Why some design never gets appreciated:

Pete · Nov 16, 2009

Just got my copy of Develop3D magazine delivered today, and found an interesting article to continue the Apple post in the "off-topic" thread http://www.mechanicaldesignforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=676.

Incidentaly, Develop3D is a free magazine in the UK which "tracks all the essential technologies used throughout the entire product development process". And one which I would highly recomend for a good read and upto date industry technology.

Following an influx of feedback in relation to October's cover story on the Apple Mac, Al Dean was saddened to realise that some design never gets appreciated simply because of what it stands for in society.

Last monthâ€™s cover story was all about the rise of Appleâ€™s hardware products in the design market. For a magazine thatâ€™s devoted to technology used within product development, this seemed like a good move. After all, thereâ€™s a renewed activity in the platform with native applications. And of course, itâ€™s Apple. Everyone likes Apple, right? It would appear not.
Iâ€™m used to getting rather odd e-mails from readers, people looking for assistance with projects theyâ€™re working on (the designer of the ultimate slide rule springs to mind) and over the years weâ€™ve seen our fair share of email that can be safely stored in the â€œslightly peculiarâ€ folder. But weâ€™ve never been accused of â€œmacfaggotryâ€ before. It appears that one of our readers took umbrage with the coverage, citing the fact that he didnâ€™t like Apple, what its products stood for and the sheep like nature of its fans. He was so incensed that he asked to cancel his free subscription.

I have t say that I was a bit taken aback. That by covering a single hardware vendor, amongst the many others we write about each month, could elicit such a response. But when you get a brand that is loved so passionately by some itâ€™s obvious that you will get an equally strong and opposite reaction.

The thing is people donâ€™t necessarily hate Macs for what they do, and how they are designed, they hate them for what they represent. And for some thatâ€™s a pretentious wannabe author sipping a cappuccino in Starbucks, pondering life and his latest novel â€“ or so says the YouTube clips weâ€™ve seen.

Of course I understand that people want to distance themselves from such stereotypes, but itâ€™s sad when design is disregarded out of hand for what it, or rather what it does. Many Mac detractors â€“ and I admit I used to be one â€“ have never even used a Mac.

Luckily, not all design is not clouded by what it represents in society. Good design is good design and like the Apple products I love, is usually most successful when itâ€™s unobtrusive.

This was hammered home to me recently when watching the film Objectified, Gary Huswitâ€™s impressive follow up to his successful documentary about a single typeface, Helvetica. This time, he turned his attention to industrial design and took a look at the people behind some of the worldâ€™s most beautifully designed products.

What follows is a rather wonderful one hour and fifteen minutes of interviews with some of the leading lights of the design world. It features the older masters like Dieter Rams and Naoto Fukosawa, the big headliners like Karim Rashid and Marc Newson and arguably more influential but less known, such as the team at Smart Design.

The film presents some beautiful examples of design. Smart Designâ€™s work on Good Grip kitchenwear is an elegant rework of a purely functional object that serves its purpose beautifully. Complex functions are hidden within a wonderfully simple form in Dieter Ramâ€™s canon of work with Braun. Or for true Japanese minimalism, thereâ€™s Naoto Fukosawaâ€™s wall mounted CD player for Muji.

Of course, it also features Jonathan Ive of Apple, who talks about the simplicity of design, the design of simplicity and the simple pleasure of holding a nicely designed object. And this is how many people feel when using a Mac. They like its simple form. They like the simplicity and stability of OS X. And they like the quality of the hardware.

While digesting the impact that simple computer could have on someoneâ€™s emotions, I realised that DEVELOP 3D was conceived on an Apple Mac, by four guys sat around a cappuccino-laden table in Starbucks. I donâ€™t for one minute think that anyone thought we were pretentious authors collaborating on our latest novel, but hey, who knows? The fruit-based logo has been known to invoke strange reactions in people.
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Forum

cwarner7_11 · Jun 7, 2010

Actually, I am of the opinion that if I am conscious of the "design" aspect of a product I am using, it most likely is "over-designed" to the point of interference with functionality. "Design", in my opinion, should compliment functionality, not drive functionality- although there are exceptions to this, like the original Jaguar automobiles (pre-Ford days). A sexy Italian sports car may win all the accolades from the design mavens, but can not hold a candle to an original Jaguar from the standpoint of transporting my body from point A to point B in a comfortable fashion.
By the way- I do not use a MAC because I can not run the software I use most often on a MAC. I do not use Windows because the security issues interfere with the functionality I am after. Although I would never again buy a Hewlett Packard computer, my all time favorite computer was a Hewlett-Packard Integral, which was about the size of the original Compaq transportable, but included a built-in dot matrix printer, running the HPUX version of Unix. Now THAT was a well-designed machine!

Why some design never gets appreciated:

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