Dieter Rams Principle and McLuhans Concept - Essay Example

Dieter Rams principle and McLuhan’s Concept Introduction Ram is a German designer. His approach and belief in better design generated a timelessness nature in his products, and his work has influenced many product designs. This work secured Ram recognition and appreciation worldwide. In his career life as a designer, Ram introduced the idea of development that is sustainable and of obsolescence was regarded as a crime in the 1970’s1. Accordingly, Ram used his imagination to ask himself questions of whether his design was good, and his answers led to the formation of the ten principles of good design that are celebrated today. He outlined his principles of a good design as innovation, usefulness, aesthetic, understandable, unobtrusive, honest, thorough, as little design as possible, environmentally friendly and long lasting. This straightforward list of ten principles lay down important points in the design. What the points do is explaining clearly what constitutes a good design. This information is used as a source of their inspiration, and virtually every designer appreciates it. On the other hand, Marshall McLuhan was one of the prominent and influential Canadian theoreticians in media. He extensively worked on the electronic media, and his work had a great effect on several people who were his followers. This has changed the way people are viewing and perceiving the new media. His writing “understanding the media” became the “bible” in the media studies. His work transformed the general outlook of the media and media perception2. Background Several people in the art and design field have argued it out for a long period, during this time; art has always been seen to be attractive to the people who are observing that is the observers. These people tend typo hold their belief in that art does not necessarily need to have and bear any meaning as long as the artists portrays his skillful art through skills and creativity in the use of color. To these people, art is just all about creativity and imagination. Whatever the artist is thinking of or imagining does not necessarily mean it must have a story line behind it. It can be something out of the blue that the artist has just imagined of it. Therefore, to them artwork is field where individuals show their skills3. On the other hand, another category of people in the artwork believes that for artwork to be good, it has to portray a certain meaning to the observers. The artwork must be making sense and have a story line from which the picture was drawn4. To these people, the work of art is profound and extraordinary. According to this group, Art is not just a mixture of colors applied on the surface rather art bears a strong meaning and influence to the people observing. Art is a tool of communication that passes information from the person drawing to the masses. It can be used as a communication media by the artist who not only displays his skills in painting and drawing but also in passing information through art. This group of artists or people believe that before drawing and painting any piece of artwork, the artists must have had a motive and a story that he or she wanted to bring it out through his or her artistic work. From their argument, it is noted that art is unique. Art transcends beyond drawing, and it can be used to attach individuals to their feelings and actions in the society. Thesis This paper will be employing the use of Dieter Rams ten principles of good design and Marshall McLuhan’s “the media is the message “to help in decoding the messages in Michelangelo’s painting that are said to be having hidden meanings- the creation of Adam: the floating brain Divinity. In my writing, I will show that in my design I am using Dieter Ram’s principle and McLuhan’s concept. I will also discuss the information by Gaya Sırmabıyık painting that are said to be having some meanings that are hidden- la petite mort. In addition, I am going to show in my design that I will be using Dieter Rams principles and McLuhan’s concept. Dieter Rams principle and McLuhan’s Concept Dieter Ram’s ten principles and the creation of Adam Dieter Ram’s ten principles on art and design states that the piece of artwork must be innovative and must be having a good aesthetic that attracts the viewers. According to Dieters ten principles, a good design must make the product useful, good design makes a product understandable, must be unobtrusive, must be honest, must be long lasting, must be thorough in paying attention to details, must be environmental friendly. Finally, it must be as little design as possible5. The creation of Adam differs from the typical creation scenes that were painted until Michelangelo’s time. In his paintings, the two figures are dominating the scene. God is painted on the right whereas Adam is painted on the left. In the painting, God is in a floating nebulous form that is made up of drapery. The painting obeys Ram’s design principles in that it is simple. It displays a clear information to the observer. God is shown as an elderly and a muscular being with grey beard that reacts forward. The painting of the creation of Adam is a far cry from what is known. In the painting, rather than God being presented as an all-powerful being, he is shown putting on royal garments he is painted putting on simple light clothing’s leaving much of his hands and legs exposed. My design La petite mort perfume The la petite mort is a French word that stands for “little death”. It is an idiom and metaphor for organism. La petite mort creates an inspiration from bottle mock-up package. From the drawings of la petite mort, it is seen that la petite perfumes draw its inspiration from different flowers. Each flower has a different scent, and this creates an inspiration of la petite mort to create a variety of products from the several flowers to create a sexy, classic and sophisticated scents. Without any vulgar image, la petite displays images that accompany one of the provocative concepts in perfumery. The bodily fluid that is only secreted through the brain chemistry and desire directly inspires the formation of La petite mort perfume. La petite mort embodies the elusive substance that is normally created by a woman when she is almost reaching climax. The use of women in the diagrams tries to portray the message that each perfume is unique, and each is a brand of its own. Using Rams principles, the drawings on la petite mort perfumes are very simple6. The message they portray are direct and easily understood by the observers. There are no complications on the diagrams since the diagrams are aiming at passing their message easily and quickly to the individuals observing. McLuhan’s the medium is the message The concept of Marshall Media paradigm is perhaps the most crucial notion of the medium being in the message. In McLuhan’s eyes, the “content” in one medium may probably be another medium on its own. According to McLuhan, the content of any message is not important, the content is always known and therefore nothing new is generated from it neither can it be used to recreate beings. Rather, the content is used in distracting individuals from the real effect that the media can create7. In his writing, “understanding the media”, McLuhan states that it is typical to be blinded by the content of any means of the medium to the mediums characters. This indicates that the observers of the artworks are concentrating more with the content that is the message being portrayed by the paintings that they tend to ignore what the message brings to them. According to McLuhan, for individuals to realize the extent of the effect of the medium so that he or she can avoid its hypnotic grip, he or she must learn how the medium is operating8. From this perspective, artists can look things from several angles. They can break the traditional perspective hence provide valuable insights into the nature of things. This can be used in the capacity of art to make piercing on the surface of things. It can also be used to reveal the nature that can be used in deciphering media effect. Using the perfume project, La petite Mort, my design of the perfume includes both the Dieter Ram’s principle of design and the concepts of McLuhan. From the pictures that are used to define the perfumes, the pictures are simple for every perfume where the type of flower from which the perfume was extracted from also accompanies the picture. La petite drawings use skull drawing to add aesthetic value. The content of these drawing does not in relation to the medium is different. In a different perspective, the content conveyed by La petite mort is about the perfumes and the type of flowers that it was extracted from. Conclusion The principles of a good design by Ram and the phrase of McLuhan, help to support La petite mort design. The art is better understood and appreciated by the meaning it contains rather than the medium, which it uses to pass the message. La petite mort obeys the principles of a good design in passing its message to the observers. On the other hand, using McLuhan “medium is the message”, la petite mort passes its message and intentions to the people in a simple manner. Reference Ambrose, Gavin, and Paul Harris. 2011. Packaging the brand: the relationship between packaging design and brand identity. Lausanne, Switzerland: AVA Academia. Chick, Anne, and Paul Micklethwaite. 2011. Design for sustainable change how design and designers can drive the sustainability agenda. Lausanne: AVA Academia. http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/?fpi=9782940439775. Gaubinger, Kurt. 2014. Innovation and product management: a holistic and practical approach to uncertainty reduction. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54376-0. Lovell, Sophie. 2011. As little design as possible: the work of Dieter Rams. London: Phaidon. Marchand, Philip. 1998. Marshall McLuhan: the medium and the messenger. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.]: MIT Press. Mcluhan, Marshall. 2011. Medium is the massage: an inventory of effects. Corte Madera: Gingko Press. McLuhan, Marshall, and W. Terrence Gordon. 2003. Understanding media: the extensions of man. Corte Madera (CA): Gingko Press. McLuhan, Marshall, and W. Terrence Gordon. 2005. Marshall McLuhan. Corte Madera, CA: Ginko Press Read More