What makes a product be considered as a good design? Is it how much they sell for, how many of that product was sold, or how much personal value the product has to the individual or the designer himself? There is no clear answer as designers all have different values to which they adhere to, which impact the decisions they make whilst designing and what they design. 

The relationship between taste and design is important to creating a successful product in my opinion, as the product needs to look attractive and be able to fulfil its purpose as well. From the reading “Good Taste vs Good Design”, it describes taste as being completely subjective to the individual as it is based on their many factors such as values, social status, up-bringing and wealth. It also describes how good design comes from competence and being based on professional skill. The main argument is which component, that is taste or design should be prioritised while designing a product? Or should there be a balance between the two?

I think that there is no clear answer to this argument as for example, luxury products such as high heels are extremely uncomfortable to wear and hurts the user which makes it a badly designed product, however people still wear it because of the aesthetic looks. On the other hand, Ikea products are extremely simplistic and focuses on the functionality of the product rather then implementing aesthetic features which could increase the price of the product, making it less appealing towards low income customers.

The Bauhaus is a good example of designers who experimented with the balance between aesthetic design and functionality. The other designers during that time prioritised aesthetic looks over functionality which resulted in products that did not work to their full potential and only available to families with huge incomes. Instead, the Bauhaus prioritised functionality leading to one of their most important principles which Is function over form. This allowed low income families to have access cheaper products which actually worked better then their more expensive alternatives, and surprisingly the simplified products had a feel of “modernity”, or a futuristic air around them as they were so different and looked extremely clean compared to the other products who were over crowded with detail making them look messy and confusing.

A great example of one of the most successful Bauhaus designs is the kettle by Marianne Brandt. Made from silver, the teapot is comprised completely from basic shapes such as a hemisphere for the main body, semi-circle for the handle and cylinders for the lid thus utilising the Bauhaus principle of function over form. One would think that this product would be less elegant than the other kettles on the market at that time, which composed of complex shapes and various intricate details. However, Marianne’s kettle looks more modern due to the simplicity and the “clean” look which is a result of this, allowing it to become a successful product as it is not only remembered to this day, but the design is still being sold.  

Recently I had to design an earphone holder that would be injection moulded, so I had to come up with several prototypes. I had to then put them in an analysis tool to see if the prototypes would be able to be injection moulded successfully, before I made a final mould. The earphone holder to the left is the first design, and as you can see the details are more complicated than the one to the right however the right design was chosen as the final design.

The simpler earphone holder was chosen because the complexity of the first design made it unable to be injection moulded easily as a lot of issues arose with sink marks and improper filling. Utilising one of the main Bauhaus principles which is function over form, all unnecessary details were removed to simplify the model to make it easier to be injection moulded.

This is an example of the choice I had to make as a designer, sacrifice the aesthetic look to improve functionality or sacrifice functionality for a more appealing appearance? But most importantly, which one is the better design? Did I make the right choice by sacrificing appearance for functionality? This proves the point that “good design” is completely subjective to each individual, some people will agree that I made the right choice, and some will not, there is no clear line to which the better design is.


The relationship between taste and design and the role it plays when designing an object is an intricate one, as the designer has to make a choice on how to balance the aesthetic details and the functionality of their product. To make it even harder, there is no aesthetic detail that will suit every individual as everyone has different tastes, and it is also incredibly hard to make a product that everyone will be able to feel comfortable using or understand how to use as there are many factors such as symbology when it comes to the interface design, and physical differences such as hand size. Therefore, good design is extremely subjective to the individual and as a designer one has to identify their target group and cater their product around that group, in order to create a “good design” for those individuals.

REFERENCES
Christoforidou, D., Olander, E., Warell, A., Holm, L.S. Good Taste vs Good Design: A Tug of War in the Light of Bling. Retrieved from https://lms.monash.edu/pluginfile.php/8323619/mod_resource/content/4/Wk%202%20Despina%20Christoforidou%2C%20Good%20Taste%20vs%20Good%20Design%20%281%29.pdf

Women have been constantly ignored in the workplace throughout history, and in the design industry it is no different. More than 50% of GD graduates are comprised by women, a rate which is steadily increasing however since the 1970s only one Woman was included in the AGDA Hall Of Fame. (Bruce & Lewis) The AGDA’s own committee board is comprised of mostly males, and the same goes for many design firms.

The Designing Women exhibition highlights the work of ongoing female designers, celebrating their creations but also to give them a voice as they are often overlooked in the male dominated industry. The exhibition is not limited to one field of design but unites all female designers from all the different fields in order to inspire both current and future designers whilst respecting the contributions from female designers of the past.

This arrangement of artworks has a powerful image representation of the design industry, it represents the different challenges and experiences that women have faced whilst trying to succeed. The dress which is reflected in the mirror can be said to describe how the design industry is male dominated, even if the work a female artist produces is amazing the artist is overshadowed just because she is a female. This is reflective of the statistic that was presented earlier, how even though women are clearly present in the industry by making up more than 50% of the GD graduates hardly any of them gain any recognition. 

The colour red of the dress represents the strength, determination and passion that female designers have for their art and are willing to persevere against the odds in order to have their work recognised and respected. This representation describes the experiences of Lynda Warner, who was placed in a time period where there were hardly any female designers as the industry was seen as one that were driven by males only and females were made to do dress making or secretary jobs. However, Lynda was determined to pursue her area of passion and with the support of her parents she completed her commercial art qualification at Swinburne university. She was then handpicked by a professional designer as her portfolio was so good, where she progressed to start her own career after his tutorage where she continued to succeed.
(Connory, 2017)  

Another interpretation of this is that the dress is the female’s artist career at her prime however, after entering parenthood it becomes muddied and uncertain as shown by the dull colours of the dress reflected in the mirror. This represents the social issues surrounding work and motherhood, as women tend to be looked over for promotions, paid less and assumed to be un-competent at her job just because she became a mother. This social issue is present in all areas of work, and it is no different here as from the experience of Michaela Webb, she found that she was discriminated against after trying to return to her career after having a child. In order to maintain her career, she had to shift the way she thought about work from the role of an active worker she became a more managerial one. These are only some of the social issues which continue to impact the women in the Industry and discourages them from seeking a career as a designer.
(Connory, 2017)

There is also the social stigma that women should only do “feminine” work such as fashion and textiles, while men do the more practical work such as industrial design. (Connory, 2017) This combined with the other social issues creates several hurdles women designers have to overcome in order to be successful designers. These issues are represented by the many layers on the dress, as each layer presents each hurdle and as these hurdles build up over a woman’s career it forms several layers that the female designer has to cope with to maintain her career. For example, the first hurdle would be getting into the university for a design course which isn’t considered feminine, the second would be getting a job as a female designer and a third would be trying to fit motherhood into her career. (Bruce & Lewis)

The Designing Women exhibition cleverly depicts the problems and issues in the Design Industry of today by using female designer’s works which at the same time gives them exposure in order to help fix those issues. It highlights the many difficulties that women have to face in order to establish her own career as a designer, as well as to maintain it. These difficulties include the social issues and discrimination that arises due to motherhood, or simply being a woman. If we want to end these issues we must raise awareness about them, which is what the Designing Women exhibitions is trying to achieve.

References

Bruce, M., & Lewis, J. Women Designers- Is There A Gender Trap? Retrieved from: https://lms.monash.edu/pluginfile.php/8323633/mod_resource/content/1/wk%209%20bruce%20and%20lewis%20women%20designers%202.pdf

Connory, J. (2017). Plotting the Historical Pipeline of Women in Graphic Design. Retrieved from: https://lms.monash.edu/pluginfile.php/8323632/mod_resource/content/1/Wk%209%20Plotting-the-Historical-Pipeline-of-Women-in-Graphic-Design_171117.pdf