Thirty Conversations on Design

I watched Ze Frank, Kwaku Alston and Kit Hinrichs’ talks in the Thirty Conversations on Design. Each one was quite interesting and a different look on something I had overlooked for years.

Let’s start with Frank, my favorite of the three talks I watched. What I liked most about his talk was the new aspect of design he opened for me: social design. I had always assumed that design was for more artistic or graphical uses, not so much for a different look into the social psychology of humans. He mentions the game ‘Werewolf,’ created by old friend Jane McGonigal, where “villagers” try to figure out who in the group is the werewolf that is killing off all the villagers. Frank mentions how there could even be no werewolves, but people who still take the slightest hint to mean that there is one. He also brought up an interesting point when asked what most needs to be redesigned.

“Design should be redesigned.”

Yes, design. Raise your hand if you saw that coming. You are a liar, put it back down now. Frank mentions how designers are finally getting feedback on their work, so we should look into redesigning just about everything. He would also like to see “many to one design” so that we can solve problems such as how to “make Mike less lonely.” An intriguing possibility that really speaks to me.

Next, I watched Kwaku Alston, who said the most important piece of design to him was the Volkswagen minibus. An odd choice when you first hear it, but after you hear Alston explain his decision and show photo after photo of the vehicle and you realize that no two minibuses are exactly the same, you understand his point. As he said, “this is a sign of good design: one that grows in the environment.” Additionally, as someone who spent a portion of his life, I couldn’t agree more with his idea to have someone redesign the traffic out there and lighten it in any way possible. Whoever does that will deserve an award of some kind.

Last but not least is Kit Hinrichs. Hinrichs, in what I’m sure was an attempt to bring things full circle in class, argued that typography is the most influential design out there, mentioning how typography helps create an emotional value of the letters. Also, I have done a fair share of traveling in my life, like Hinrichs, and, like Hinrichs suggested, would love to see airplane security redesigned. Hinrichs brings up a valid point when he says that it seems “out of touch with the 21st century” and at the very least, should be redesigned to be “not painful.”