Shelby Charette

Robinson

VISU1311

August 30, 2015

What is Design?

Kenya Hara, in his work “What is Design”, thoroughly covers design history and progress over the years, from the beginning until now. He explains design from the beginning, how, from the use of our hands and tools we have evolved enormously into a primarily technology based driven environment and everything in between. “What is Design?” was a truly fascinating read, it covered even the most basic characteristics of design and explaining the importance of even the most minuscule everyday items and how they have been influenced by design and goes on to explain how the foundation was built for design today.

It is very interesting to see how design has flourished and seeing the influences that change it. As Hara states, our first tools were our hands, now looking at our society, technology is the one of the main influences on design. Although seeming like a technology based field, Hara declares that design will never depend solely on technology. He emphasizes that “design is not subordinate to media; design explores the essence of media (Hara, 436).” Design depends not only on technology but also on the economy, time, with our environments, and our resources, such as how war effected design throughout the century.

Even as technologically advanced as our generation is, Hara emphasizes how no matter how advanced we think we are, things will keep evolving and changing. Each generation gains more intelligence and has a more open environment to explore design, therefore gaining more knowledge about design and how to use their resources to create something ground-breaking. We learn to harness new resources, we learn to conquer new technologies, we constantly adapt and strive for better.

Lastly, Kenya Hara’s evaluation, summary, and explanation of design’s lengthy past from the beginning, describes the foundation on which design was created and has become what it is today. Our society will continue to forever keep improving and using our resources to our advantage to create more and more superior designs.