Design

Here's the thing, I think you can tell the design of something is good when over time its design becomes its brand. Or if the design stands the test of time (Poetry!)

You know all those things on the shelf at the department store, the ones that get re-jigged every few months, new colours, rounded corners, shiny, pointy corners, stainless steal, new colours again, stripes! All rubbish, all temporary, all bad for the environment, all unsatisfying in the long term.

The problem is we get this little hit of endorphins every time we experience something new, its a hangover from a time when new stuff was rare in the life of a human and needed to be grabbed at all costs. But of course we are bombarded with the possibility of new stuff now, and our quest to have more all the time is at the core of most of the worlds problems.

If I am designed to crave new things and my new life isn't going to allow for me to have many then I am determined to crave something that will last, something useful. KitchenAid mixers have looked and worked the same for about 60 years from what I can tell. The look of the mixer has become a symbol of its quality. The design doesn't need updating because it already works so well. People talk of having and using them regularly for decades. Mmmmmmmm decades.

What an achievement, can you think of any other products that still look like they did in the 60's?

This relationship between old tested designs and the human need for the new relates to the game I'm working on too. Its an established format for a game, but I feel the need to squeeze some new ideas in there somewhere. But that's for another post.