Design timely things, things that can last longer by being able to change over time. Design things that are not finished, things that can keep on by keeping on being repaired and altered, things in motion.
Cameron Tonkenwise, Is Design Finished? From Issue 2, 2005, Design Philosophy Papers.
Cameron's brilliant essay highlights some issues that have been plaguing me recently. In the processes of designing things, the designer looks toward the material world to observe the things that fill up the space of our everyday existence. We look at how things age... how things are used... how things break. Ultimately trying to fathom how the patina of everyday existence builds upon the objects in our lives. Somehow, this 'social life' of objects, their wear and tear, breaths life into things that designers only half complete.
Design sets out to understand how things are used and experienced, with the hope to improve future versions of things we design. It seems strange that ultimately we will remain distanced from the objects we form - never quite seeing the secret life of our everyday things.
Design is caught in a perpetual sate of becoming. That's one of the reasons i find it so exciting.
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