Lost In Articulation
Posted on April 7, 2011 | posted by:
It began with a curious conundrum that has become a reoccurring theme throughout lectures, readings and discussions: Designers don’t appreciate the way the non-design world expects execution with no strategy. However, designers also seem dissatisfied with the current framework for design strategy—otherwise known as “design thinking.”
In a continuous struggle to define in words a profession that exists mostly in the visual and conceptual space, I chose to iterate upon the notion of articulation in design; or, rather, the lack thereof. Beginning with the question of “what if designers were educated to be very articulate about how they generally design rather than celebrating the artifact they have produced,” my first modification to this question was to simplify it down to “what if designers were educated to be very articulate?”
I began researching how design has been and is being articulated by designers themselves, as well as the various definitions of design ranging from Wikipedia to Aristotle. For my own curiosity and a sense of perspective, I also explored the definitions of art and music – two fields that don’t seem to suffer as much from a lack of an explicit definition. While art and design are often scrutinized and contrasted, music and design seem to be have received less correlative comparison. Music, much like design, is often not done justice when summarized in words. Reading a definition of music does not tell us anything about its power. It is our experience with music that gives creates the power.
Design, in many ways, shares the same conundrum that music does. It is rarely done justice in words. I began to wonder if there were more connections between music and design than just an issue of being lost in verbal translation.
Upon this premise I began examining two avenues how musicians use design to create music. Designers and musicians also face similar expectations to create new products to be put into the world that are consumed, critiqued and absorbed by their target audience. A good designer designs a product that communicates to its target audience and beyond. Musicians that resonate on a cultural level usually break out of the constraints of being labeled under one genre.
In an effort to move beyond a hunch, I interviewed a music producer to gauge his process for creation. After a series of questions I was shocked at how similar his construction of music was to a process a designer would use. I hope to interview more producers to see if they use similar processes to both gauge their client’s interest, as well as testing if their own creations function in the real world.
My challenge now is to question if the two fields are more alike than different in an attempt to uncover whether designers can learn a thing or two about articulation from musicians. Here’s hoping words don’t fail me.