Design Ingredients

Why do things look the way they do?
Thesis Exhibition, 2022

Design is frequently marketed as a discipline that solves problems, improves user experiences and humanizes our technological advancements. These things may all be true - but we think that design is much more.

When you look across history, you see designers being recruited to represent ideas, beliefs, and values. In ancient societies, designers created vessels which represented the power of their society and gods. Fast forward to the last century and Dieter Rams is incarnating his ideals of efficiency and minimalism. Today we are developing ways of hiding the unnerving implications of our technology with plastic skins that say: "I'm friendly and tolerant."

Though the motivations have changed, design's function has remained constant. Consciously or not, design makes physical what we prize most, creates illustrations for our ideas, and ultimately, makes icons for our beliefs.