Why we design…
Imagine a child reminding his parents everyday that his birthday is coming next month and has a big red circle marked on his bedroom calendar on that date. He also drops into the family’s pot of promises, a few more statements like coming first in his class this year, no quarrelling with his little sister all month, no climbing the garden tree and what not. Why such desperation?
It is because he saw this new toy last weekend at the mall. Oh! it was straight from heaven. “The Palladium Clan : pack of 3 super heroes : complete with a face mask and complimentary camouflage cape and a video game and wait…there’s a Miraculix-Ultra Sword too”.
Now imagine yourself, the designer of this toy, standing right there at the store where this child stands frozen looking at the pedestal of these new arrival toys and is pulling daddy’s jacket to get him one. This is undoubtedly a dream worth working for. Money and fame is only incidental to success. It would certainly not be wrong for a designer to measure success by the number of smiles he/she could give the users. If someone is saving a year to buy your product and if someone is crying over not being able to have it, that my dear friends is our dream to design for. Isn’t it?
We also have to keep in mind that every business needs to sustain itself. Every screw we reduce, every edge we enhance, every button we add, all have huge implications on a mass produced product. Right from the point one hears about a product, looks at it online or at a store, or holds it in his hands, he should fall in love. That’s the aim when we as designers put on our thinking hats. How the product turns ON, what the back or bottom looks like, how easy it is to clean, the sounds it makes, so on and so forth are all small but very necessary details of a product. We as designers are not merely manufacturing products. We owe great experiences to the users. It is worth the sleepless nights, worth the struggles, worth the extra man hours put in, worth the 100 quarrels at the design board meetings. At the end when the user smiles, it is all worth it! When a doctor can hold a syringe better, when an athlete can run faster with special shoes, when airbags save lives in a crash, the designer can tell himself “it’s worth it!”
We are an industrial design consultancy based in Bangalore, who keep an eye out to find fellow dreamers. Come share your dreams with us. We design, ‘cos it’s worth it!