Sanjoy Mazumdar: From M P Ranjan
Dear Sanjoy
I like your Lasagne model. I love models that are visually rich and that
capture the flavour and texture of the subject and its context, which yours
does. It has taste as well!! Sometime ago, I used a "Hamburger model" to
describe the design processes that I used in a class that I teach at NID
called "Design Concepts and Concerns", description of which was posted to
the list in October. Here I have Scenario Visualisation and Concept
Development sandwiched between User Needs and Business Models. The Lasagne
model on the other hand helps capture the complexity of the design activity.
While there is talk about the need for a "Core" for design (Pradeep
Yammiyavar, Rosan Chow and others) I believe that the core for any design
activity is the "underlying philosophy" that guides and informs the various
actions and intentions of the designer and their clientelle. Design has been
defined in many ways but at its core are the "creation of value" and this is
informed by the prevailing "value systems of a culture" in a "mode of
synthesis" while "addressing complexity" with all the "relevent tools and
processes" available to the design team. It is here that I feel we will need
to look beyond the designer to experts and people from other fields who can
use the University based School of Design to enter the domain of design and
assimilate design thinking into their own line of inquiery. When the focus
is on "design" and not the "designer" the issues of education in a School of
Design at the University will have a very different connotation.
Several years ago in a class called "Systems Thinking & Design" with a group
of furniture design students we used the metaphor of "Fire" to describe and
capture in a memorable visual model the systems nature of design. Fire in a
hearth (context/ situation) uses or consumes materials (material culture and
processes of manipulation)through an active interaction with the environment
(open system and complexity) to produce an effect (heat, light- positive or
smoke and destruction-negative ), giving a glimse of the systems nature of
design as well as the disasterous consequences of bad design. This model
places an enormous responsibility on the designer and has many implications
for ethical practise of design as a professional discipline.
I am sure that your commitee examined many alternatives and directions
before settling on the final report as it stands today. However I chose to
draw attention to the difference in emphasis when one shifts ones focus from
the education of the designer to the spread of design use in the many fields
that can support the activity with concepts and tools by facilitating a much
broader involvement of these professions and disciplines into design and
design thinking.
With warm regards
M P Ranjan
from my office at NID Ahmedabad
30 November 2003 at 6.45 pm IST
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Prof. M P Ranjan
Faculty of Design
and
Head, NID Centre for Bamboo Initiatives
and
Faculty Member on the Governing Council
National Institute of Design
Paldi
Ahmedabad 380007
INDIA
Email: <[log in to unmask]>
Fax: 91+79+6605242
Home: 91+79+6610054
Work: 91+79+6639695 ext 1090
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