Blog: The principles of Design

My first actual school week on the campus of the University of Limerick and immediately I’m thrown into the deep. A country I’m not familiar with, a language that isn’t my native one and people I have never met in my life. A culture shock that I hadn’t prepared myself for made it’s way into my day to day life. Even the modules I’m taking are different than what I’m used to. Besides the fact that the language and accent is different, the content of the classes are completely different aswell. So far I’ve had three different modules. In this blog I will be putting down what I’ve picked up from one of the modules: Contemporary Design Culture.

The first thing I noticed immediately was the fact that this class was a lot more philosophical than what I had in mind. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, whatsoever. If I’m honest, it’s a nice change of pace. From new forms of deliverables (podcasts and blogs) to interesting podcast recommendations and debates about the essence of Design. This class raises interesting questions within oneself about the design and designer: What is design?; Who is the designer?; Why is design neccesary?; and what even is good design?

Dieter Rams

To find the answer to the question of ‘Who is the Designer?’ I should look inwards. However to find the answer to the quesiton of ‘What is good design?’ or any question related to that we have to look at more than just ourself.

Shortly before and during the class we were told to watch a documentary about Dieter Rams, one of the most (if not the most) influencial designers of the 20th century. Rams has a great way to answer what good design is. It’s an answer that resonates with me, because I use it unconsciously every time I design a product. He gives the following answer, the principles of design:

1. Good design is innovative
2. Good design makes a product useful
3. Good design is aesthetic
4. Good design makes a product understandable.
5. Good design is unobtrusive.
6. Good design is honest.
7. Good design is long-lasting.
8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
9. Good design is environmentally friendly.
10. Good design is as little design as possible.

This way of designing seems such an intricate part of our workfield that no matter where you are, whether you are in a different country or your own; whether you are speaking a language you know or you don’t; whether you know the people around you or you don’t, designing a product with new people can make you feel like you’re back home.

Author: Elnathan van Oostrum
31-01-2024

Good design makes a product understandable: “It makes it easy to understand the structure of the product. Even more, it can make the product “talk”. Ideally, it explains itself best.” (Dieter Rams). Making a product talk can sound intimidating. It makes me wonder how good of a designer you have to be to be able to make something talk to the user. But in reality, all products talk. Some just talk like a 4 year old, and others talk like a scholar.

This week was about storytelling. Storytelling is a way to teach and learn more clearly than just stating facts. Dieter Rams knew this, obviously. The story that is being told by the designer resides in the product. Making a good product, means having something to say. We were asked the question: What role do you think storytelling plays in design? And of course since I love visual storytelling, I think it plays a huge part. Stories help us to understand complexity (stephen Denning). Without good storytelling a product becomes blurry as if you are looking through a foggy window. You’re looking at it from different angles but for some reason it doesn’t become much clearer. A statement was raised: “If design is about communication, then we are all storytellers. We all use stories to communicate, explore, persuade and inspire.” Which, to me, is a valid point. But not everyone seemed to agree.

In the video: “You are not a storyteller” Stefan Sagmeister goes into detail about why designers are not storytellers. Well, I say ‘into detail’, but he stays more on the surface. He seems very critical about this topic and says that we are not storytellers because we are designers. According to him we design products, we don’t right novels. “I think by now in our space, meaning our space in design, it sort of took on the mantle of you know, now everybody is a storyteller”.

Again, he didn’t go into any detail about why. His arguments were largely based on cursewords and explaining what a rollercoaster designer does. Just because a novel is a story doesn’t mean every story has to be a novel. Storytelling has many different purposes:

• Storytelling to elicit information to people
• Storytelling helps us understand our users better
• Storytelling as a method of engagement with the creative process
• Storytelling to explain new ideas/ways/technologies
• Storytelling to help users engage with products
• Users build stories around products to create context and meaning

Not only do we create stories, our users create stories just as much as we do. Imagine making a childrens toy without the glow and joy of a story within it. The child will make a story out of it regardless and in doing so our product has contributed to the story, whether we like it or not.

Whether we like ir or not, it’s our job as designers to make our products understandable and clear to our users. We can’t make them speak like 4-year-olds. Whether that is through storytelling or not, I strive to make products that talk like scholars and glow like childrens laughter.

Author: Elnathan van Oostrum
27-02-2024

The future of design. A topic we have touched upon earlier in week 3. In week 3 I pushed myself to think about my own future as a designer and where that lies. This week we did a version of the same thing. We focussed on whether there is a future for design in general and if there is a future for designers.

The Polak Game, a game invented by a Dutch sociologist. The game shows you where you stand in a future, in this case as a designer. To see where you (or your colleagues) stand, you must answer two questions.

1. In the next 10 years, do you see the world as getting better or worse?
2. How capable do you feel of personally affecting the future?

My answers resulted in the following: I am ‘REALISTIC: Your vision of the future is not positive, but you still believe in your ability to influence the outcome. However, this duality creates some mixed feelings. You think it’s worth trying but are not so confident about how much of a difference you can create.’ And I think this is a pretty good summary of myself. I personally think the world is overal doomed if we keep going the way we are. But I also think I might have a chance to make this world a better place if I am given a shot. As a designer I believe I have a good shot at changing the world. As a wise person once said: “In an era of turbulence for people, planet and nature, how we navigate our future is more critical than ever”. However…

Some believe designers will ultimately be replaced by automation, leaving designers without work since AI will be able to do everything by itself. I personally think designers will never be fully obsolete, meaning designers will always be useful even if that means that we (as designers) will have to use AI to make designs. The amount of creativity and brainpower that designing a product entales is far too great for AI to overtake, at least the current AI. AI will definately be able to help designers find new innovations and find new inspiration, like what I personally sometimes use it for.

We were tasked to critically think about the future of design: How should deisng imapct the world?; How can design make for a better ecosystem?; What can we do as designers to influence culture?; and more… And I would lie if I said this didn’t bring me down a rabbithole of thoughts. As what normally happens in my life, I got distracted once again. This brought me in a small existential designer crisis, which made me also feel a bit selfish since this wasn’t just about me. My thoughts went from ‘Do I want to be a designer?’ to ‘Will this field of work make me happy in the long run?’ and ‘Will I actually have any type of influence in my surroundings?’. I’m going to be honest, this blogpost came later than normal which means I had weeks to figure this one out. And I still have no answer to my questions…

Do I think designing is neccesary? Yes. Do I think this world is going downhill? Yes. Do I think I can have an impact nontheless? Yes. Do I want to have an impact? Definately. Do I want to help this world through the life of a designer? … . I don’t think I have found the missing link between these questions yet. Maybe being in a different country among different people has done more to me than I thought…

Author: Elnathan van Oostrum
02-04-2024

This week was a special week. Special, in the sense of different than the weeks we’ve had so far. This week the class went to London. Unfortunately I’m Dutch… and I don’t have a passport. This meant I wasn’t able to come with the class to London and stayed in Limerick. The London-trip wasn’t all fun and games. The class was given a number of tasks to do during their stay. Since I wasn’t in London I was given a few alternative tasks to complete. I chose a few of these tasks, you’ll find the results below.

Task one: Product & Building details

This task was all about visiting and observing buildings and products. We were tasked to act like tourists, which wasn’t difficult for me. I took the time to visit Limerick City to get to a few buildings. The first one I came across was the Limerick Museum, which immediately catches ones eye when you walk past it. The picture below (not taken by me, I forgot to take a picture) shows you the front of the building in all its magnificance. The building stands out because of the old greek-inspired front. It mostly stands out because of the placement within a more modern city centre. The buildings alongside the building look nothing like it, making it an original piece of architecture.

After I found that this building was unfortunately closed I decided to move towards King John’s castle. I was told this was an incredibly important piece of architecture in the city and in Ireland as a whole because of the incredible history behind it. On my way to King John’s Castle, however, I stumbled upon an even greater piece of history: St Mary’s Cathedral (see below).

According to all the signs and the people inside the church, it is the oldest building in the city. Founded in 1168 it is an monumental piece of history. It was super interesting to look at all the graves and look at the dates. I thought I had seen a date on a grave that went back to 1832 and one as close as 2021. Another interesting thing that I found while being on the site of the cathedral was that there was a memorial for fallen soldiers of Ireland.

It was time for King John’s Castle. When we arrived there we realised it was at least €15 per person to get in, which was a bit much for me. I decided to stay outside and awe in wonder about the wonderful towers and walls. The castles in the Netherlands are very different.

The Dutch castles are mostly higher instead of wide. A reason for this could be that in the olden days you would have to pay taxes based on how much surface your home took in. However in the old days they didn’t acount for height, only width. (For this reason old Dutch houses are also very slim and tall, just like the people). This building apparently played a very big part in a war between England and Ireland. This was one of the last fortresses to be overtaken, if it was conquered at all.

Good design is honest, the 6th design principle of Dieter Rams. What he meant with this is the following: “Honest means not trying to make a product look more innovative, powerful or more valuable than it really is”. Why am I bringing this up?

This week we were blessed by the presence of Logitech. The company behind mice and keyboards of all kinds. They gave is a new task. We had 1 week to create an innovation that was completely different than what they have at the moment, made with technology available in the next 5-10 years. Anything was possible, from AI to holograms and full digital workspaces.

This week we had multiple challenges, with the biggest one being able to create something that was able to be made in the next 5 to 10 years but still not too crazy. I have done this before, creating future designs and creating a product within a week (for a company called Secrid). However, this one hit different.

As a group we came up with the idea: F.R.E.S.H., a foldable tablet, a tablet that could be rolled up. It would be saving space since it can be stored as a cilinder. Another cool feature it had, is that, due to it’s flexible nature, it can make a 360 degree picture around an object. This full scan can be uploaded to another device which would be able to project it as a hologram. For a full overview of the device, see the poster below.

Now the honest part comes in. A few weeks after this project was done I might start to realise we weren’t completely honest in the way Dieter Rams describes it. Don’t get me wrong, the design is incredibly innovative and could actually be used in the future. I have tried using apps on my phone to make 3D scans of products, which was always a pain in the butt. Sometimes I had to make at least 150 pictures for the model to look at least a bit realistic. This product could potentially fix this. However, is it possible that we have tried to make this product look more futuristic and more valuable than it actually is. The poster alone makes it look like a product that is high value.

At the end of the Logitech week there was an award ceremony. At this ceremony the Logitech Design-team chose the best 3 groups/products and gave them feedback on what they did. Unfortunately we weren’t one of those fortunate teams. Which also meant we didn’t get any feedback on our project. This in turn meant that we don’t actually know if Logitech thinks this product was too complicated or too innovative, too crazy or too unrealistic. Which makes it difficult to spot if this product was honest or not.

In conclusion, I need to pay more attention to being honest. Not as a person but as a designer. Am I really making something realistic? Am I really giving a customer what I’m saying I am giving them. Can I live with it if it isn’t so?

Author: Elnathan van Oostrum
03-04-2024

I have worked with clay before… you know, Playdoh, those children toys… Okay, I’m gonna be honest, I don’t work with clay that often. One of the reasons is that I hate the texture of the material. I can’t stand how it sticks to your fingers and such. It’s difficult to get off of anything and it always makes a mess. It gets cold when you work it, in contrast to wood which gets warm the more you work on it. Even though I didn’t like it, I didn’t really have a choice to but to work with it this time.

We got the Clay Assignment. Which was to make a small flat model out of clay. This model could in theory be made into a keychain or fridge magnet. This small clay model should be designed as part of a series of keychains or magnets or anything like it. I had a few ideas, but the size of the model was very limiting. Below you can see the few designs I threw out of my brain on paper. (Bare in mind that I didn’t have long to make these :))

I’m not sure how, but somehow I went from cute little animals to Spongebob characters real fast. I chose to go with the character on the left.

After about half an hour of clay modeling, trying to get my hands the least amount of dirty I could, I got the clay model below.

After some time the person leading the workshop gave us the signal that we would be casting the models and making a mold out of the clay models. After perfecting these molds in the next few weeks we will be firing these so they can actually be made into keychains and fridge magnets. This part I’m super excited for. In the coming weeks we will also be making a logo and fond for the marketing part of the product that we created.

What I found most interesting about this project is that I didn’t hate this assignment as much as I thought. Yes, my hands were dirty and yes, it wasn’t fun to get off, but for some reason it was easier than what I’m used to. The clay was really easy to mold into the shape I wanted to. It was surprisingly satisfying to shape as it flows relatively easily when you use just a tiny bit of water. Will I use this more often for models? I’m actually not sure. If I can get my hands on some for a good price I might. I guess I learned that experimenting with new methods and new materials is always valuable, even if it means getting your hands dirty.

Author: Elnathan van Oostrum
27-02-2024

The great PDT debate, or at least that’s what it was called. In hindsight, it wasn’t that great in my opinion. We were divided into 9 teams where we had to choose a topic and the stance we were trying to defend. The statement my teammate and I had to attack was: “If a design can serve humanity, it should not be patentable.” Attacking a stance you agree with is always difficult. I personally think that, if a design can truly serve all humanity, it shouldn’t be patentable so it can keep serving humanity regardless of where is comes from. Think of all the posibilities we could create in this world if everything was available to everyone…

I am going to be honest, I didn’t realise we had the PDT debate this week. The day before the debate I got a message from my teammate, telling me the amount of research she had done. Seeing that message pop up on my phone shivered my timbers as I had completely forgotten the assignment. I had to start my own research quickly. So that’s what I did. The rest of the afternoon and evening I was in my room doing my own research. I decided to do research on what the defenders of the statement could be using as arguments for their one stance. This way of thinking got me thinking in a different way and actually made our arguments stronger. As Sun Tzu once said: ‘“Know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated.” To win an argument is not only about finding strength and coherence in your opinions. Try to understand the opposite’s perspectives.’

I’m very thankfull I had a wonderful teammate that knew what she was doing. It was like she had done this before. I’m not sure if it was just that she liked arguing a lot or if she was just very good with her words. I believe we gave an amazing speech about why patents are a good thing for this world. However in the end it seemed that the audience and the jury thought differently. We were defeated. The phrase ‘know thy enemy and you shall never be defeated’ might not be as accurate as I thought.

As I said in the beginning, in hindsight, it wasn’t as great as the title suggests. I think it was kind of underwhelming. We were in the classroom for a few hours and had to listen to a few people give some monologues. Some of the ‘debaters’ didn’t even really say anything to the opposing team afterwards. I personally think, if you want to be able to call it a debate, you should at least be giving counterarguments to the opposing team. Luckily our team was prepared for arguments the opposing team was most likely gonna use. I think schools should stop trying to do debates if they are done this way. Of course that’s my opinion, do whatever you want.

Author: Elnathan van Oostrum
03-04-2024

It seems like every 5 weeks or so the designer gets addressed instead of the design. I have been thinking about this for a long time myself. The first time these questions were raised, was during the first week of this class. Then again during week 5. And once again during the class of this week. I’m not convinced yet that these questions that are being brought up are doing more good than harm. They are quite frankly stressing me out at times. Having to think about my future brings anxiety and stress along with it.

The first part of this weeks class wasn’t very stressful, at least it started that way. We were talking about a topic I enjoy more, and a topic I want to get better at: Portfolio’s. At my home university I haven’t had a real thorough class about portfolio making of any sorts. Even though a large number of students have asked for it… This class was more thorough and more explainatory then any class I have had at my home university. The teacher used a presentation from a professor at the Auburn University. It was an amazing presentation format and layout, which should be expected from a presentation about portfolio’s. It had some great insights about the making of portfolio’s. The teacher had some great tips aswel. The conclusions?

• I need to do more on social media for my online presence: It has become blatantly clear that HR departments of companies will have to do a thorough search about you and your presence on the internet to get to know you and your work. It is in my very best interest if my presence on social media is as good as I can have it. I want them to see the things I want them to see. Right not, that is not the best I can do…
• If what you have isn’t high enough quality -> Fix it: This has been on my mind for some time now anyway. I have to redo some portfolio assets, since these are not up to the quality I would like them to be.
• I need to do more of my own projects: This part isn’t really a ‘must’. I think it would be very beneficial however, if I would make my own projects to show my interests better.

Then part 2: Existential crisis continues

In week one we were asked to fill in some questions about who we are as a designer. This week we were asked to revise and redo those questions to see if the answers still hold true. Who am I? Where do I come from? What inspires me? What makes me laugh? What do I think? Etc. I have never really been good at making my thoughts verbal. That’s why I am more of a visual thinker and a more creative type. My thoughts, which I rarely have since it’s all dust up there, are mostly pictures. If I am asked to answer questions like these it brings me into a sense of panic. I cannot find the answers in this medium because they don’t exactly exist in this way. Since I cannot find the answers I am stuck in the thoughts of: Am I even a designer?; Should I be a designer?; Should I do something else with my life?. Questions like these have been following me since I got here but they seem to creep up on my slowly. Like a snail that gets faster the further you try to get away from it. I am trying to find answers somewhere in that deep dark hole that you would call my mind, but I have not yet found any.

Am I going to find any? Maybe, hopefully. Let’s just say I would be content with any answer. An answer is an answer even if it doesn’t allign with where I am at right now. Is the answer different then what I am currently persuing, I would still finish this Major. It is always handy to have something to fall back on. So in hindsight, maybe it doesn’t matter all that much. The next few years are gonna be the same either way, might aswel make the most of it.

Author: Elnathan van Oostrum
12-04-2024

Thorough down to the last detail, long-lasting, unobtrusive and aesthetic are a few of the last design principles of Dieter Rams. The man that defined design in only 10 design principles and has had a lasting impact on the design world, something every designer dreams of. These last principles are also coincidentally big features for the designer themselves. A designer should be thorough down to the last detail, they should be going along with the times, they should be neutral and leave room for the design to speak for itself, and of course they should be thinking about aesthetic of the things they make. Every designer is different and every designer does things just a tiny bit differently. That’s why all of these things are a crucial part of their design Portfolio.

Yes I am touching on this subject again. The design portfolio. We have established that having a good portfolio is something I could work on. “I have to redo some portfolio assets, since these are not up to the quality I would like them to be.” As I said last week. This week we were given a chance to get this started, to show that we had what it takes to build a professional portfolio. So that’s exactly what I did. Below you’ll find a few of the pages I created.

During class we were divided into groups and each group was reviewing the work of the others. My feedback was mostly about the development page. I shouldn’t go black and white on pictures just because the colours don’t match with the overall colour palette of the project. Lesson learned.

Making this portfolio page was a lot more enjoyable than I thought. It was not at all boring and I had fun doing it. It is the quality I want it to be. I am curious how well I will be able to make the rest of my portfolio. I believe I can say that with this project page I was thorough down to the last detail, I made a page that will last for a long time, it is unobtrusive and it is aesthetically pleasing. As I approach the next year I will be making my portfolio completely, and I think this is a great start.

My journey

What is my dream-job and how do I get it? This was the question we were asked. We were asked to look for jobs on different websites. This way we could get insight in how difficult it can be to find a job… which it was. I knew people were always complaining about how difficult it can be to find an internship or fulltime job, but I never realised how difficult it actually was.

Firstly it was difficult to even find a good job. I searched and searched without any success. We didn’t have an infinite amount of time. In the last 10 minutes I realised how long I had been searching for. Not only did that make me realised how picky I was being, it also made me realise people were not overreacting when they were saying it’s hard to find jobs, even when looking on multiple sites.

When I finally found something interesting (wouldn’t say it was my dream-job but I was running out of time), I looked at the requirements… This was going to be more difficult then I thought. Of course they are asking for 4 years of experience and an over-the-top quality portfolio. I had some work to do. But I guess that was the point of the assignment. Self-realisation and self-evaluation.

I guess that’s the entire point of this module. Becoming the designer you want to be, making sure you won’t get into a job that you don’t like in the end. Learning about yourself is crucial if you want to become something more than you are now. It is as Seneca wrote “If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favourable.”

The last few months have been incredibly helpful in learning who I am, even though some of those months were filled with doubt. This module has been very helpful in my future as a designer. I don’t like it, but it has come to an end. Even though this is over, I feel like these questions will always come back to haunt me. A country I’m not familiar with, a language that isn’t my native one and people I have never met in my life. A culture shock that I hadn’t prepared myself for made it’s way into my day to day life. I can’t express how happy I am that this all happened. Maybe some day I’ll revisit, but until then: Farewell!