De Bono’s “3 intellectual ages of man” are-
0-5 yrs: “WHY”
5-10 yrs: “WHY NOT”
10-75 yrs: “BECAUSE”
This concept stood out to me because there is something evident presented to us through the childrens’ designs that contrast starkly with the design process of an adult. De Bono’s attributes this partially to a child’s ability to design in ideas rather than “things”. This is extremely true in adult designers to design in terms of “things” or concrete and tangible ideas that are meant to make more sense of things that already make sense. It’s a successful way to “design” in some respect. But it also is a narrow field of vision, the childrens’ designs utilized whatever they could imagine and were able to communicate it with broad imagery, where as a professional adult designer presents concepts with very firm imagery, showing exactly what will be accomplished and how, leaving nothing up to actual imagination, but mere forces of the world that have already been invented for better or for worse. For a quick example: designing a house out of non-sustainable materials – because its easy to recognize / understand / and implement. But in the end you still have a structure trapped in a viscous cycle of unsuccessful design practice.
For my small scale example, I wanted to look at something musical because the new era of digital music is producing new products that completely abandon all traditional analog rules of music, resulting in a redefinition of musical instruments. Teenage Engineering’s Op1 “Portable Synthesizer” re-envisions the idea of a keyboard and transforms this into something that matches the digital era of music creation – with a plethora of interactive effects and computer compatibility. The entire concept and physical design is a way that product design blurred the idea for physical musical instruments. (I.E. the traditional “keys” have been replaced with buttons, still playable but not completely emphasized)
An example of playing with design in architecture is accomplished with the projects of Frank Gehry. Designs such as the Guggenheim quite literally play with basic elements such as light and shape to distort traditional architecture – creating something completely unique and new.
The first thing to come to mind in “playing” with larger scale urban design is the works of Kevin Lynch, and his re-envisioning of the way we analyze the success of city planning. Rather than envisioning the city as a one dimensional sole entity- Lynch came up with 5 “dimensions” to analyze urban planning as an integrated “organism” that grows and develops along with its inhabitants.
Response from Elliot
I was also intrigued by the concept that children design in ideas rather than things. However, I disagree that most adults design just things rather than ideas. In many of my classes for ID, we are told to get ideas down rather than to come up with a product right away. An idea is a very open concept where a solid thing doesnt allow for much more creative thought. I also included Gehry in my assignment, I think he has a very good approach to architecture and has a playfulness that can be very appealing. I wouldnt really be surprised if more people add him to their writtings this week. The keyboard is also an interesting product. I like how they try to move away from traditional keys but kept them in basically the same position, the white keys lower and black keys above and centered between white keys. It is an interesting concept and reminds me of a beat pad that can produce and unlimited amount of sounds.
Nate Kaylor: Design Thinking 