In her book Make It Bigger, Paula Scher talks about design as planning. Over the past few years, the AIGA and designers have worked to bring to the fore designers as thinkers and planners and to avoid the idea of designers as decorators.
But designers who have businesses as decorators make clear the distinction between decorating and design. Recently, I read a short interview with Interior Designer Jeffrey Bilhuber, who also made the distinction between decorating and design by noting, "Decorating is at the point of purchase: 'I love that lamp, I'll take it.' Design in participating in the creation of something that was not there when you started." (Bold added.)
But designers who have businesses as decorators make clear the distinction between decorating and design. Recently, I read a short interview with Interior Designer Jeffrey Bilhuber, who also made the distinction between decorating and design by noting, "Decorating is at the point of purchase: 'I love that lamp, I'll take it.' Design in participating in the creation of something that was not there when you started." (Bold added.)
4 comments:
Really, this quote of Paula Scher's has become my mantra. Perhaps I should embroider it on a pillow?
Interesting idea that the consumer completes the design on point of purchase, but only if the do something with the purchase, yes?
Actually, the bold is still the Bilhuber quote. I was (unclearly!?) showing that good design works across disciplines. Now, to the discipline of clear prose!
Me, too (discipline of clear prose). I meant that I would like to embroider "Design is Planning" on some pillow somewhere sometime, although I think I've seen a riff on that as a joke where the planning gets cut off at the end (due to lack of planning).
. . . and . . . your comment about the consumer completing the design on point of purchase is sort of a variation on Barthes's the reader as author—only it's the consumers as design completer. OK, it's a stretch, but we'll all reaching our limits this week!
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