Dear Chris and Tiiu,
Chris is right in saying that we need the concept of production work.
I think I said that, too. I'm just not sure that production work lies
outside design.
I like Tiiu's use of Harold and Erik: "Design is the ability to
imagine that-which-does-not-exist, to make it appear in concrete form
as a new, purposeful addition to the real world." To me, this fits
the card and many other kinds of routine things. I'd argue that the
fact that some form judgement comes in, that some problem may arise
that a machine cannot handle, renders even production tasks design
tasks. They are low-level tasks, but design tasks.
If you can turn it over to a machine, then I'd say it would be
production without design. Whoever programmed the machine would be
the designer.
I'm not willing to draw an absolute black and white line between any
of these issues. Those kinds of definitions don't shed light. I tend
to agree with Chris more often than not -- here, I draw the line
between aspects in a different way.
Do read NextD. Highly recommended.
Ken
Chris Rust wrote:
The typographer is only designing if there is room in the rules for
interpretation, so I think we need a third concept, of production, to
complete the picture and that is what Ken's typographer may be doing
(although that makes them what we used to call a "paste-up artist" or
today a "mac operator", typographer implies that there is an
"ography" at work)
Tiiu Poldma wrote:
Different methods suit different types of problems and issues - in
this sense I also agree with Klaus, Ken and Chris. I also agree with
Ken re: taming the problems...many businesses thrive on the return
business of problems they have "solved" in one form and manifest in
another form, projects that can be done over and over again - this is
called "bread and butter" work in my field, or as Ken says, "routine
production work".
Designing, in its simplest definition, is about making something from
nothing. As Harold Nelson and Eric Stolterman state "Design is the
ability to imagine that-which-does-not-exist, to make it appear in
concrete form as a new, purposeful addition to the real world." The
business card fits this
criteria, as do many everyday things we design, some simple, some
complex, others tame or wicked.
I see all design problems as having inherent "tame" and "wicked"
components - depends on the problem, issues, context, methods etc....
.
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