“One could describe Design as a plan for arranging elements to accomplish a particular purpose.” Charles Eames, Design Q&A (1972)
Charles Eames is an iconic designer who took pleasure seriously. He looked at the feeling of pleasure is something worth pursuing with keen intellectual and artisanal craftsmanship. I’m a thinker, dreamer and wanderer too if I cancel all my responsibilities, but mostly, I’m a thinker. My approach to design whether when I won a gold-award for designing a brand identity (KREA 2006), when I design a client’s presentation, proposal, this website or a social gathering at home for a pizza-making party in our back garden, I plan the components based on their purpose. Everything has a reason and a function regardless of how small its part may be. It all adds up. The human body is a vessel of smaller organisms. The universe is a collage of atoms. Details make the whole and the essence of planning is to think of and put together what to include and exclude, how to do so and why. The why part is where Purpose resides. It’s mainly connected to whom I’m doing it for. To me, that’s what design thinking is all about. And for that reason, I find Charles Eames definition of design, as mechanical as it may sound at first, to be profound and meaningful as the function of design itself.
In journalism, the five Ws and H (what, who, where, when, why, and how) are the foundation of any story, article, press release or coverage. I don’t find design thinking that different from answering the five Ws and H. The difference for me is on the emphasis. In design, I focus more on deeply understanding the who, what, and why at first. The when and where follow suit. The how part is where pleasure lives and where magic happens. Happy designing!
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