lost \\wrt design
this post remained on the boiler for long. never knew if i should have been warranted the audacity to write something such as this, especially since i’m very new to design. finally decided that thoughts, no matter how naive, sometimes ought to be expressed, simply so that they may be read, contemplated upon, and there-by be better suited to refinement, possibly (and seemingly) for the better.
there was big talk. and there was small talk. there were idiots who said design as a field sucked. and there were idiots who proclaimed it didn’t. and then, there was…something, called me.
in principle, any field – be it engineering, be it medicine, be it political sciences, be it accounting, or be it cobbling or rag-picking – each is equally perfect. and each of them can, in a deeper, philosophical sense, be invaluable to humanity, or earth, or the universe even. and on the face of it, each of them is just a means of keeping us occupied and a means of getting us those two square meals we crave for. to live. live – unto what? no one knows.
i am very-much inclined to go down the “whole universe will get destroyed some day, so why live” route here; then again, shall not.
people have said to me that design is all about designing for humanity, and i’ve convinced myself (or, sufficiently allowed others to convince me) that design is a (figuratively-)divine field that has no bounds. i can design something as (outwardly-)simple as a visiting card, or a website, or a chair, or a car, or a naval warship, or complicated social architecture, or an entire system that will enclose within it every person alive today. and well, it’s really quite true. i can. and design is a field that’d give me all the freedom to do so.
but then – the more i see, the more i seem to get convinced that design isn’t really that special. it’s just common sense. true, the common sense does come after practising a fair-bit, and i need to be a ‘designer’ to be permitted that practice. i’ve just spent two days (unsuccessfully) trying to come up with a visiting card design for a client at my internship. i admit, maybe i suck at it. but, as i practised, and practised some more, over the two days, i saw myself get better at it.
it’s all about taking up the cause, and trying. and failing and trying. a guy with no formal education can try to sit and make something that helps rid him of some inconvenience in life, and well, he may end up solving one of the world’s biggest issues. who knows!
all i can see for now, is that i don’t really want to be (branded) a designer. i just want to be a guy who can use his common sense. and maybe help some people along the way. if that’s what you call design, then design it is.
even so, why does design suddenly feel so constricted. why do i not enjoy making tiny posters that’ll probably change no one’s lives? why can i not just walk up to dr manmohan singh and speak with him of all my ideas that’d help change the world? why do we let kasab live while he laughs his ass off at us from the prison cell? what use is all our might when we can’t even physically force pakistan to prevent erstwhile-arrested terrorists from roaming free? why…why?!!
design won’t let me achieve that. or maybe it will. i’m dazed.
–
from: 1 am. june 5, 2009.
(hence, the connections to the news from that day, such as that day’s events from kasab’s trial)
Hi Arayan,
So you are a designer and you have your own firm. Great.Now if you look back into our modern history, you will see why the heck we didnot design that extra shelf in a fridge or one which can be adjustable.People will give “permit licese raj” as answer.Basically it is failure to innovate.Why that simple haversack school bag was not inveneted by us?
WE FEAR.
I mean FEAR TO FAIL.
Once your design firm constructs designs which fail, then you will learn to innovate and be bold. I wish your firm that fearlessness to innovate and FAIL!!!!!!!
captainjohann
June 27, 2009 at 3:38 pm
what more can I say..”thought provoking”
rayshamikster
June 27, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Somewhere in between the blog, i felt as if someone put my thoughts into words. A nice read ! :)
Calvin
June 29, 2009 at 6:32 pm
I’d rather go by “The universe is ending, make sure your body retains enough alcohol . . . “
Overrated Outcast
July 1, 2009 at 12:08 am
A stout pessimist [much like.. ahem] rarely, and i mean rarely, comes up with any constructive thougths at all… ponder over it.
Pique
July 1, 2009 at 12:16 pm
In my past life in graphic design, I told my clients (mostly schools) that I was just a teacher or a pencil sharpener: the real work on their yearbook was done by them, after I helped them clarify their theme, design, and direction.
In the rest of the U.S. business world, ‘design’ means nothing that beancounters can assign much value to, and it is therefore worth very little in money terms. So you have to find other ways to design (websites, user interfaces, etc.) that pay the bills.
Paraphrasing St. Francis, “Teach often; when necessary, use words.”
Jeff (no, the other one)
July 14, 2009 at 11:32 pm
loved the last line. oddly, that one’s by-far the toughest :D
but yes, at the end of the day (unfortuntely) we need to arrive at a compromise. unless…we try and work outside the rules that others frame\follow for themselves. then, either we’re the geniuses, or the outcasts (depending on whether we succeed – rarely – or, mostly, fail).
the point i’m trying to make here is this: why must what we do be so heavily reliant on making others appreciate us enough so as to pay us? is there no other way?
well, i’m optimistic enough to believe that there is :)
araYan
July 14, 2009 at 11:38 pm
just 1 thing …..y u ended d post … just coz u cant see d point in saying more abt something which is DAT much confusing or u got some self satisfying answer …
i never got one …. maybe u can give urs…
december
August 22, 2009 at 3:33 am