Design is meaningful, but it can also be meaningless expression. However, it is never nonsensical expression. Design is the primary underlying matrix of life, focusing on the unnoticed relationship in ordinary life and thinking the relationship between life and design. It lives in design and makes design living. — FRUSTUM
MAKING DESIGN MATTERS
Design is the foundation in human life, as it is regarded as the basic skill for living. Thinking, planning and doing, all the behavior with a purpose belongs to “design”. So you may say the universe is the greatest designer, no matter the trajectory of the planets, or the fineness pattern on the butterfly’s wings, all be designed by the perfect nature ecosystem.
There is a fact that still concerns us: most design works are created to improve efficiency. In the first and second industrial revolutions, design was actively used, and the vigorous development of Consumerism made design become a part of personal identity. Therefore, it aims to meet the current needs instead of considering sustainable development. As a result, this kind of design brings bigger problems: the mass production causes waste, too many vehicles intensify the pollution of traffic and the environment... We always try to use “the next design" to cover the problems, which can hardly be solved fundamentally.
It puts us in such a situation that design, which is supposed to be a fixer, has now become the problem itself. Therefore, sometimes we cannot give positive comments on design as it can solve an irresponsibility pre-design problem, no matter how well this design is. If we do think, it could never exist or create a more sustainable design before.
THE MEANING OF DESIGN AND THE DESIGN MEANING
Different from the design in nature, our design cannot avoid the influence of time and society. In the course of human evolution, we need something to stand as a light, to take the responsibility as a thinker, and to make a judgment in the face of mass and complex situations. In front of the perfect nature system, we have the confidence that our design participation is an improvement instead of damage. The responsibility of designers is to build a dynamic connection between the history and the future. We may not always find the meaning of the design, but using design thinking as an answer to the true problem is an important part of design meanings.
As a thinker and creator, a designer should be a medium between people, object and environment. When it comes to “creation and innovation”, it is not meant to create completely new things, but to take the creativity as a trigger to activate unknown or ignored things in daily life. Therefore, designers try to build a system in which all participators are co-creators, and they have opportunities to understand themselves and the world from a completely different angle.
THE FRUSTUM DESIGN
FRUSTUM takes design as a process of discovering the meaning of life, the meaning of self-awareness, and the meaning of the connection between all the elements around. What makes “it” become it? We focus on looking for the attraction behind the temporary pathway. The meaning of design is no longer limited to the delivery of a design work, but to explore the value of inspiration for creative thinking solutions.
Therefore, the designer’s self-expression is never the priority of our design work. The purpose of the design is to inspire personal emotion and individual expression. It contains ‘human value” and ‘‘social value”, and makes us reconsider the relationship between the environment and human beings. The ideal design is a journey of observation, creation and optimization for both designers and users. It is not intended to meet people’s expectation of success, but to bring more rational value with the involvement of design. This vision is no doubt a challenge to us. It is also a new moment for us and the participators to understand the diversity of our life and living.
i. Victor Papanek —《Design for The Real World》Academy Chicago Publishers
ii. Kenya Hara —《Designing Design》Lars Muller; Reprint edition (March 20, 2018)
iii. 深澤直人 —《不為設計而設計=最好的設計》漫遊者文化事業股份有限公司
iv.「在設計中加入情感很重要，這樣它就不會沒有靈魂」專訪英國設計師 Martine Rose— https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/anwNkS_d8hs9-MWF2XCsXQ