The excerpt from Hara’s book on the origins and purpose of design in culture struck me as quite surprising and complex. I was shocked at how many eras design went through and how during its developing stages, countries were influenced by each other immensely. I found it even more interesting that a large influential portion of something so broad as design could be developed in such small, private environment like the Bauhaus school. The fact that other countries and schools took inspiration and adopted certain concepts and guidelines from this one place of study made it clear that design is a universal aspect of life that is constantly undergoing revision and reconstruction.

I was fascinated by the numerous types of design that appear in every detail of our lives and how design stretched from being a broad way of thinking and problem solving to an extremely fine detail such as a laptop keyboard or a single shoe lace. It is completely unavoidable and yet it often remains as an abstract in my mind. This is because design can take various avenues and it has evolved in meaning and process over years of cultures bouncing off of one another. There is nothing more mind boggling than trying to understand how design stretches over every area of life, while it remains one of the most fundamental necessities for society’s order and survival.

After reading this excerpt, I came away with a basic understanding of how we have gotten to this point in design history. Every single influential figure in the timeline of design had something new to contribute, after experiencing and accepting the old traditions of creating and designing. With that knowledge, I feel empowered by the various histories given in the article, and am ready to make break throughs and discoveries using the knowledge and work of designers that paved the way for the innovators of the future.