Design Manifesto

Design is everywhere. In our walls, in our hands, in the clothes on our backs and the cars that we drive. Design is safety and ingenuity and efficiency. But above all else: Design is the blending of art, science, and common sense. Throughout the course of this class, I've come to realize that so much of design comes down to a delicate balancing act between being practical, functional, safe, and interesting. Your audience can change and grow with time, and a good design should be able to adapt to that. Functionality and practicality come into play when the design must do a task in a certain way, but an uninteresting design will fade into obscurity. Not every design has to be artful and creative, but behind every design there was an artist, carefully crafting every aspect and detail until it was just so. Some choose to add color or flair, some choose to stick to the beaten path, others try to blend in with the passing trends. Nearly every design in existence has had to hold against the test of common sense and only the best have passed. Often times as designers, we get so caught up in the minutia of our own creations that we fail to see how a common person might approach them. Like a performer in the ring, we as designers must balance on a fine line of beauty and efficiency. My goal as a designer is to start with a base of common sense for the problem, build an artful design around the solution, and find a way to use science to bring it all together for the user. We need science to keep our designs running safely and smoothly. We need art to allow our designs to branch into new and unknown territories. We need common sense to ground us to the rest of the world so that our design can truly take root and flourish. Ultimately, design is the art of creation in its most basic form, and I can't wait to show the world what I can make.