Reading Response 3

After reading these two articles I find that I mostly agree with the points made. I'll begin with Gropius and the Bauhaus. At this time combining all these trades into one school, their use of materials in relation to production, and the scope of the project undertaken were earth shaking. These days, this is common practice, it's expected. I can't think of any product design project i've worked on where I haven't had to deal with several different categories and skills. Drawing, rendering, brainstorming, prototyping and model making, market analysis, materials and manufacture research, layout, testing and so on are all skills we need to have. And all of these skills and procedures all have a part in forming how the product is developed, how the user interacts with it, which materials are best fitted to each function. This has benefits and advantages. I like being a part of all of these procedures because it allows me to have control, as I work I know what my parameters and constraints are because I created those constraints through research. On the other hand I have also found it debilitating. By knowing what my parameters and constraints are, it becomes difficult for me to think outside them. Which in turn limits the possibility for innovation. It's unrealistic to think that one can handle everything to do with a product from conception to manufacture, but I still think it's vital. If a marketing person knows how and engineer thinks, and visa versa, the two will be able to work better together. Ying. Yang.

I love Dieter Rams. I find his designs so timeless, everything is so squeaky clean! It's interesting to read interviews about designers whose work I've seen so much. By seeing his designs I always got the impression DR was kind of a stick in the mud. His designs are so restrained, and, via the transitive property (I believe) he must be restrained too! But reading this article kinda shows that he's a bit of a goof. Most of the info I got from the interview was stuff I'd read before I think, but it's still nice to interact vicariously through the interview with Rams.