Assignment DG611 – Aesthetic of a Design
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One of my goals was to attend for this assignment in order to revise my vision about design. During this assignment we were asked to get rid of the vision that every design should be functional and we were asked to focus on the aesthetics of the designs. Before I started this assignment, this methodology was quite difficult for me. Before I completed this assignment I had the vision that a design is useless without a function. This assignment changed by vision concerning that.
We started this assignment by discussing about the term ‘aesthetic.’ In my opinion I would define aesthetic as ‘user-experience and judgment based on intuition, personality, emotion and senses’. We also had to interview people why they thought a specific design was ‘beautiful’ or not. For this I bought three ice scrappers and sketched several details of the ice scrapers. Afterwards I asked several people to select the ‘most beautiful’ sketches of the three, without viewing the original designs. You can see a movie about the interview down here.
From this activity I learned that every detail of a design is important to make the whole design appealing and aesthetic. I also became aware that this approach can give me an intention how the ‘ideal’ design should look like, based on the majority of the votes. Furthermore we had to redesign a detail of every ice scrapper using materials which I never used before. You can see some sketches over in the Report Aesthetic of a Design and down here.
In the end I used porcelain, aluminum and silicon to redesign the details from the ice scrappers. From this activity I learned that every material has its own properties and needs different treatments. Aluminum for instance is a very solid material to work with. However it is very vulnerable for scratches too. To make the designs aesthetically appealing enough, I have to make sure that every detail of the design should been taken care of. Just like the aluminum design which was polished very well. The smallest scratch would ruin the beauty and aesthetic of the whole design. While designing I should ask myself why this line is going that way and not the other way; or why is this line placed at all? This is what aesthetics is about. Based on my own experience it is not defined in words, but on feelings and intuitions. Furthermore the aesthetic of a design is not only based on the looking of the product, also the other senses like touch, taste, hearing and smell might be important at take care of while designing.
In the end we had to present our redesigns as ‘aesthetical’ as possible. Based on the feedback and viewing at the other presentations I learned that ´less is more´. When I want to focus on a design or a part of it, it should not make the presentation-stand too crowded with other drawings/designs or additions. This makes it for the audience harder to distinguish where to focus on. Also the background material is very important. It is nice to use a background color in big contrast to the design. As you can see in the pictures below, you see that the silicon design is lightening up by the use of a dark background. You can also see that I did not apply this at the porcelain and aluminum designs. The brick as under layer for the aluminum design was therefore unsuitable. This resulted in a less ‘aesthetical’ presentation. Furthermore I became aware it was useful to place pieces of the same material around the design so it becomes easier to understand for the audience what the design is made of. I will use this information for the upcoming presentations and expositions.
Summarized the assignment ‘Aesthetic of a design’ made me aware of the different aspects of a form vocabulary within our social context and developed my aesthetic vocabulary. For me as a designer this will help me to discuss about form and meaning of designs. The aesthetic of a design is very important to take in mind while designing. It does a lot with the people who want to buy my designs. For instance, two cars which cost the same and have both the same functionality will not be sold equal; the majority of the buyers mean that one car is aesthetically better looking/handling. In the end this assignment pretty changed my vision as designer. The design should be functional, but also the aesthetically approach of a design is important to make a design a best-seller.