VISU1311: Creativity Blog #3
In the essay, “What is Design?”, Hara, the author, relays to us the history of design, starting from the very first tools to our current age. The ideas that the age we currently live in is threatening design and aestheticism by looking to the future more so than the past is something I agree with. Also the idea that design is truly ingrained into our lives is another point that I am in agreement with.
Hara starts off with talking about the threat of the current culture’s focus on the future of technology to the ideas of aesthetic and design. It is true that as a people we are obsessed with the technological advances and the need to have the latest tech and often times we forget to look to the past for guidance or even for a new way of thinking and designing. Hara also touches on the idea that today’s constant need to have the newest tech is thanks to the obsession with economic advancement in the 20th century. Design, she say, is applied to constantly imagining and creating a new product that will make the older model look antiquated and out of style. I think in today’s youth there is a divide between those of us who look to get the new technology and those who borrow styles and design from the past. The past is becoming more mainstream now it seems, or it is at least solid competition against the technology driven economy and culture.
Hara maps out the origins of design and its history in the majority of the essay. It begins with cavemen picking up sticks and cupping their hands together to create tools to modernism. The idea that design was how societies show power and strength is something I had come across before and is something I still think is prevalent today. Hara suggests that this way of design is now lost after the industrial era, but I think it is still here and always has been. The years after WWII are a great example of this. Countries, especially the U.S. used the design of suburbs, kitchen appliances, cars, and weaponry to display their economic and military power to the rest of the world. I think that today, design and aesthetic pleasing is very important in marketing and selling a product. A consumer won’t buy something if its not pleasing to their aesthetic.
Overall, I think that aestheticism and design are making a come back in the newer generation. Hara lays out the history of design and with that conveys the importance and how ingrained it is in our culture and way of life.