Design Control

This post is was inspired by several things that occurred over the past few weeks. Some were observed, some experienced and even some were reflections on things past. However, they all seem to drive toward a main focal key point; that of design control. One of the things I notice in the world and reflect to my students when I teach them, is the simple fact that every single thing in the world that is manufactured (and I could say naturally made) has been designed. Regardless of how bad or good that design is, someone has had to sit down and conjure a way to make an idea look good based on its needs and requirements for function. Looking at the process of education, and its seeming lack of concern to the arts or the fundamental aspects of teaching children to draw, there is a great deal of scope in the argument toward design control. It has always been a strong curriculum bias towards mathematics and the sciences. I can even remember as a child that the art class to most was the 'get-out-of-doing-work' class. This was a state of mind from the children who attended. So it is also apparent that the social conditioning always transcends to the next generation to hold art and design are seen next to the more classic educational roles. There can be a great deal of explanation to such attitudes, which will be discussed over the week, but it can be mainly attributed to the stigma that society places on design.

The fact is also, that not al design has the same mud thrown at it. Fashion design has a great deal of respect in society due to its main fact that it is a daily and necessary process to think of one's own look and style. What we have however, is a process of evolution through the centuries to a point that there is a collision between to fundamental conflict points: technology and the arts. It can be argued that technology is in fact in conjunction with the arts, and can inspire and aid in the arts. That certain arts can only exist from the use of technology and the sciences. What could also be argued in counter defense to that, is the fact that the process of technology has also delivered a substandard market by which artists now have to exist. I have wrote a blog recently about the fact that I was lucky enough to be born outside the technology age and learnt the skills of the simple pencil, as that is all I had. What does seem to occur with the younger generation and technology, is a reliance. However, greater than this is the amalgam of elements that create the society that we live in and the way each and every aspect of this, in fact, affects the process of design.

So, to basically put the bull in the china shop, there is a strong believe, after doing research on the evolution of aesthetics in man's history that several aspects of society and human development have in fact been key to the whole gamut to design development. To say that it has been controlled can denote that artists are not free. Maybe they are not, maybe instead of the sociological aspects to design control, there are also ethical controls, financial controls, and a greater spread of things that can inhibit the creative flow. The follow week will look at some of these aspects and to see if there are good discussions for and against such points. It is intended to hold these as discussion points and receive some feedback in the whole aspect of design. As I have previously stated I am in fact trying to piece together points and evidence to collate into a book called 'Design Depths', so any feedback on any of the given subjects would be appreciated. Look forward to any participation.