very distant ancestors made. Heskett makes what I think is a very good point that we would not be where we are today in terms of technology or design if we didn’t have a way of passing information on through writing or verbally. I really do agree with Heskett that a combination of the sill of our hands, our mental ability to see beyond simply the form of the object, and finally our ability to learn and communicate what we’ve learned are the basis for design…and honestly aspects of it that I had never though about before.
What I found most interesting in Heskett’s discussion of utility and significance of design was his examination (or mentioning) of how people imbue object with meaning. I found this very interesting because as much as design is about utility, functionality and beauty (in some respects) its also different for each person. Art is subjective to begin with but design creates things that can hold a special meaning to many people (or even just one person) weather it is intended to or not, regardless of its functionality. Heskett finally goes on to address three categories (objects, communication, and environments) and what they mean to design in further detail. There are a multitude of “objects” that surround us everyday, and as Heskett puts it “objects are a crucial expression of ideas of how we could or should live, put into tangible form” (37). This quote sets up beautifully his note on weather or not the design of objects is solely for the purpose of the designer to create something that someone thinks they need or is it designed to fulfill an actual need? I personally feel that design (the definition I have always assumed) has become more about creating a product that sells or that someone might find pleasing/desirable because of the intense pressure from companies to sell products. But I also think that because it is so hard to predict what someone or many people will like design Has to have its basis or at least link itself with some kind of functionality in order to ensure that some will sell. I personally think that some products are incredibly beautiful (Apple computers for instance) but I think that there is some truth to the idea that the product line was created to sell the products and the brand. Next, Heskett talks of the vast world of communication and how it encompasses everything from the fleeting print media (newspapers for instance) to objects that require no words to communicate a specific meaning. What I found most interesting in his discussion on communication was how communication has become so important in an ever more connected, ever more globalized world. We are more connected than ever and therefore creating effective and accurate forms of communication if necessary, but its has also become harder for the designers because many have to think about designing for such a large audience (like on the internet) where the communication needs to be clear to people across multiple cultures, classes, and generations. Finally, in his discussion on environments I found most interesting Heskett’s discussion on how designing an environment or designing for one adds a whole new layer of complexity. As he describes it “from, color, pattern, and texture are basic compositional elements but the articulation of space and light is a specific characteristic of the design of environments…in this context, objects and communications become closely interlocked with spatial elements, giving added emphasis to their functionality and significance” (Heskett 68). This kind of blew my mind. Even after reading the first five chapters of the book I still thought of interior design as the artsy, useless part of design (to be perfectly honest), but this sentence made me realize that design of environments (not just interior spaces) is so incredibly important. This is not only because of that fact that we like to be comfortable in a space, but the spaces themselves provide a context that effects the meaning, importance, and effective/utility of the objects in them. I suppose that I found this concept so interesting because it really showcases how the different parts of design are truly integrated, not isolated from one another.
