Blog post 9

 

The Blog assignment we have been tasked with this week is rather vague.  What kinds of political or ideological messages inform design or the branding of design today; anything that our overlords are trying to impress upon its people. We get everything from capitalism, consumerism, individuality, its cool to be cool, RUGBYRUGBYRUGBY etceteras. Design, from things like buildings to shoes nowadays carry with them an ideological message. Dubai’s largest tower screams out to anyone within a 50 kilometre radius that we are wealthy and are at the top of the world in construction (also the designer has small man syndrome). One message that is dear to heart for most New Zealanders is that we are a clean green country. The idea is ubiquitous and can be seen in design from the logo for the Interislander to the advertisements for New Zealand power companies, everything is natural and healthy. The lite-house architecture company that we are all so familiar with at the School of Architecture and Design is quite good with spouting out this ideology of sustainable design.


Figure 1, lite-house logo
http://www.quadramedia.co.nz/websites.php

Petty, Margaret. (2011). Design in Context lectures held during the spring 2011 at Victoria University of Wellington

Blog post 8

 

I disagree with Hannes Meyer when he said that design is a product of “function x economy”. Design is a product of many things from filling a need to creating a style or even design for designs sake.  Id say that some of the worst design comes from just function x economy. Student apartments and town houses are designed just for function and economy and they happen to be some of the ugliest, plainest and most boring forms of accommodation. New technologies do not necessarily mean better design, look at modern car design, new materials and technologies may have made the cars safer and better to drive but where are the aesthetics? No modern American car has any of the character of one built in the 60s and 70s where materials were spent more lasciviously and function was based on speed and turning rather than “safety”. Design today is both an art and a science but has started leaning towards a science. In the modern world we have to be so careful about what materials we use, we have to consider the impact on the world and recycle and reuse to best utilise our remaining resources. That’s where design as a science comes in, keeping the lines drawn so it remains economical, functional, reusable and safe. However design will always be an art due to the fact it takes an artist to care about the aesthetics enough to do them properly. Design will never be just one or the other as without care for scientific principles design would be worthless as products would never be any good but without art then there is no care for how a product looks then that isn’t design either.

Figure 1. student appartments on Wellesley street Auckland
http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/992005

 Figure 2. Ford Thunderbird sports coupe
http://www.tocmp.com/pix/Ford/pages/1975%20Ford%20Thunderbird%20Sport%20Coupe%20f3q%20B&W_jpg.htm

Margaret, P. (2011). Week 11 Raizman, The First Machine Age in Europe [PDF Document]. Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University of Wellington.Fig