Design Theory & Influence

[KalThatch]

I love design theory. As a 4th year student of interior/industrial design, i have really grown to appreciate great design found in the most obscure places. i like to find design influence in abstract things. can furniture design be influenced by the clean lines of, say, an iPhone 4? you bet! could the shape of your next desk be influenced by a cool pair of sunglasses? i think so... any way, what i want to ask you guys is where do you find design influence? i know that other furniture is an obvious place to start, but surely a lot of you think outside the box? one of my favorite professors always tried to teach us to glean inspiration from a source and then make it our own. it often starts with the inspiration piece, then evolves into something entirely different. does that make the original inspiration any less influential? i dont think so. one of my favorite places to find great design is European autos. BMW has the best lines out there. some dedicated designer went in on a Saturday and put in some extra hours to refine those perfect sweeping lines! Volvo as well. can you imagine an end table or a platform bed that incorporates some European auto influence in the subtlest of ways? could be really great!

Please, share your thoughts!

[jHop]

I've been kicking around an idea for an electric car, based on the design of my clamshell style Samsung cell phone. Something about it screams sportscar to me. I've focused more on the kit cars, as it's easier to start from there, and modify the design based on what I need, instead of coming up with this from scratch.

I should mention I'm not an automotive engineer. I am interested in them, obviously, but I am nothing more than a shade-tree mechanic; an occasional wrench-turner who knows when to contact the professionals for help.

The biggest person who will stop you (anybody, not just original poster) from making these prototypes come true is you. Sometimes, you have to ignore that portion of the mind that says "you're going to fail," and just try it. Sometimes, you need to start small.

You all know I have issues. Let's see what everybody else comes up with.

[Vic]

I like movement. Static or actually in motion. I look to nature a lot for what I'm wanting to create. I have little education in design theory, rather just a "feel" for what I like and don't like. Somethings just seems to resonate with me and can combine with other aspects of form well.

[Pete Bennett]

My step son is senior designer at Jaguar Land Rover so I get a lot of design talk. Like your man a BMW he is always at work, and I mean always. The only way we can get him is to email his desk. For myself I usually get my inspiration from nature and sometimes the most obscure unconnected items.

I was told many years ago begin your career by studying every good designer you can find, particularly in your chosen field. Once you feel you've analysed as much as you can what makes their stuff appeal it's time to stop, absorb all you can, then try never to look again. That way you'll become a unique designer just like them. If you waste too much time looking at what every one else's is doing you'll only copy their stuff or produce mediocre examples of similar designs. To be truly original, you have to be original.

Occasionally you need to take a peek just to see if fashions are changing, but it is much, much better to be the one dictating the fashion in the first place.

Best of luck and I hope your career is as varied and interesting (to me at least) as mine has been.

[flairwoodworks]

I am constantly searching for inspiration. Inspiration is everywhere. I could go on for days. Instead I will list places where I don't find inspiration:

1.

[jhl.verona]

First artists, now design. Interesting discussion.

I love design theory. As a 4th year student of interior/industrial design, i have really grown to appreciate great design found in the most obscure places. i like to find design influence in abstract things. can furniture design be influenced by the clean lines of, say, an iPhone 4? you bet! could the shape of your next desk be influenced by a cool pair of sunglasses? i think so...

Quite posssibly the iPhone transposed design influences from other objects or sources - including existing furniture. It is very difficult to create something completely original. In most circumstances, a 'new' design is an interpretation of a design from another field, such as the tail fins on '50's american cars.

Conversely, when it genuinely is new, it tends to mimic some preceding technology. The first motor cars, aeroplanes, etc.

I've been kicking around an idea for an electric car, based on the design of my clamshell style Samsung cell phone. Something about it screams sportscar to me.

A classic example of transposed design. You see something in an object that others can't see, incorporate it in something different, et voilà!

I was told many years ago begin your career by studying every good designer you can find, particularly in your chosen field. Once you feel you've analysed as much as you can what makes their stuff appeal it's time to stop, absorb all you can, then try never to look again. That way you'll become a unique designer just like them. If you waste too much time looking at what every one else's is doing you'll only copy their stuff or produce mediocre examples of similar designs.

We need to fertilise our ideas from others. Then we need to push that original idea further or in a different direction in order to create something 'original'. The risk of simply being a copy-cat is always present - even when we are ignorant of the thing copied.

There are many examples of parallel inventions in history, the telphone for example Bell or Meucci?

Certainly, wood as a medium presents some valuable and unique properties for design. Beyond the pure mechanics of wood itself, the joints, seasonal movement etc, there is a near infinite set of possibilities for creating novelty. My own personal preferences are towards curves rather than lines, and slender, rather than over engineered.

John

[KalThatch]

its great to learn others perspective of design and its influence.

I believe that at this day and age, with the billions of people alive on the planet, that there are few totally new or original ideas... its discomforting to think that your thoughts are not unique, but they probably arent. How does this relate to design? for me, it is liberating. removing the pressure of being truly innovative or unique allows me to operate without concern. i dont design for anyone else (well i do, to make money). but when i am building something for me, or simply ideating for the sake of creation, to not feel like i have to do something otherworldly lets me just be myself. allowing myself to be influenced by everything around me, then taking that influence and not worrying about whether or not people will know the original source makes life easy. frank ghery (famous architect) designed a jewelry collection for tiffany & co called torx. it is astounding. i have designed pieces inspired by his jewelry, and i tell everyone that sees those designs where my influence stemmed from. i have to share his amazing designs with them, its only fair to share the glory!

[iSawitFirst]

I find that drinking lots of wine and watching young, scantily clad women almost always gets my creative juices going.

But seriously, I've never had much use for "art for art's sake". I'm into functional and meaningful art. To make a piece of furniture that looks like an iphone is just silly and has no value. I know that you said an iphone's form could inspire you but what exactly does that mean? Do you knock off the iphone's details on a different form? Do you keep the form but use different details? Do you morph it until its no longer recognizable as anything close to an iphone? And...why? The resulting item has no relevance to anything. Is it functional? Probably not. At best it's functionality has been compromised. Again, why?

Get ready for a Zen moment. I would argue that you can't design something of relevance until you understand it's essence. You have to understand it's spirit, needs and statement of being well before the object is designed.

Philip Johnson's Chippendale skyscraper was lambasted by critics calling it an abomination to both the Chippendale style and to architecture, irrelevant and an embarrassment to the profession of architecture. They were right on all counts. It was neither chippendale nor a responsible building design.

You referenced the styling of BMW's. Yes, I agree that they are the best looking cars on the market...now. It hasn't always been that way, though. When Chris Bangle was design director for BMW his "Bangle butt" designs almost destroyed BMW's position in the market. For decades car designers have been taking their design cues from the female figure. Men love to view cars from the rear quarter panel - their favorite viewing position for women. Bangle's design of the rear of the car was horribly mis-proportioned with the trunk lid's form disjointed from the body and hiked up like, well...some ethnic women's big booty. It was a disaster. Talk about styling cues gone wrong!

Bangle clearly missed the fact that men like to have a lustful love affair with their cars. That they should subliminally satisfy a primal need that all men have. In fact, you could argue that all successful product and architectural design is to an extent, sexually related. I had a design professor tell me, "All good architecture has to have sex." When asked what that meant he responded, "It has to have penetration." A box is not very engaging until you introduce recesses and give it penetration.

Its been that way for thousands of years. The Egyptians had phallic symbols and symbols of fertility EVERYWHERE. Like the Egyptians, the Greeks, who codified beauty, were all about expressing their cultural values, religion and politics in their architecture. Within their architecture you can see the strength and sexuality of their gods (Zeus in the strong, stout Doric order, Venus in the slender, delicate and curvy Ionic order). Their politics can be seen in the ordered axial progression of spaces and, indeed, the entire planning of the Acropolis in Athens. These things are what made their architecture so significant. They didn't start with a turkish tea pot and say, "Let's morph this into an amphitheater."

This is why I say one has to understand the essence of a thing even before it is created. This will give it its own unique and relevant aesthetic.

I'm just sayin'.

[Pete Bennett]

I find that drinking lots of wine and watching young, scantily clad women almost always gets my creative juices going.

But seriously, I've never had much use for "art for art's sake". I'm into functional and meaningful art. To make a piece of furniture that looks like an iphone is just silly and has no value. I know that you said an iphone's form could inspire you but what exactly does that mean? Do you knock off the iphone's details on a different form? Do you keep the form but use different details? Do you morph it until its no longer recognizable as anything close to an iphone? And...why? The resulting item has no relevance to anything. Is it functional? Probably not. At best it's functionality has been compromised. Again, why?

Get ready for a Zen moment. I would argue that you can't design something of relevance until you understand it's essence. You have to understand it's spirit, needs and statement of being well before the object is designed.

Philip Johnson's Chippendale skyscraper was lambasted by critics calling it an abomination to both the Chippendale style and to architecture, irrelevant and an embarrassment to the profession of architecture. They were right on all counts. It was neither chippendale nor a responsible building design.

You referenced the styling of BMW's. Yes, I agree that they are the best looking cars on the market...now. It hasn't always been that way, though. When Chris Bangle was design director for BMW his "Bangle butt" designs almost destroyed BMW's position in the market. For decades car designers have been taking their design cues from the female figure. Men love to view cars from the rear quarter panel - their favorite viewing position for women. Bangle's design of the rear of the car was horribly mis-proportioned with the trunk lid's form disjointed from the body and hiked up like, well...some ethnic women's big booty. It was a disaster. Talk about styling cues gone wrong!

Bangle clearly missed the fact that men like to have a lustful love affair with their cars. That they should subliminally satisfy a primal need that all men have. In fact, you could argue that all successful product and architectural design is to an extent, sexually related. I had a design professor tell me, "All good architecture has to have sex." When asked what that meant he responded, "It has to have penetration." A box is not very engaging until you introduce recesses and give it penetration.

Its been that way for thousands of years. The Egyptians had phallic symbols and symbols of fertility EVERYWHERE. Like the Egyptians, the Greeks, who codified beauty, were all about expressing their cultural values, religion and politics in their architecture. Within their architecture you can see the strength and sexuality of their gods (Zeus in the strong, stout Doric order, Venus in the slender, delicate and curvy Ionic order). Their politics can be seen in the ordered axial progression of spaces and, indeed, the entire planning of the Acropolis in Athens. These things are what made their architecture so significant. They didn't start with a turkish tea pot and say, "Let's morph this into an amphitheater."

This is why I say one has to understand the essence of a thing even before it is created. This will give it its own unique and relevant aesthetic.

I'm just sayin'.

I'm guessing that like me you started out to be an Architect. I studied Corbusier and his contemporaries mainly, and couldn't agree more with what you say. Another thing wine and sex have pretty much the same effect on me and at my age that's probably indecent but, what the hell.

[iSawitFirst]

I'm guessing that like me you started out to be an Architect. I studied Corbusier and his contemporaries mainly, and couldn't agree more with what you say. Another thing wine and sex have pretty much the same effect on me and at my age that's probably indecent but, what the hell.

Yea, I'm still an architect. I was fortunate to visit Corbu's chapel at Ronchamps and it was one of the most meaningful experiences in my life.

[Pete Bennett]

Yea, I'm still an architect. I was fortunate to visit Corbu's chapel at Ronchamps and it was one of the most meaningful experiences in my life.

Yep. In 94 I arrived in France with my then lady friend now my wife it was 5 am at Calais and she said where are we going. Reply well back in the fifties and sixties I fell in love with work of Corbusier particularly his church at Ronchamp, why don't we go see it? Where is it? I dunno, somewhere in France I think. Oh yes, but, it's a hell of a long way from Calais. Neither of us have ever got over the experience. Awesome!

I still do an odd drawing or two for people but, I found I could not live in an office. Sad really cos as I've got older I reckon I'd like the comfort and air con, never mind, my draughty unheated wonderful workshop is a good second best.

All the best

Pete

[iSawitFirst]

For those not familiar with Corbusier, here are some pics of the chapel at Ronchamps.

[Pete Bennett]

For those not familiar with Corbusier, here are some pics of the chapel at Ronchamps.

Thanks for the memories. I think I may make the trip again this year now you've rekindled the pleasure.

[jHop]

I had the good fortune to visit my sister about a decade or so back. She was living in Paris for about 5 months, and I got to spend 6 days visiting. (Okay, so two days were lost travelling by plane.)

While I did not get out of the city, I can say that the architecture of Paris did leave a lasting imprint. The whole visit did.

Let us end this memory, then, with my statement of awe: even as your head spins from so many wonderful elements of design flashing by at lightning speeds, something will stick that comes back at odd moments. I have learned to appreciate older architecture because of this visit; before hand I would dismiss it as "merely old, and therefore not deserving of attention."

Standing in front of the walkway to the Louvre was an interesting blend of old versus new. I'm glad that the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame (located here, in Cleveland, OH) was able to be designed by the same man who left an imprint there. It was a nice link, to feel connected somehow. And isn't that what design is all about? To make connections?

(There were more things in Paris that I was moved by, but I will not bore everyone to death with them.)