I’m not gonna lie, I don’t think I’ve ever sat down with myself like I am now and asked myself exactly what the hell design actually means. I’m almost stumped.
I’m an Elon film major, I should know this! I’ve made plenty of short films that look pretty good (at least I would hope so), not to mention all the painting, photography, and Photoshop I’ve fooled around with outside of my major. Even in High School, I spent countless hours in art classes learning all types of art. I understand aesthetics (for me, it’s not only understanding the rules of what makes something pretty, but why), and I try and apply it to all of my work to make it visually appealing.
But design is just some strange word to me that seems a little out of place; the one kid who always gets picked last when playing dodgeball (side note: do people still play that game?). However, at the same time, a word keeps blaring in my brain as if it’s the only thing that would make any sense: structure.
Let me explain it the only easy way I know: through video games.
At the base of every video game, you have to ask yourself “What kind of video game am I playing? Is it a shooter, a role-playing game, a flight simulator?” This is the first design choice when making a game. You’re then setting the foundation for other design choices, like where the game options tab goes, how the player accept missions, what kind of feedback you get when you’re winning/losing. When you have these design choices down, you can then think aesthetically by making these pretty (choosing the right text, graphics, colors).
If I’m going by that logic, the maybe visual design through interactive media is just simply the structure of a website, the button layout in an iPhone/Android app, or even a piece of information that pops up when reading an article. It’s a structure to help put together all of pieces in a concise and easy to navigate way.
At least, that’s what I think it is.