The book I read to research this post was Design A Very Short Introduction by John Heskett which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. This book is an introduction to design and why it’s something uniquely human and also what makes good design. Design is uniquely human in that no animal values it and anything an animal makes or does is purely functional. Functionality does come into design and in the case of things like medical equipment is the most important thing along with ease of use. Of course there is a thing in design called aestheticism but it has to be appropriate to what is being built. Often if something is aesthetic you can charge a premium. It’s interesting in West Greenland each major eskimo settlement has made aesthetic changes of a unique nature to the sea kayaks built at that settlement. This makes no difference to the functionality of the kayak and the changes are fairly minor but it’s an interesting example of people expressing their individuality albet as settlements. Some very well designed articles achieve a kind of cult status like the Volkwagon Beetle which was developed in the 1930′s as the people’s car in Germany and was introduced to the American market in the 1950′s where it went on to achieve cult status. The updated Beetle introduced in 1997 although there was controversy about its price also went on to achieve cult status. Another vehicle which led the way was the Volkswagon Golf which started the hatchback craze. Some companies have a corporate identity that designers must adhere but some promote individuality although they too may have a corporate policy with things like logos and letterheadings. This kind of thing just looks professional.
