Eventually we put “engineering” and “art” on opposite ends of a spectrum and decided design falls somewhere in the middle. Going towards the art end on that spectrum, once we are past design, things get really hard for me to grasp and apparently for Kate same is true going in the opposite direction.

I promised I would post definitions (from Webster Dictionary) of both on my blog so here they are:

ART: the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects

DESIGN: the arrangement of elements or details in a product or work of art

I don’t think I agree with either of these definitions but I am a lot more likely to challenge the definition of design than the definition of art.

Defne’s Notes from the talk :

“A lot of times design is just cleaning of the edges and corners.” – Even though it sounds like an easy task, it can be very challenging to “just” clean the edges and corners.

“Japanese toilets are different. They are life changing!”

“People often say my design is like something that already exists. But it doesn’t.” – What does it take to get to that point where you can design products that are so simple and straight forward that it seems like they should already exist. Being capable of such design is one thing but it seems like not having to justify such a simple design requires being at a whole another level. It seems like you have to earn the right to design simple things for them to not to fall into the “insignificant” category.

“The act of sitting exists even without the existence of chairs”.

Extracting inspiration from the “peeled potato edge”.

Unfortunately I don’t know what is causing the streaks, and how to get rid of them.