Sunday, October 26, 2008

Timeless Design

Timeless design
Tesu Kim

These days, a term of ‘Design’ is used broadly. We are living in a world that everything is designed and everybody can say a word about design. Some people say that it is overflowing of design and some people insist design became an attention-seeking frivolity in the show window. Design sometimes tends to debase itself into a part of marketing tool and designers are accused of oversupplying of unnecessary things. How are we going to put a value in design and how are we going to survive as a designer in this chaotic era of design? There might be different answers from different viewpoints but when I see Ingo Maurer’s design, the question becomes frivolity.
Ingo Maurer was born 1932 on the island of Reichenau, Lake Constance, Germany. He trained as typographer in Germany and in Switzerland, studies in graphic design from 1954 to 1958 in Munich. His work is far beyond the boundary of our concept of design as a part of industrialization. One of his great works; Lamp Lucellino is a great example. This beautiful and delicate peace is very simple in terms of manufacturing technique. He attached hand-crafted goose-feather wings to a bulb, which you can even make at home if you are handy. With that simple attach, He creates whole new life and value of a light bulb which has not changed since Edison invented. It does not have high technology that most people admire. There was no precisely calculated marketing strategy. But this lovely wall lamp has captured the hearts over the world and placed as a bestselling item through decades. Then, what makes his design so special and unique? One thing I can tell is that his work is kind of placed on the boundary between art and design. The line between art and design is getting vague and it represents nothing to define what art is and what design is. Art can be regarded as design if it has function and design also can be regarded as art if it touches your mind. I can say design could be the gate through which we bring art into our daily life so that make our life more enjoyable and richer. I am not saying this is all about design; of course there are other missions and other purposes of design. You may more concern about technological issue when you deal with computer or about ergonomic issue when you deal with medical device but does the design that depend on technology or marketing plan go last? When new technology comes out in the market and new trend arise in fashion the products that depend on them end its life. I think timeless design is something that touches people’s mind. I think that is what Ingo Maurer accomplishes in his works and that is why he is called a ‘poet of light’ and his design last long through decades. After design accomplished user’s physical needs and if it goes one step further to touch its user’s spiritual gratification, it would elevate its own value in the name of design.

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