A Brief Discussion on the Essence of Design
2018.08.06
Reflections on Working in the Jury of the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) 2018
Returning to the IDEA jury for a second year, I joined a panel of renowned designers in mid-April, 2018, at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, where we spent four days combing through the finalist entries to select and rank the winners. For the second-round jurying process, the finalists were required to send there their design products within designated dimensions for us to experience first-hand. For this year’s IDEA, I was tasked with reviewing the Environments and Student Designs categories. There were a total of 1,870 entries in the first round, but only 150 winning entries were selected out of 840 design works that had made it to the second round. The shortlist was intensely debated among the jury, with every IDEA Gold winner whittled down to its core, and every design challenged from different perspectives and held to the strictest standards. Every deliberation and evaluation seemed to take the jury ever closer to the essence of design. The four-day event testified to the strength of collective wisdom in the process of decision-making in that no well-rounded decision can be made by a single juror or designer. This unique experience drove me to delve into the essence of design and how an Eastern designer should think or act.
The Specialization of Design Expertise
Although there is much talk that everyone is a designer, I, for one, do not see design as too generalized to claim any expertise, but as a norm-based specialization. Designers trained in different professions need to learn various design tools, methods and theories. A product designer is different from an architect, a graphic designer from an animator, and a vehicle designer from an industrial designer. So while the requirements of proper design mindsets and integrity-based ethics may apply to most creative professionals in design, specialization is still very much the norm. I know from my experience with IDEA that all jurors are grouped together based mainly on their expertise and experience to avoid the dilemma these experts will find themselves in when called to decide on matters outside their fields. In this vein, a juror for the Medical & Health category ought to have a good knowledge of the use cases for medical device design and the specialized needs of medical staff; likewise, the design of large industrial products and machinery demands a proper understanding of use cases and the needs of construction workers. I am greatly impressed by IDEA’s efforts to assemble a world-class jury of top-notch designers, entrepreneurs and academic experts that epitomize the very best of their respective fields, who are charged with reviewing, selecting and recommending the very best entries across more than 20 competition categories.
For all my talk of design as a specialization, design ought to take a backseat when viewed as part of an industry chain—playing more of a supporting role by offering guidance. Design helps enhance the entire industry, and provide consumers with better products and a more pleasant user experience. It is not supposed to lead towards industrial upgrading, or dominate users’ life or habits. Luckily, this backseat role is not in conflict with the recognition of design as a specialized profession. It is precisely the level of professionalism embodied that allows design to function as a bridge between different industries. Designers should not take center stage, users do, and so does a sustainable eco-chain. What designers should do is act as a catalyst at the right time by blending into different backgrounds, environments and social contexts.
Interpretations on Design in Context
On the other hand, I have come to appreciate the necessity of design as a time- and location-based solution, which is by no means an end in itself. Reality-based design in context is indispensable as a way of caring for local communities. For example, Asian designers has been churning out design products such as masks and air purifiers aimed at improving the quality of air that has in recent years become much fouler than elsewhere in the world. Hence the overrepresentation of masks and air purifiers in this year’s IDEA competition, a trend that I understand only too well as the only Chinese juror in the IDEA jury, having spent much of my working life in Asia. And of course I have taken it upon myself to explain the case to the jury, well aware that a fair judgement cannot be formed until the social context within which the design exists has been made clear.
Another example is the design of public storage spaces for food deliveries. Ordering food for delivery from smartphone apps has never been more commonplace, more so in China where couriers scurry to deliver the deluge of orders during the lunchtime rush to meet the huge market demand. Such places are crying for public storage spaces where couriers can temporarily store food and other products which can be easily and safely accessed by consumers upon scanning a QR code. The choosing of such spaces should take into account the fact that many couriers make deliveries on electric bicycles to ensure that their mission can be completed in a safe, convenient and efficient fashion. Jurors without any working experience in China will have a hard time appreciating the value of such a design.
Establishment of an Eastern Aesthetics System
The rise of Asian forces is nothing new, as manifested in a growing sense of national identity, increasing design consciousness, greater spending power, and the pursuit of quality life, so on and so forth. Asian designers, myself included, have a larger role to play in this latest surge of awakening. Eastern aesthetics in its current form has been around for a long time, but is yet to establish itself as a fully-fledged system. An organized Eastern aesthetics ecosystem still needs time to form, relying on cultural practices to explore its malleability, inclusiveness, compatibility with other cultures and the definition of core values. My second jurying experience with IDEA has greatly impressed upon me Asia’s pressing need for such an ecosystem. This is not only because 60% of the entries have been from Asia, but above all, my upbringing has been constantly asking me about what constitutes an Eastern aesthetics system that we can call our own. Take industrial design as an example. Dating back to the Western Industrial Revolution, industrial design was spawned by technological advancement combined with a need for mass production. Not until recently has industrial design been no longer meant for mass production, and begun to weave itself into our life as human-centered products. Design in context, as mentioned earlier, is none other than the outcome of such a transition, which essentially reflects the fundamental distinction between Eastern and Western aesthetics in terms of their underlying values and philosophical thinking. Establishing a well-rounded system of Eastern aesthetics is not to set us apart from the European and US markets or to turn away from universal values, but to bring us closer to understanding who we are.
Shake Things up with Innovation Platforms
A slew of design competitions have mushroomed in recent years, from international-, municipal-, county-level, down to student contests, expanding and extending all at once the stage where all kinds of designers can play a part. But will award-winning design works make a real social impact? And do they have any commercial potential or value? These are questions that require serious consideration by designers, creators and design competition platforms alike. What competitions can achieve besides spawning great design ideas and promoting designers’ products? In my personal experience, the deadline of a competition has more often than not pushed me to come up with an idea, good or bad, to start with. It is by modifying the structure and making minute changes along the way that a final product can be made. As my role changed from a participant to a juror and even a rule maker, I have begun to concern myself more with what lies beyond award-winning, and most importantly, whether a competition platform can add value to the prizewinners by giving them a leg up apart amid all the hubbub and fanfare of winning a design competition.
Personally, I prefer the use of innovation platforms to design competitions which are supposed to be nothing but programs run by innovation platforms. Today there are too many design competitions, but very few innovation platforms. The design award IDEA, for one, is a program run by the Industrial Designers Society of America, or IDSA, which also encompasses education, scholarships, design workshops, designer gatherings and other offline events. IDSA has made full use of its resources as a platform to cultivate innovation communities that bring together innovative talent from around the world under the banner of design. I’m looking forward to seeing more of this type of innovation platforms that not only help designers succeed, but more importantly, make known the core value of design.
Author: Sheng-Hung Lee
Source: http://shenghunglee.wixsite.com/design
