According to this author, what role should design play in society?
The author believed that designs should play a neutral part in society, something that is trying to communicate a message. Something that gives the creator the freedom to create that message in their own way. It is something that should not be known simply by a title or who created it. But by the work that went into it and how it communicates the message it is trying to get across. It should not be something tied down by the will of the buyer but something that should give the designer freedom to express themselves in any way they see fit.
What distinguishes the field, or fields, of design from other creative occupations?
What distinguishes design from other creative fields is that the designer is in control of what they make. While they do have to follow the will of the client they are one’s creating the image using ideas from their own head. How they choose to bring those ideas together is up to them. Take painting for example. Most of the time the painter is limited to creating a painting of what is in front of them so that they can make sure the image is perfect. Those limitations are not on designers who are simply creating an image from their own heads and imaginations.
Why should designers concern themselves with unsolvable theoretical questions?
Designers should be concerned about theoretical questions because it is those kinds of questions that allow their designs to grow. Asking themselves whether this will fit into a design. Whether something like this would be in what I am creating. Finally, if someone were to see it would it grab their attention? Questions like these push the design to improve and expand their work making it better than it was when they started.
What role does technology play in shaping design?
Technology plays an important role in design because as it grows and advances so does design in the way it is created. For example, today with things like photoshop and illustration designers can bring drawings to life and control the look and feel of a design a lot better than they did before. Technology gives the design better control over how things look in the design they are creating. It lets them erase work without having to redo complete everything in the design and stress over whether they can get it done. Technology plays an important role and grows along with design.
What are the most urgent problems facing designers today?
Some of the most urgent problems that are facing designers today are stress over the deadlines of a design. Fitting in the client’s desires alongside what you want to create as a designer. Fear over whether your work is unique enough or whether you are simply copying someone else’s work. Finally trying to stay up on all the latest technological advances in design in order to stay relevant in the public eye.
How, and why, is a designer responsible for solving these problems?
It is a designer’s responsibility to solve these problems because they are the only ones who can. This is their field of work no one will know more about it than them so only they can solve it. They simply have to push themselves to solve it, to think before they act, and consider all their possibilities before making a move. Ask themselves questions before they start working whether this will work or what is my next step that is the only way this gets resolved.
Excellent response. Can you synthesize these thoughts?