30 Conversations on Design

For the 30 Conversations on Design I watched videos on a very diverse group of people and professions: Tony Hawk, Daniel Pink and Kwaku Alston.

Tony Hawk is the most famous of the three because he’s one of, if not the, the best skateboarders to ever live.  He used his talent and fame to create his own company, Tony Hawk, Inc., which deals with media, marketing and his video game franchise.  Hawk believes the design that has inspired him the most is everything that Apple has done as a company.  He especially likes the way Apple has made their technology so accessible to the public.  Hawk says technology is always evolving, which usually means it gets harder to use, but he thinks Apple has set the standard for how to keep their technology easy to use.

Daniel Pink has an impressive resume.  He has written books, is a writer for London’s The Sunday Telegraph and was Vice President Al Gore’s chief speechwriter.  I took to heart the first half of his video than the second.  In the first half he talks about how the eraser is our most important tool as designers because it gives us the opportunity to fix mistakes.  Pink thinks there is nothing more valuable than making mistakes and being able to improve upon those mistakes.  Being able to erase means we are also able to create.  I can relate to this more because I enjoy writing and noticed a change in my writing over college as I made mistakes writing in class and learned from them.  The second half dealt with his views on the designs of systems and how we are trying to maximize them without analyzing the effects.

Alston thinks the best designs are those that can grow in their environment.

Finally I watched photographer Kwaku Alston’s video about his love for the VW van.  He loves the design because he thinks each one is different and has its own special character/personality.  He’s very descriptive talking about how different aspects of the van make it what it is, from the different colors to rusted and chipped paint.  One of the biggest things that can be taken away from his interview is when he says that the best designs are those that can grown in their environments.