Kristina Grindle - Ideas and Quotes: What is a Designer?

Industrial Design Process – Assignment One

Kristina Grindle

 

“What is a designer: things. places. messages” Chapters 1-8

The Quotes & Ideas:

1)  “Every human is a designer.”(Pg.10)

- This statement brings a certain understanding that we are all designers without even knowing it. By having the ability to think for ourselves, we can change the rules how we live daily.

2)  “Should a designer be a conformist or an agent of change?”(Pg.14)

- In this section of the book, the author addresses our own minds to dwell upon the whether a designer is strictly fixes the clients problems or if the designer brings the product to the clients before they even knew that they would need it.

3)  The designer works with and for other people: ultimately this may be true of the fine-artist, but in the actual working procedure a designer’s formative decisions have a different order of freedom.”(Pg.19)

- At first, I was not sure if agreed with this statement. Because I am a fine-artist, I came back to this statement several times before it became on of the five quotes. However, it does make sense. Even when it comes to commission work, I spend a lot of time away from my buyers and most of my time in my studio alone; making decisions about the work I produce.

4)  “For the designer, good design is the generous and pertinent response to the full context of a design opportunity, whether large or small, and the quality of the outcome resides in a close and truthful correspondence between form and meaning.”(Pg.31)

- This is very true! The form is important because it is its aesthetics that first interests a potential buyer. Then, the meaning is what keeps the potential buyer interested.

5)  “The artisan is a blue-collar worker, he wears overalls (or needs to), has dust in his hair, and gets his hands dirty. Inescapably, he partakes of behavior patterns that distinguish working men from higher management, through he will earn rather less, work longer hours, and will approach his work with aims and standards that tradesmen will not normally articulate, or even find sympathetic.”(Pg.66-67)

- The artisan seems to be very attached to the work they are creating. I feel I can relate to this.