Course reflection 01

I had a lot of pre-conceived notions coming into Design 200.  I thought of designers as overly artsy people who spend their time designing chairs, and making objects that look pretty but have no real usefulness in everyday life.  What I have come to discover is that this is not true.  Of course, we've only had class for two weeks now so I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of what design really is.  What I have learned in the past few weeks follows.  What i have taken from the lectures is that design is not about one's self.  Design isn't about creating the next million dollar product, it's really about making people's lives a bit easier or more comfortable.  From the beginning of man we have been striving to make our lives easier using tools, and only recently (in the grand scheme of things) has design become about the fusion of aesthetics and utility.  For me this was a revelation, because design has its very basics in utility, the very thing that I had thought designers minds had transcended.  Sure, there are some designers who do it purely for the artistic aspect of shaping an object but most are searching for that perfect mid ground between beauty and function.  One of the concepts I found quite interesting was the concept of big versus small.  One of the TED talks that we watched in class discussed how design has become so small, tiny in fact.  But it was small in the sense of thinking, in that designers and the demands put upon designers are becoming more and more focused on a single object and creating a single thing instead of creating a revolution, or truly changing what an object does or the utility it provides.  Another thing that kind of blew my mind were all the things that designers do with their art, from designing shoes to cars, as well as stereo and video equipment.  As someone who previously thought that all designers did was to make things pretty and useless, this was so exciting because it opens up new possibilities for my future and what I can do with my life.  I do find it ironic that I started this post by saying design is about other people but I'm ending it with a note about myself, but as of right now that's all I've got!