What makes GREAT design?

[Pat Coyle]

What are the common characteristics of great design - as found in all the various facets of our lives? Above all - is GREAT design worth the effort? Or not? Why?

"Design" is one of those words which is difficult to define, depending on whom you ask. ("Marketing" is another example). We talk about fashion designers, graphic designers, product designers interface designers...but there are also architects, city planners, even event coordinators to consider. But what do they really DO and what makes the great ones great? Can you describe it? Or is it one of those things that you know it when you see it?

Think about the world around you here in Indiana. Your home, your streets, your town...the stores you frequent, the events you attend, the Websites you use, the car you drive and other products you purchase...are you seeing any GREAT design? What makes it great (to you)? Or, on the other hand - what are you seeing that ISN'T great? How could it be made better?

And if you're interested in witnessing some experimental designers in action, you'll want to now about this upcoming event: Pecha Kucha

[Erik Deckers]

Great design is like a great bass player. You don't notice a good player, but you sure can tell when they're gone. They're in the background, providing a steady rhythm and possibly an underlying melody. But a bad bass player is noticed either for his poor performance, or when he hogs the spotlight.

Great design -- in the advertising/marketing world -- is one that makes the piece readable or viewable. It's not so horrible that it ruins the ad's credibility, and not so creative that the design overpowers the actual message.

As a writer, great design also means a lot of space for my words.

[Jim Cota]

Coming back from a client meeting yesterday, we had a similar conversation in the car, discussing the merits of one design over another. Ben said, "I think the second design actually was "less designed" and so I preferred it."

What he meant was that the design was functioning as intended and, as a result, getting the hell out of the way. Most of our design in the advertising, web, marketing world is about communicating: Doing just enough to help the message come through with the least amount of interference. /Jim

[Chris Lucas]

I agree Jim,

Whether it is a website or a faucet I think the best designs are things that just work. Things that let you get the information you are looking for or completing the task you need done.

Of course this is coming from someone who has no design expertise whatsoever.

[Lorraine Ball]

Great design is where form meets function. The element designed is seamless and beautiful to look at, but works seamlessly as well. It exceeds performance expectations.

Personally I think great design is simple and elegant and consistent with the environment. Maybe that is why i had the new library building so much. ON a drawing board, it is very attractive. In downtown Indy, against the Federalist style of the old building it seems out of sync.

Fast Company - October Issue Featured the Talent Pool 14 - designers from around the world . http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/119/talent-pool.html

Unfortunately the online version does not include photos, but it is worth a surf through the net to find the websites of some of these truely talented professionals, who raise the bar of what is considered excellent every day.

http://www.oneclub.org/oc/

[Brett Atkin]

Jim,

I try to take that approach in my work as well. Sometimes the client doesn't get it or I'm not successful though. I tend to think a great design is something that works as expected (as Chris mentioned).

In the web world, there are a ton of sites that look amazing, but I wouldn't consider them great designs because of the "interference" you mentioned.

As you and your partner Ben. discussed, I think products and services of all types are over designed today. Maybe that is what the market demands, maybe the creator is trying to disguise the lack of something else or maybe that increases the perception of value.

[Pat Coyle]

Paul Thomas is the best BASS player I know!!
(don't let the hippy hair fool ya).

[Barbara Jones]

There is a great deal of "stuff" out there but I do not see much great design. When I go to the Home-a-Rama I always, always find myself thinking of the homes I have visited designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The comparison doesn't ruin my experience but it explains to me why I don't see much I like. Don't get me started on clothing design. I do absolutely love visiting the Apple store at Keystone at the Crossing. It is corporate culture translated into a shopping experience and it is very successful. Stand around in there sometime waiting for your appointment with a geek and watch it work. Even in the busiest times people seem very happy spending their money and being themselves part of the ambience. That's great design. One of my favorite parts is that there is no age group left out. There are geeks of all ages, ethnicities, sexes. There is somebody in a geek shirt just like you. No detail neglected. That's great design.

[Kristian Andersen]

What makes great design – Context.

Divorced from the realities of markets, users, and environments design is relegated to art (which is in and of itself is not a bad thing) or even decoration. Great design can only exist in an environment where it can be utilized and appreciated. If an iPod plays in the woods and no one is there to hear it does it still look awesome? An Eames chair sure looks smart against a white wall behind plexiglass at the MoMA, but its place in design lore has been assured by the fact that it works as well in a Manhattan high rise as it does in a country cottage in the Upper Peninsula. It has transcended fashion by working seamlessly in a variety of environments. It's really comfortable to lounge in as well.

Great design is the coalescence of style, utility, vision, insight and craft. It is rarely created in a vacuum and is often defined less by what it is and more by what it is not. Great design takes advantage of existing culture vocabularies, but when none exists it creates new ones. But my point here is to say that while some "great design" translates gracefully between geography, culture, and class – that is not a universal litmus test. Some "great design" may very well be celebrated by the demographic or sub-culture that it was designed for. While at the same time, it might be rejected by others that don't possess the requisite context to appreciate, or even understand its form or intended use.

Are there absolutes? Yes. Do those absolutes drive perceptions of what is considered "great design"? Well I guess it depends on who you ask?

[Kristian Andersen]

Oh yeah... speaking of design. Please consider submitting a presentation concept to the up coming Pecha Kucha event at the Harrison Center for the Arts. If you've got any questions hit me up on my profile page.

Call for Submissions
Organized by the Harrison Center for the Arts, Kristian Andersen + Associates, and Asthmatic Kitty, the first volume of Pecha Kucha Indianapolis is looking for 14 thought-provoking, concise presentations formatted in "pecha kucha" style (20 slides at 20 seconds each) for demonstration on February 1. Presentations should emphasize ideas and theories from architecture, design, urban planning, the arts, music, education, or academia.

To submit an entry, please email a 250 word or less abstract of your presentation to [e-mail] by January 19.

Selected presenters will be notified on January 22, and will demonstrate their presentations in Gallery No. 2 at the Harrison Center for the Arts on Friday, February 1 from 7:30pm - 9:30pm. It will be an invitation only event with 60 tickets ($20) available.

[Bruce LaDuke]

Design is found in art, music, science, technology, industry, architecture, government, society, etc. It's basically found everywhere - - and that for one simple reason - - design (v) is a form of compound problem solving and a good design (n) is a solution.

Design (v) either simplifies complexity, brings order to chaos, or brings newness to the current state and the resulting design (n) is some a combination of form, function, and aesthetics (includes feeling). Design always advances some knowledge context, and it always solves something, even if it is an abstract solution, creating a new knowledge context.

I created a design method many years ago called Directional Categorization many years ago that emodies the fundamental method behind design in any discipline. You can use this method to solve virtually any problem or to create a design of any kind. All designs have a past structure, a cutting edge, and a future seen through questions. By forcing structure on questions that we realize we create new structure, or new design. This new structure might be in the form of knowledge, emotion, or product.

Try it by thinking of anything you want to solve or create and forcing the entire knowledge context of that thing, and questions surrounding that thing into the matrix of categories. If you do this exhaustively, the result is always striking. I used this method on the problem of space travel (see here) and in about 30 minutes, I came up with attaching spacecraft to comets to go into deep space without fuel. I also wrote an article about how to use this method to advance the 'spoon' and came up with squeezable containers long before there was ever, e.g., a squeezable yogurt tube.

Much of my published material on the mind is an extension of this concept, which I took all the way to artificial intelligence. Design is at the core of every aspect of the human mind and intelligence, so understanding it fully is the key to artificial intelligence as well.

In a nutshell, you brainstorm context and questions and structure all of it into any categories you choose. As you exhaustively structure the conext, you'll see really neat solutions emerge. Look for incomplete categorical structure and try to fill it. It's really easy to use, so just give it a try and see how it works on your particular problem or creation.

[Craig McCormick]

Great thread, KA.

I think there is a tremendous difference between good design, which we see and use and strive toward every day, and great design. Within the context of good design are the fundamental concepts which define the way that humans interact with the world around them - the balance of form and function, the evolution and psychology behind sensory aesthetics, the rationale of ergonomics, and the context of the design object in history. Many of the parameters discussed in this thread so far are, in my opinion, fundamentals of good design.

But great design transcends this level of good design, and often sacrificially violates the principles of good design to elevate itself to a level of greatness. Using architecture as an example - Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York - defies its context and the urban fabric which surrounds it, arguably functions poorly for the hanging and viewing of artworks as one proceeds up its circular ramp - yet it is one of the greatest buildings ever built. A contemporary example of great architectural design might be Rem Koolhaas/OMA's IIT student center in Chicago:

Intentionally anti-aesthetic, form and function competing for attention, violating the principles of good design at every opportunity - this is one of the greatest buildings I have experienced in recent years.

One important contemporary ingredient in the quest for great design today the idea of 'positive change,' honed by the guru Bruce Mau and his colleagues. Positive Change is a concept that connects great design among all design mediums. It is a universal design concept, and in my opinion it is the ingredient which separates the good from the great, both historically and today. Worth a look as well is Mau's Incomplete Manifesto for Growth.

[Pat Coyle]

All these wonderful and thoughtful responses, but I'm still curious...do we see any GREAT (or not so great) design around Indiana? What do you think about 'round-a-bouts"? Anyone been to the new public library in Indy? How bout subdivisions? Lucas Oil Stadium? Outdoor ads? Local companies' Web pages...who's doing it REALLY well?