Everything is – By Design

It’s a given that the chair you may be sitting in while reading this was designed by someone, quite likely it was an anonymous employee working for a furniture manufacturer in China, it may be plastic, or timber or steel, if it has a cushion that too was ‘designed’ and manufactured to fit, the fabric was also designed, in both its composition and weaving as well as any pattern or colour and of course the zipper. Someone somewhere had to think about and decide on all aspects of its creation, yet we rarely ever give the ubiquity of industrial design any thought unless the item is designated as a ‘designer’ object – bag, chair, recliner or desk lamp or maybe because it is not fit for purpose. There is just a simple acceptance that objects exist.

But they don’t exist in a vacuum (more on that later) they have to be created from any number of materials and for any number of purposes and the UX or ‘user experience’ is increasingly something manufactures think about a lot, from websites to laptops, cars to remote control units, phones to fridges, it’s design that distinguishes one object from another and can give the manufacturer a competitive edge or a reason to charge more for a ‘label’ rather than a generic item.

While often unsung there are many others whose work is acknowledged as ground-breaking and beautiful, and what’s not to like about a thing of beauty?