Rules?

Here are my rules: what can be done with one substance must never be done with another. No two materials are alike. No two sites on earth are alike. No two buildings have the same purpose. The person, the site, the material determine the shape. Nothing can be reasonable or beautiful unless it's made by one central idea, and the idea sets every detail. A building is alive, like a man. Its integrity is to follow its own truth, its one single theme, and to serve its own single purpose. A man doesn't borrow pieces of his body. A building doesn't borrow hunks of its soul. Its maker gives it the soul and every wall, window and stairway to express it.
-The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

Monday, November 29, 2010

Design in Society

The root of design is in its aspirations for creating a better world with certain functions prevailing. In Kostas Terzidis article “The Etymology of Design: Pre-Socratic Perspective,  he discusses how the greek root of design is related to something we once had, but have no longer, and how the etymology of the word “existence is not only about the distant past, the beginning of things, but also even further because it involves a step beyond, below, or beneath the starting point” (Terzidis, 73). The etymology of utopia comes from the roots u + topos, meaning “no place” or “an ideal place.” Design can be directed not only to reach an ideal place, but to take us back to a time before and beyond it, where we believe all of our dreams come to fruition. Doug and Lisa Powell have begun an idealistic trek down this design road, inspired by their family crises that they share with millions of Americans today.

Image taken from: http://schwartzpowell.com/story.html

Doug and Lisa Powell are husband and wife at Schwartz Powell Design in Minneapolis, and recently learned that their 7 year-old daughter, Maya, was diagnosed with Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes. The diabetes information that was available generally related to Type 2 diabetes and was extremely technical and had a clinical perspective that was not user-friendly. So the design duo went to work on creating a way to grasp and communicate the information to their daughter in a fun way that spoke through a kid-friendly, can do attitude. They created flashcards, charts, forms, and cheat-sheets into a product called Type 1 Tools, originally intended for their daughter, however they saw the incredible benefit America would have with this kind of product being available. The Type 1 Tools product informs people in a friendly and easy way all about Diabetes and how to create a great life with diabetes. 
Image taken from: http://schwartzpowell.com/story3.html

The duo saw that much of their Type 1 Tools was applicable to people with Type 2 (Adult onset) diabetes and began creating products for them, as well as saw the potential for products for others with similar chronic diseases. Doug states that “our goal is to help other families and eventually help eliminate this disease that affects so many lives. We’re donating some of the proceeds to diabetes-related organizations, so that someday there won’t be a need for products like ours.” Through their work, Schwartz Powell Design is helping bring our society closer to a utopia, a time even before and beyond such troubles as diabetes.
Image taken from: http://schwartzpowell.com/story2.html


Works Cited 
"HealthSimple Story." Schwartz Powell. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. <http://schwartzpowell.com/story.html>. 
Potts, Emily. "A Designing Duo Creates Useful Healthcare Tools." STEP Inside Design ­ Graphic Design Magazine with Profiles of Successful Companies, Firms, Projects, and Graphic Designers. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. <http://www.stepinsidedesign.com/STEPMagazine/Article/28579/index.html>. 
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