A golden age of design

Thanks to the tandem of creativity, technology and big money, the flowering of this area may soon overtake us.


')
The golden age of design has been proclaimed several times over the past couple of decades - four, according to my calculations. Now, this excitement in tandem with technology, community and big business has sparked something new. They created an incredible faith in the power of design, not only to promote the idea, but turned the design into the idea itself.

To begin with, at the turn of the 21st century, it became a democratic exercise. Household items made more beautiful and more accessible, and suddenly it became unacceptable for things to have a disgusting appearance. The second moment came later, thanks to products like the iPod, which is an example of the possibility of the view as a real destination. “Design,” Steve Jobs told me in 2003, is “not just how it looks and feels. Design is how it works. ”And the business world took note that it can be used for profit.

People were struck by the overwhelming idea that if design can make work more productive, then it can also make the world a better place. His (design) was proclaimed the creator of social change: Such magazines as “Good” spread word of its influence on humanity and politics; The “Cooper Hewitt” Museum arranged a show entitled “Design for the other 90%”, and the popular T-shirt at the time read: “Design will save the world”. Finally, the fourth point: the emergence of social media has made it clear that the public has not simply reacted to the design. she "cared" about him to give him publicity. The new “Gap” logo was criticized online by mobs, and “Tropicana” changed the design of its orange juice packaging after a public rebuke.

These days, the Silicon Valley engineering center sees design as something that no longer simply complements the values, but also creates them. Last year, Google acquired “Nest Labs,” the creator of the sleekly styled “smart thermostat,” for $ 3.2 billion. This was not just a staggering amount of money for a company that specializes in household items; it was the second most expensive Google acquisition of all time. Industrial designer Yves Béhar, who works on an elegant “Jawbone Up” fitness tracker, sometimes accepts stakes instead of paying for startups that he deals with. Instead of thinking of itself as an external consultant, Béhar invests in companies that invest in design, while relying on their continued growth. The idea that the design can be profitable now covers venture capital investors. The well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers rose last year by recruiting John Maeda, the former president of Rhode Island School of Design, as a partner. The company turned its attention to designers of start-up companies with the help of engineers, and not vice versa.

Mike Abbott from Kleiner introduced co-founder Twitter Twitter Jack Dorsey, who switched from software to hardware when he founded “Square,” a simple product that allows anyone to accept credit card payments through a smartphone. Thus, Airbnb’s systematic thinking and simple user interface for providing free lodging for the night / houses made it extremely popular - and were valued at $ 10 billion. Two of the founders are graduates of RISD (Rhode Island School of Design). Literate design is important for success.

"People who create things, as a rule, do not have power," says Maeda, "because they are engaged in the development of things." But he believes that this rule endures change, and that ultimately such people as the co-founders of Airbnb will lead creative thinking to everyday business practice.

This idea is also focused on a different market - the market of ideas.

An influential senior architect and design curator at MoMa (New York Museum of Contemporary Art), Paola Antonelli, believes that one of the most important functions of design is to “help people cope with change.” Her exhibitions feature projects such as “EyeWriter,” a pair of glasses that are equipped with eye tracking technology that allows you to “draw” with your eyes. Created for a paralyzed artist, this is a product of collaboration between technologists and designers who rely on open source software. They have no commercial goals. This is just a prime example of an expressive design project.

According to Antonelli, we live in an era of “recognized urgency” and practical industries from science to politics find design as “a means of inspiration, alternative processes, imaginative presentation and elevation of spirit”. (“Enjoyment” has become a buzzword in Silicon Valley.) As a result, design has greatly expanded its influence in recent years and now also includes such sub-areas as interactive design, critical, environmental design, social design, bio-design and service design. It has become a vehicle for expressing ideas, raising provocative questions and addressing social and individual anxieties.

And yet, is design a component of a business or a distributor of ideas? And the one and the other, most often at the same time.

First, the democratization of design was as follows: what could we buy? Now - what we can do and how we can sell it. Etsy's online market has predetermined how small producers can make a living or, at the very least, or finance a creative hobby. Last year, the site was visited by over a million active stores. According to a survey in 2012, about one fifth of Etsy sellers decided to engage in their creative business as a full-fledged work. Crowdfunding services, such as Kickstarter, also allow novice designers to find support for their projects. A huge success was the early stage of “smart watches”, called Pebble, which could connect to smartphones, display e-mail and messages, and even launch applications. Two years ago, without the support of the manufacturer, not to mention investors willing to take risks, the founders collected more than half a million dollars in a few hours, and as a result 10 million to develop the device. As Maeda noted, the current design students may be more interested in creating a portfolio than just in the idea of ​​popular finance.

Allan Chochinov, head of the Graduation Program Design Products at the School of Visual Arts, talks about how design transgresive "from aesthetic to strategic and to public". According to him, the open source ideology, which we usually associate with certain aspects of technical culture, has made its way into design. ergonomic features and design merged; code companies create objects; object manufacturers link objects with code. Young designers need to be aware of tools like the Arduino platform (inexpensive hardware for programming interactive items) and customizable Raspberry Pi computers (credit card-sized, which can be inserted into monitors and keyboards).

Style, functionality and engineering are now one and the same, and even everyday objects are masterfully designed.

There is no doubt that all these combined elements - style, function, social impact, creativity and profitability - brought a real vision of what design is and why it is important. He radically changed the way we perceive the world, starting with how we interact with objects, ending with our expectations of how these devices are structured. A new and exciting moment for design lasts until the next one comes.