1. Ethical considerations for designers. What issues do you think are important for designers today?

Nowadays, designers are usually separated into two major types, the first one are designers with a company who are working in companies and design relative products or graphic design for the company. while the other types will be the freelancers who work freely and do not belong to any company or private groups. There is a big difference between the two major types and most of the designers work in companies to make a living. Designers owned by companies need to follow regulations or designing plans of the company, they are not allowed to choose what they want to design widely. Furthermore, the style and product details are not changeable freely, they need to fit the image of the brands and companies. Therefore, the designers working in companies usually lost a part of their freedom to design, their designing space is limited and reduced.

On the other hand, freelance designer are usually personal designers or not belong to companies. They can freely select the product, style and nearly everything whatever they are interested. They do not need to follow any regulations, do not mind the images of companies, they can express themselves perfectly with their design. Moreover, without the limitations of companies, designers can design and try a lot brand new project which may be shut down by companies because of the problem of cost, popularity or limited revenue. Just like the meaning of freelancer, designers are free to show their unique design and style to the public instead of fitting their style into exciting products.

Unique and styles is the most important factors for designers in my point of view. Every designer is unique and different in mind, there is now way to find out two totally same designers. That indicates that the products designed by different designers should not be the same, for the same product some designers may focus on the beauty of the product but some may focus on the function of the products. Therefore designers should always keep the unique and special features of themselves in order to design different style of products. Having a same product with only color difference will bored people from time to time. Dieter rams will be a unique and representative designer who keeps his own principle in product design. And Braun is one of the well known company among the world fully introduced the idea ‘ less, but better’ of Dieter rams. Dieter rams was working for Otto Apel shortly before he join the design apartment of Braun, being the chief designer of the company, he kept introducing his principle with Braun product for instance, the phonograph SK-4, slide projector D45, D46 and the 606 universal shelving system and 620 chair programme for Vitsoe. To further strengthen his principle and improve his design, he even create ten basic principle for designing a good product. The Braun company is still one of the most popular brand among the world and the continuous and keep using the principle from Dieter rams. Dieter rams fully indicates that how important it is to keep the unique principle and styles of designers, products will be extraordinary only with unique minds and innovative.

Bibliography:

Sophie Lovell – Dieter Rams As Little Design as Possible (4 Jun. 2011)

Vitsoe 2020 – About dieter-rams https://www.vitsoe.com/gb/about/dieter-rams

 Luke Hayes and Design Museum Collection 2020 – Introduction of dieter rams form design museum https://designmuseum.org/designers/dieter-rams

CHARLIE OCT 13, 2015 – Dieter Rams’ 10 Principles For Good Design https://theultralinx.com/2015/10/dieter-rams-10-principles-for-good-design/

2.What is the impact of gender on design practice? Do you think there is an impact? You could think about the construction of masculinity and femininity in relation to the design or promotion of a product

There is surely an impact of gender on design practice especially on the promotion of products. First of all, the different gender of designer will lead to product variation and difference of product styles. NIVEA will be a popular brand for body and face caring products, it is also good at gender differentiation. For instance, the branding color of NIVEA is blue, for all the femininity product the color will be blue, pinky or mostly to be colorful to attract female users. While NIVEA also have a seperate list called ‘NIVEA MEN’ which sells masculinity products and the color are mainly dark blue, black or sliver white which suits the feeling of men. Moreover, the femininity products are usually with a round shape with a smooth feeling, while the masculinity products have a common geometric shape with a tough and strong feelings. The difference of product color, shape and even function will help to attract different gender buyers as men usually care about cleaning while women care more about skin protection or smell. Furthermore, when it comes to promotion of the product, NIVEA will focus on the cleanness, freshness when promoting the masculinity products, which will suit the needs of male users. While for the femininity products, companies will focus on the scent, skin protection effort and skin smoothing function in order to attract female users. Therefore, the gender separation of product will surely help to sell corresponding products to suitable users.
On the other hand, the male and female designers may also have difference in designing products. Female designers can have a better understanding of the mind and feelings of female users, they can then design more product suitable for women to use relatively. Alternatively, male designer will understand the focus and important factors when male shopping and using products. Thus, they can design relative product which can focus on the needs of male users. This will greatly help to improve the product function as they will be perfectly fit the demand of users. Moreover some of the femininity products and masculinity products are only useful to the relative gender, for instance the shaving product for men and the deodorant spray for women. With the gender separation of the products, customers can quickly access, browse and buy the relatively products they want. Therefore, the promotion, placing and design of products will definitely affected by the gender impact.

Bibliography:

NIVEA UK (2020) https://www.nivea.co.uk/products

3. Design responses – Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility. Write about one specific example of sustainable design or corporate social responsibility.

The sustainable design is being a hot topic recently. People, government and companies have a lot more concern on the global warming, green house effect and environmental problems than before. ‘Sustainable design seeks to reduce negative impacts on the environment, and the health and comfort of building occupants, thereby improving building performance. The basic objectives of sustainability are to reduce consumption of non-renewable resources, minimize waste, and create healthy, productive environments.’ (GSA 2020 – Sustainable Design) Sustainable design principles include the ability to optimize site potential, use environmentally preferable products, protect and conserve water. A good sustainable design not only can attract a lot of fans and buyers, it can also help to save our planet, reduce environmental pollution and problems. Talking about shoes brands, NIKE and ADIDAS will surely be the first two brands come up in our mind. Actually, ADIDAS is a environmental friendly brand which produce a lot of products made of recycled raw materials. The ULTRABOOST 20 SHOES will be a perfect example, the raw material of ULTYRABOOST 20 SHOES is Primeblue. Primeblue is a performance fabric made with Parley ocean plastic. Parley Ocean Plastic is the intercepted plastic from beaches and coastal communities before it reaches the oceans, these plastic products are usually collected by locals or green organizations. Therefore, the ULTRABOOST 20 SHOES will definitely a good example of the sustainable design as it has a lot of potential in the market, the Primeblue materials is environmental friendly raw materials and it can help to reduce shock and water resistant which are comfortable and suitable to made the SHOES BOOST. It also fit the requiring of use environmentally preferable products as Primeable is the intercepted plastic collected from beaches and coastal communities which are plastic garbage and no useful products. They may be harmful to the ocean water quality and ocean animals once they are flushed into the ocean. And for sure the Primeblue materials can surely help to protect and conserve water. It can efficiently urge more people to concern about the ocean and environmental problems as well as it can urge more people to reduce throwing their plastic product on the beach and help picking up the plastic rubbish on the beach or coastal areas. Moreover, the ULTRABOOST 20 SHOES are also the most popular product in the shoes series of ADIDAS brand. The feedback from buyers is really nice, according to ADIDAS website, it have a generally 4.8 stars out of 5 with total 1800+ ratings and reviews and 97% of the buyers would like to recommend this product. These status clearly show us that ULTRABOOST 20 SHOES is a perfect and well-known example for sustainable design. ADIDAS is now launching a new project called futurecarft.loop which is about one shoe one material with 100% recyclable TPU and designed to be remade without ever loosing performance. It is clearly shown that ADIDAS is a company full of environmental friendly ideas.

Bibliography:

GSA 2020 – Sustainable Design https://www.gsa.gov/real-estate/design-construction/design-excellence/sustainability/sustainable-design

ADIDAS 2020 – ULTRABOOST 20 SHOES https://www.adidas.co.uk/ultraboost-20-shoes/EG0756.html

4. Is design global? Identify and analyse a design approach that takes cultural difference into account

‘Cultural difference involves the integrated and maintained system of socially acquired values, beliefs, and rules of conduct which impact the range of accepted behaviors distinguishable from one societal group to another.’(Jackson A., Guerra N.S. (2011) Cultural Difference) Cultural differences is closely linked to the relationship of human with the related external environment. Therefore, human with a different living, working environment and study systems may have different belief, personality or views toward same product or things. Food is a clear example to show design approach that takes cultural difference in different places or countries. However, even the same restaurant, fast-food shop or food brand, they may have a different menu in different places. McDonalds is a famous burger restaurant all over the world, the first McDonalds was opened in 1954 by Ray Korc located in California. McDonalds also have their concerns when it opens on different countries and places. ‘From the start, we’ve been committed to doing the right thing. And every day, all around the globe, we put people, processes and practices into place to make quality food, more responsible sourcing choices, a stronger community and a better planet.’(McDonald’s (2017 – 2020) Values In Action) McDonald’s did success to offer different menu which fit the flavor and the taste of the locals, they also adjust their menu to include the local food culture. For instance, the breakfast, MyCafe, and Happy Meal are all different between Hong Kong and United Kingdom. In Hong Kong, the breakfast will have Sausage N’ Egg Twisty Pasta, Grilled Chicken Twisty Pasta, etc other than common burgers and pancakes. It is because Hong Kong people like to have pasta with soup which is a kind of local cultural. While in UK there are not pasta supply but Breakfast Wrap series and the Quaker Oat So Simple series. These food are a lot common and usual to the UK people as they would like to calculate the food calorie and stay healthy life style which is also a kind of UK local life style. For the MyCafe menu, Hong Kong McDonald will provide a lot of tea, fruit tea series drinks other than the common coffee as Chinese would like to have a cup of tea but not only coffees. Croissant, Toastie and Thick Toast are also provided in Hong Kong McDonald as they are part of the common food in local cha chaan teng which is Cantonese Yale a kind of Eastern and Western restaurants. While for the UK McDonald, there are several meal is named after the calorie, for instance, Main meals under 400karl. These indicate that UK people and some trainers tends to have a straight diet and meal control. These meals will attract more trainers and healthy sponger to buy and fit their needs. It is clearly shown that McDonald had brought a lot of local food cultural and elements into both Hong Kong and UK McDonald. McDonald is a food brand successfully did a designed menu which takes different cultural and local custom into it.

Bibliography:

Jackson A., Guerra N.S. (2011) Cultural Difference https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-0-387-79061-9_752

McDonald’s (2017 – 2020) Values In Action https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-us/values-in-action.html

McDonald’s (2017 – 2020) Menu (UK) https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/menu/breakfast.html

McDonald’s (2017 – 2020) Meals and Value (HK) https://www.mcdonalds.com.hk/ch/food/meals-and-value-explorer-view/extra-value-breakfasts-explorer-view.html

5. Reflection Reflect on the process of researching and writing your blog. Consider how you have approached your topics; interesting areas you have researched; suggest what you might cover in your blog if you were going to continue.

This is the first time I had built a formal blog, I did try to have post and sharing on Facebook and Instagram. However it is difference as a lot of searching, quoting are required unlike the normal post just sharing some usual life and mood without and academic research. I think it really helps me a lot through out the whole process as writing a blog in interesting and I can actually enhanced my knowledge base a lot while searching and writing it. Furthermore, I can get some feedback from tutors, it will be great if anyone else would read my blog and give me feedback. That will really help me improved myself as I can directly enhance my writing and the contents through the comments. If I am going to continue the blog, I will do more research on the environmental friendly brands as I think we all have a duty to protect our planet and keep it healthy. I am interested in the brands which concern about environment a lot as I think they are the companies keep moving forward. They are not only aims to earn more money and income but also concern and care about the environment which is more attractive than others.As a design major student, I understand the choice of materials will make a difference even on the same product and if the materials are recyclable and reusable, it will surely attract a lot of concern and become a hot topic around us. Therefore, I will also try to study and write blogs about the product materials aspect.

Chan YuYan, Bill P2548341

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