Design for Life

The TV program ‘Design for Life’ is very interesting in that it tell us on the elements that are essentials to become a great designers like Philippe Starck. Starck product design definition is simple- to design beautiful, useful and sustainable object that can be enjoy by everyone. Product designers do affect every part of our life every day. For example, the sofa that we are sitting on comfortably, the laptop that we are using, the table that we are using, the bed that we use to sleep, these are all the result of a product design in a way which deem by the product designer to be the best design. Thus, the role of product designers are very crucial for everyone in the world. Because, through design, we can change the behavior of the everyday life in our community. In the first round, Starck ask everyone to chose one of the follow theme- Function, Ecology or Gender.The first essential elements Starck is looking for is to ensure that the designers can look into the behind of the products, not just the product itself. For example, the 90 Euro bike one of the candidate has bought due to the symbolize of sustainability which is less car, less pollutant gas. Neverthess, he forget to see that the bike at such a cheap price is only possible to produce with the exploitation of the cheap labour in the developing countries. Thus he forget to see behind the meaning of buying such a cheap bike. One of the more successful one is the celebrity products, it is because celebrities are selling their own product with their name on them and a lot of people are buying them not because they are better than their same range of product or anything but only because they have the celebrity name on them. This is unsustainability and not really functionally useful.
Overall, through this video, I learn that we have to really question our product first before we really design something. Are they useful? Sustainable? For male or female? Also, we have to put in feelings and emotions, not just a plain design concept pieces to get a good design. There are already too many pointless product in the market, like the Ipod cases which are being produce, providing that the ipod is already a very strong product with a hard and durable case. So as a design, we have to make sure that our product is not just another product out there in the market with pointless aim and don’t good any good for the society.