design

Wow what a year 2009 was? We got hit right in the face by the economic down turn and designers all over the world were falling like flies as companies cut R&D or design budgets in response to a drop in consumer spending.

Yep. That’s what Donald Norman (of Design of Everyday Things fame) wrote in his latest essay on his blog. You get the gist of his view in this introductory paragraph:

Just for this week only, we bring you our next podcast hot on the heels of our first. In this discussion Feng and I chatted about Entertainment Design and how much more work is required when you are designing a world rather than a product. Watch out for the key take away of this podcast, where we talk about designers needing to be sensitive to visual cues so that their creations are believable.

We had such a good response to the podcasts published during the Icsid world design congress, that I think I might turn this into a regular thing. The podcast will be published either weekly or bi-weekly, we have not decided.

Over the last few days, I conducted a whirlwind tour of the different events and exhibitions at the Singapore Design Festival 2009. There were some interesting work exhibited that reaffirmed my faith in the quality of designers or designs from the region. Some of the more notable exhibitions include; Small Thoughts, Big Ideas, Singapore Souvenirs and the UseLess Exhibition at the Icsid 2009 Congress.

I think there is a lot more to this discussion, more than about “just making things simple and easy to use”. Why are some objects simple and easy to use but end up limited and boring? Why are some objects, like the iPhone, simple to use but somehow able to have many layers of more complex functions? Is this what they call simplexity, or an “emerging theory that proposes a possible complementary relationship between complexity and simplicity”? (via Wikipedia)

Being the dean of a Design School is no easy job today. Design schools is struggling to serve three masters: to the student and the industry and to the society, the last one is a new one as designers generally have come to a consensus that design for social change is part of the design agenda.

Michael Bierut of Pentagram and Design Observer fame, has shared some of his words of wisdom collected through his years as a designer. He digs through his 86 notebooks filled with his design work, and distills his thoughts down to 5 awesome design secrets.

Edit: An irate Design Sojourn reader has highlighted to me that this is Green Washing at its best. Mahogany trees takes 10 years to mature before it can be cut down. I have responded directly to her, but I also would like to hear your feedback on this?