SAHT 9143
Qing He z5123897
INTRODUCTION
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TOPIC 1 - From craft to design: difference and connection
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TOPIC 2 - What design institutions can do
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TOPIC 3 - The future in designer’s eyes
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TOPIC 4 - Sustainability : a continued topic
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TOPIC 5 - Design for people and society
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TOPIC 6 - Occupy or share
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TOPIC 7 - Better design, better life
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TOPIC 8 - How to do a better design
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CONCLUSION
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REFERENCE LIST
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Introduction This guidebook aims to guide those people who are interested in design to get in touch with design history and theory, eight topics are included in the guidebook, and simple sentences and different kinds of examples will be used to help people get better view of each topic. From past to future, from exquisite handicraft to sustainable design, although the concept is different in different period, the connection brings each period together to create the development of design. The Arts and Crafts Movement leads to the emergence of design institutions; the design institution gives an environment for handicraftsmen and designers to learn more knowledge and improve skills; designers use their abilities to change people’s life from grey to colorful, from unsustainable to gradually sustainable; the development of the life gives designers more inspiration for the design of future. Through the guidebook, people can gain a basic understanding of the design history and theory, as I learned some useful knowledge from this course, which can be as a further consideration to applied to my previous design practice. For instance, one of the courses I studied in postgraduate named “Critical Approaches to Design Practice�, and the tasks within the course is to design the temporary shelter for people in a selected area under a chosen natural disaster. By relating to the course of design history and theory, I located the further consideration of this design practice into two possible topics. Firstly, when I get much more understanding of the difference between craft and design, I noticed the difficulty of designing things. As a designer, it is not only simply draw the ideas onto the paper and then produce it, but also need to plan your design and predict the future view of the thing you designed. While craftsman works with materials and improves things through failure, designer aims to change things for people, as the task of making the temporary shelter, the researches of culture and environment of the selected area should be done to help me think about the initial idea of the shelter such as the exterior shape and the interior layout; then the rough model can helps me get a view of the shelter and find out the parts which need to improve; and, further drawings and considerations should be produced to develop the shelter; when the final draft is done, the final model should be created to clearly show the idea and effect of the shelter. Following these processes, it can be seen that craft pay more attention on the use of body while design focuses on the use of mind, hence craft is usually a slow process, but design is a fast process because all plan of the project needs to be done before producing it. The second topic which I considered can be applied on the design practice is social design. Because the aim of the practice is to create a site with shelters for people to live in around six to nine months, so the site can be treated as a small society, and the design for the site is to help people get a better life and promote the communication with each other. The design of the shelter should keep the balance of public space and private space, that private space should bring a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere to people such as
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bedroom, and the public space should be designed for provide an environment for people to communicate better such as living room; besides, except the shelter, the public area within the site also should be considered to give people a good environment for activities and communications. Based on the concept of social design, the purpose of the design practice is to design necessities for people and reinforce the connection of people and community. To explore more about the design history and theory, just keep follow the topics within this guidebook.
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Topic 1 From craft to design: difference and connection The origin of craft can be traced back to Stone Age, that human started to make tools and weapons for survival. The stone axe, for example, is simply made by stones for cutting things or hunting. Then, following the development of human’s life, when the problem of living has been solved, the thoughts about make life better is produced, such as create some decorations on the stone axe, hence, the concept of ‘design’ existed, and the difference and connection of craft and design can actually be seen through this process. Design is formed through craft, but it is distinct from craft, because as the example of stone axe, the process of craft is just work with the stone and make thing by using hands; and, the process of design is work with both the body and the mind, that based on the feature of the stone, people need to think about how to create a good texture or pattern to decorate the axe and to show the beauty of the stone. In other words, design is different from craft but include crafting. To simply understand the difference and connection of craft and design, I reference the words from John Christopher Jones (1980, p.9) and Christopher Alexander (1973, p.50), that Jones stated that designing is bringing possibilities and change things, and Alexander stated that craft is based on failure and correction. Another example I use to explain the craft and design is embroidery, because I was worked on an investigation of embroidery in one of the postgraduate courses. The difference between embroiderer and embroidery designer is that embroiderer focuses on make motifs and patterns on textiles by following the instruction or design draft, while embroidery designer designs the patterns first and then embroidered them onto textiles and will pay attention on the effect of embroidery to get a further improvement.
Figure 1: Sewing bead embroideries for Alberta Ferretti. #suzyinmumbai @vogueindia READ MY STORY (suzymenkesvogue n.d.) Figure 2: Guo in her new Paris showroom, in an old mansion. She was surprised at the restrictions on altering a historic building. In China you can raze almost anything. (Dukovic 2016)
As time goes by, when both craftsman and designer need to learn more knowledge and improve skills, design institutions are established as a place to provide opportunities of training and development.
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Topic 2 What design institutions can do Following the development of society, machine becomes to the main tool to produce things instead of hands. But, the development always accompanies with problems, things produced by machine lose aesthetics because of mass production, and people gradually rely on machine rather than pay attention on the quality of things. Thus, the Arts and Crafts Movement is appeared in 19th century to against the negative influence of machine such as mass-produced products and poorly designed objects, and to try to correct the perspective of machine, that although machine is necessary, it is only used to increase the efficiency and reduce the workload of simple and repeated productive processes (Victoria and Albert Museum n.d.). According to the influence of Arts and Crafts Movement, design institutions are established to provide a place for designers and artists to learn knowledge and improve skills. Besides, based on different countries, the education models within design institutions are mainly different, as Alain Findeli (2001) mentioned three different models of institutions in his article ‘Rethinking Design Education for the 21st Century: Theoretical, Methodological, and Ethical Discussion’ that Bauhaus focused on the combination of art and technology while New Bauhaus paid attention on art and science, and Hochschule fĂźr Gestaltung concentrated on the combination of science and technology. Designers and artists can choose different institutions according to different education principles of institutions. For another example, Cranbrook Academy of Art is a design institution in America, its principle is focus on individual expression, that students do independent study under the guidance of their teachers (Cranbrook Academy of Art n.d.). In addition, because the establishment of the institution is inspired by Arts and Crafts Movement (Cranbrook Academy of Art n.d.), the education model of Cranbrook is concentrate on the combination of art and technology, which is similar as the aforementioned model of Bauhaus, the institution paid attention to craftsmanship, and it provides studios for the artists and craft people to learn skills and work in project.
Figure 3: View of the design department with students. Charles Eames (center) is crouched on floor and behind him is a prototype chair for Kleinhans Music Hall, 1940 (Cranbrook Archives)
If design institution is the place for designers to learn new knowledge and improve skills, the society is the place for designers to use their abilities to create a better life and colorful future.
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Topic 3 The future in designer’s eyes With improved skills and new knowledge, designers aim to make things that will change the life and will make up people’s future. In the stage of design for future, designers need to image what the design will be and what the view they want to show to people, and then make their ideas become reality. For example, In the very beginning, when cities are not yet built, people live together within a small community, they may use the materials they can get from nature to build some kinds of shelters for sleep, get away from wild animals, and keep out wind and rain instead of only can use a big leaf as an umbrella; then, based on the foundation of those shelters and the experience of redesign and improve, the harder house is built, and according to the way people live together in ancient period, the bigger place is created, and then the ‘city’ is gradually formed. So, we can see that the city is the future of primitive tribes. Furthermore, just compare the mobile phone you use today with the phone you used ten years ago, the huge change shows the development of technology and the view of future. The first mobile phone was invented in 1973, and although it was heavy and too big to carry (UK Essays 2013), its invention means an achievement of the future. I remembered my first phone is from Nokia in around ten years ago, and at that time most mobile phones were have a keyboard and a small screen, but it is a big step from the period of cellular phone. In fact, the development of mobile phone is so fast, as I was changed my Nokia to Apple after 2 years. Mobile phone with a single screen is gradually replace the phone with keyboard and small screen, the thickness of the mobile phone changed from thick to thin, and the appearance of the phone becomes simpler and more contemporary according to the demand of people and also the movement of the technology.
Figure 4: Nokia 5610 slide phone (1688 n.d.)
Figure 5: Iphone 7 plus 128G black (officeworks n.d.)
As the coming of the future, many problems are existed and wait for designers to solve, the development of the technology causes the increasing environmental problems, so to make life and society have a sustainable development, the concept ‘sustainability’ is raised.
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Topic 4 Sustainability: a continued topic Human has a fast movement while the nature is not change, the increasing environmental problems caused the form of the concept of ‘sustainability’, in simple terms, the concept is to help people get a better life with healthier lifestyle by ‘repair’ things instead of ‘destroy’ them. In design, sustainable design aims to use creativity and innovation on producing environmentally friendly products and systems to achieve a better future. For instance, remember the example of embroidery I mentioned in topic 1? The project I investigate is about the sustainability of silk in contemporary embroidery. From the past to the present, traditional materials of embroidery are gradually changed, to get a sustainable development in textile design, mainstream materials, renewable materials, recycled materials, and biodegradable materials are existed and considered (Bhamra & Lofthouse 2007, cited in Kane & Philpott 2013); hence, although silk belongs to traditional material, it is still an essential material for contemporary embroidery, because it is a kind of natural fiber and can be recycled and degraded (Dorcilus 2016), and nearly has no influence for the environment.
Figure 6: Silkworm and silk cocoon (Gebelli 2016)
However, sustainability cannot be achieved only by designer, everyone within the society is important for the sustainable development, as Kate Power and Oksana Mont (2010) said in ‘Dispelling the Myths about Consumption Behavior’, the achievement of sustainability is a continued topic, the cooperation of individual, business and government is the foundation of a sustainable society. And, to reinforce the connection of people and help to improve the speed of sustainability within the society, social design is existed.
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Topic 5 Design for people and society Social design aims to bring design ideas to social realities and find the solution for problems and then improve people’s life in order to create a sustainable society, it is not only about design a product by designers, but also about a design process which other people can get involved to design for their own future (Burkett 2016). And, Ingrid Burkett (2016) also stated that social design does not have to produce something new, it can focus on how things can be improved. The payment system of bus, for example, experiences a change from manual operated to machine operated. I remembered many years ago, in China, people need to buy ticket using cash from the ticket clerk on the bus; and then, the ticket clerk is replaced by the coin machine, people have to prepare change when taking bus; after that, the card swiping machine is appeared, and people just need to top up their bus card and swipe it when taking the bus, besides, the card swiping machine does not replace the coin machine because if people do not get enough credit on their bus card they still can insert cash into the coin machine. The improvement of the payment system of bus shows the development of society and the meaning of social design.
Figure 7: opal card for the payment system of transports in Australia (Transport NSW n.d.)
In addition, social design pays more attention on give people what they need rather than what they want, but, it is not saying that social design is unprofitable. For example, as the design practice I mentioned in introduction, except consider the shape and the function of the shelter, the reduce of cost and the sustainability of the shelter are also considered, that local material and recycled material will as the main materials for the shelter, then people can repair the shelter by themselves in near future. Moreover, there’s many kinds of understanding of social design, and service design is one of the means of social design.
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Topic 6 occupy or share Within the concept of social design, the purpose of service design is to improve the quality of a service to meet the user’s and customer’s needs, it can be used for both the creation of new service and the improvement of existed service. Product Service System, also known as PSS, is a theory of service design and a way to achieve sharing economy which is a strategy of sustainability and is used to help decrease the environmental impact and has advantages for social community and additional income (Botsman and Rogers 2010; Schor 2011; Walsh 2011, cited in Roux & Guillard 2015, p.2). PSS aims to offer integrated set of products and services instead of single product or service (Abeele 2014, p.5), it shifts the attention of business from selling physical product only to selling a system of products and services to satisfy customer’s demands (Manzini 2003, cited in Abeele 2014, p.19). The bike sharing system is one of the instances of PSS, it is a short-term rental scheme that allows bikes be collected and returned at self-service station (Shaheen & Guzman & Zhang 2010, cited in Kumar & Kwong & Odoni no date). Bike sharing system in China is operated by two big companies Mobike and Ofo, the system reduces the negative influence of overreliance of motor vehicle and pollutions. I was used the system when I was in China, the design of the system makes the use of bike convenient, I just need to simply pay the deposit through the app, and then I can use the app to scan the code on the surface of the bike to get the password to unlock the bike and ride it. The return time is depended on you because the fee (about 1 yuan) will be deducted in every 30 minutes, and, the deposit ensures the compensating of the loss caused by bike lose or stolen.
Figure 8: Ofo and Mobike vehicles on the streets of Shanghai. (John Pasden/Flickr no date)
In addition, to help designers find ways and solutions to solve design problems in whether service design or future design to achieve the improvement and development of design, design methods are a significant part for designers.
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Topic 7 Better design, better life The purpose of design methods is to find out the problems in design process and solve them to make design becomes better. Design methods have a continued development and improvement because of the development of the society. As Gabriela Goldschmidt (2014, p.9) stated in her book Linkography: Unfolding the Design Process, when the society was developed, technological education followed suit, and new design disciplines were created, designers had to face unknowns and new challenges, hence the traditional design methods had to be improved to help designers get solutions for further problems. Within design process, design methods can be used in many ways to help designers organize their ideas, such as mind mapping, experience mapping, thumbnail sketching, and context mapping (Huang n.d.). The figure below is an example of thumbnail sketching.
Figure 9: Generate ideas of "how to encourage UW students to do recycling more" (Huang n.d.)
The sketching shows designer’s ideas about the way to encourage UW students to do recycling more, as you can see, the different design ideas can help designer find out a better way to develop the design and then achieve the purpose. Furthermore, within a company, to organize designers together and use design methods to efficiently do the design, design management is essential.
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Topic 8 How to do a better design Design management is a business discipline that allow companies get a better control of their design process and improve their designs, it is an important tool for a company to “innovate and differentiate itself from competitors� (interaction design foundation 2017). I reference an image to visually describe the definition of design management, that to help the business get profit, the design manager needs to come up with a plan and then organize the investigation with designers to achieve the design innovation for the business.
Figure 10: design management (Wiki4des n.d.)
The example I use for design management is mentioned previously in topic 6, the bike sharing system operated by mobike and Ofo in China. To understand the needs of the customer, the strategy of the bike sharing system can be seen in the use of apps, which allows customer clearly knows the location of the bike using the GPS system within the app rather than walking to the fixed bike self-service station in before. And, to attract more customers, Mobike and Ofo sometimes provide coupons through apps, such as ‘free riding for the first time’. These strategies help the bike sharing companies improve their design and differentiate themselves from other competitors. Briefly, a good design management will lead designers efficiently use design methods to get the improvement of the design and achieve the design innovation.
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Conclusion The form of design is based on the pursuit of the improvement of the life, and the development of design promotes the development of life. From hand to machine, from traditional to contemporary, from unsustainable to sustainable, from individual to society, the investigation of design will never stop. The guidebook through eight topics described a development and investigation process of design, although the periods and areas of design are different within different topics, the connection can be seen between each topic. And, the guidebook helps people have a basic understanding of design history and theory, and understand the concept of sustainability, which is a continued topic within the world of design. The purpose of sustainability cannot be achieved only by designers, as I said in topic 4, to live sustainably, the cooperation of individual, business and government is essential. Briefly, the purpose of the guidebook is to guide people who are interested in design to realise how design developed and how design can change the life and make the life getting better.
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Reference list Topic 1 1. Jones, JC 1980, Design Methods, The Pitman Press, Bath 2. Alexander, C 1973, Notes on the Synthesis of Form, 7th edn, Harvard University Press, Cambridge 3. Figure 1: suzymenkesvogue n.d., Sewing bead embroideries for Alberta Ferretti. #suzyinmumbai @vogueindia READ MY STORY, digital image, Vogue, accessed 3 November 2017,http://www.vogue.co.uk/article/suzy-mumbai-hautecoutureembroidery-india-embellishes-high-fashion 4. Figure 2: Dukovic, P 2016, Guo in her new Paris showroom, in an old mansion. She was surprised at the restrictions on altering a historic building. In China you can raze almost anything, digital image, The New Yorker, accessed 3 November 2017, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/21/guo-pei-chinas-homegrownhighfashion-designer
Topic 2 1. Findeli, A 2001, ‘Rethinking Design Education for the 21st Century: Theoretical, Methodological, and Ethical Discussion’, Design Issues, vol.17, no.1, accessed 3 November 2017, http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/07479360152103796 2. Victoria and Albert Museum n.d., The Arts & Crafts Movement, Victoria and Albert Museum, accessed 3 November 2017, http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/thearts-and-crafts-movement/ 3. Cranbrook Academy of Art n.d., History, Cranbrook Academy of Art, accessed 3 November 2017, http://cranbrookart.edu/about/history/ 4. Figure 3: Cranbrook Archives n.d., View of the design department with students. Charles Eames (center) is crouched on floor and behind him is a prototype chair for Kleinhans Music Hall 1940, digital image, Cranbrook Academy of Art, accessed 3 November 2017, http://cranbrookart.edu/about/history/ Topic 3 1. UK Essays 2013, The Development of the Mobile Phone English Language Essay, UK Essays, accessed 3 November 2017, https://www.ukessays.com/essays/englishlanguage/the-development-of-the-mobilephone-english-language-essay.php 2. Figure 4: 1688 n.d., Nokia 5610 slide phone, digital image, 1688, accessed 3
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November 2017, https://detail.1688.com/offer/558737929903.html?spm=0.0.0.0.cXjBLT 3. Figure 5: officeworks n.d., iPhone 7 plus 128G black, digital image, officeworks, accessed 3 November 2017, https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/iphone-7-plus-128gbblackip7p128sg
Topic 4 1. Kane, F, Philpott, R 2013, ‘Textile Thinking for Sustainable Materials’, Making Future, vol. 3, accessed 3 November 2017, https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspacejspui/bitstream/2134/15954/4/Kane__Faith__Philpot t_Rachel.pdf 2. Dorcilus, C 2016, Silk Is An Ancient Natural Fabric, But Is It Ethical? The Textile Test Series Investigates, Eco-Chicks, accessed 3 November 2017, http://ecochick.com/2016/06/35962/silk-ancient-natural-fabric-ethical-sustainable/ 3. Power, K, Mont, O 2010, Dispelling the Myths about Consumption Behavior, Knowledge Collaboration & Learning for Sustainable Innovation ERSCP-EMSU conference, accessed 3 November 2017, https://repository.tudelft.nl/islandora/object/uuid:b251462a-25bb-45c0bd0ab0adca58fa04?collection=research 4. Figure 6: Gebelli, P 2016, Silkworm and silk cocoon, digital image, Eco-Chicks, accessed 3 November 2017, http://eco-chick.com/2016/06/35962/silk-ancientnaturalfabric-ethical-sustainable/
Topic 5 1. Burkett, I 2016, So What Is Social Design? by Ingrid Burkett, Design 4 Social Innovation, accessed 3 November 2017, http://www.design4socialinnovation.com.au/news/so-what-social-design-ingridburkett/ 2. Figure 7: Transport NSW n.d., Opal card for payment system of transports in Australia, digital image, Transport NSW, accessed 3 November 2017, https://transportnsw.info/tickets-opal/opal/get-opal-card
Topic 6 1. Roux, D & Guillard, V 2015, ‘sharing practices in the making: how an informal system of disposing and gleaning nurtures the sharing economy’, p.2, online report,
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accessed 3 November 2017, https://www.uu.nl/en/file/21365/download?token=AMLLeJ1m 2. Abeele, PVD 2014, ‘transitioning to functional economy and product-service systems in an urban context’, public report, accessed 3 November 2017, http://document.environnement.brussels/opac_css/elecfile/STUD%20Product%20Ser vice%20System%20en 3. Kumar, A & Kwong, MT & Odoni, AR n.d., ‘a systems perspective of cycling and bikesharing systems in urban mobility’, online report, accessed 3 November 2017, https://ares.lids.mit.edu/fm/documents/systems_perspective2.pdf 4. Figure 8: Pasden, J n.d., Ofo and Mobike vehicles on the streets of Shanghai, digital image, Quartz, accessed 3 November 2017, https://qz.com/942372/mobike-oneofchinas-top-bike-sharing-startups-is-now-paying-users-to-ride-its-bikes/
Topic 7 1. Goldschmidt, G 2014, Linkography: Unfolding the Design Process, The MIT Press, Cambridge 2. Huang, KT n.d., Design Methods, Kai Ting Huang, accessed 3 November 2017, https://kaitinghuang.com/portfolio/design-methods/ 3. Figure 9: Huang, KT n.d., Generate ideas of "how to encourage UW students to do recycling more", digital image, Kai Ting Huang, accessed 3 November 2017, https://kaitinghuang.com/portfolio/design-methods/ Topic 8 1. Interaction Design Foundation 2017, Design Management (An Introduction) – Taking Charge of Processes and People, Interaction Design Foundation, accessed 3 November 2017,https://www.interactiondesign.org/literature/article/designmanagement-an-introduction-taking-charge-ofprocesses-and-people 2. Figure 10: Wiki4des n.d., Design Management, digital image, Interaction Design Foundation, accessed 3 November 2017,https://www.interactiondesign.org/literature/article/design-management-anintroduction-taking-charge-ofprocesses-and-people