Design is important. It’s in our everyday lives. Someone designed everything around you. Unfortunately few things are designed well. Most things have an unforeseeable design flaw. Or they simply don’t look good. Like the grey, boring buildings we have created to cover the earth.
Designing is easy. Designing well is hard. Few do it good. Good design serves a purpose, communicates a message, and is aesthetically pleasing at the same time.
Why design matters
It communicates
Design is another way of communication. Every time a designer or artist creates something, they are trying to communicate something to the world.
In fact, design makes communication easier as it can project a message in a simpler way for people to understand. While science can give us facts and statistics, design can be used to translate what is hard to understand to everyone else.
If we want people to act for a certain cause, showing them graphs will not persuade them. On the other hand, if they see a well-crafted video or illustration explaining those same things, they are more likely to change themselves and get motivated.
It can change opinions
Believe it or not, design is powerful. It makes you think differently. Currently, we as a society prefer visual things. Our attention span has become so short because of mobile phones. Design is able to communicate something much faster to an individual. Additionally, design can capture abstract ideas that are perhaps hard to explain.
Let’s take filmmaking for example. It’s a very powerful art form. It’s actually what persuaded me to change the way I live. Watching films like Minimalism and Game Changers, inspired me to change myself and alter my daily habits.
Everything from the typography, to the layout, affect how something is perceived by someone. Not everyone will like it but your aim is to get half the people to absolutely love it!
When people look at something, they will either quickly forget about it or will stay in their mind. Getting something to be noticed in a world where there is so much variety is becoming harder and more challenging. Good design is memorable.
It affects how we feel
People don’t empathize with statistics. However, creatives have the power to make people feel a certain way. For each person, design means something different.
Depending on what something looks like, it makes you feel something different. We enjoy looking at beautiful products and buildings. It’s the reason so many people spend so much money. Because they want to acquire good looking things to put in their homes. It’s one of the things that make people happy. That includes cars, homes, home decor, technology, etc.
Whether it’s something in nature or something an individual made, we enjoy admiring or using beautiful things. And I don’t think people will ever stop loving beautiful things.
Another quick 6thing to mention is that it can make you trust or distrust a person or business. And this is yet another reason why good design is important.
Can make our lives better and easier
Humans designed this society we are living in from scratch. The only reason we are where we are today is because creative people were bold enough to introduce crazy ideas into the world. Design is everywhere. It’s what made every single product you use in your daily life and what made buildings come into existence.
It can make our lives better in various ways. First of all, well-designed products can make us save time and allow us to focus on more important activities. Additionally, good architecture and interior design make living in our homes more enjoyable, and finally, it allows us to do things that would be otherwise impossible to complete. Unquestionably, the design has changed the world for good.
Moreover, design can make life easier to understand. Especially because we are exposed to so much information from advertising, social media, and the news for instance. We often don’t have time to read through long manuals and articles in our busy lives. Well, with good design, we will no longer have to.
It can save the world
The final reason why design matters is because it can save the world. Alongside the brilliant minds of other professions, we can redesign a more sustainable society.
Without a doubt, we can use it to solve all of our modern problems. Design is what will bring everyone and everything together. Using the knowledge we have, we can design ‘green’ buildings, better and more sustainable products, and create a circular economy.
Impact of Design On Society
Design has an impact on your life every single day. Those people who say art and design are not important must live in a cave because society is built on design. It’s so important and we cannot underestimate the power of it.
We wouldn’t be a civilization without it. It’s this creativity that separates us from other animals. Nevertheless, there’s still room for improvement.
We need to take a more sustainable approach towards design. One of the ways to do this is through timeless designs. Timeless design means that it won’t go out of style. People will always love it. Therefore, we won’t have to update our wardrobe style, our homes, or our car because they will forever be trendy.
Right now, I would say most prefer the minimalist design style and that’s why Apple is so popular in the world. Minimalist designs are easy to understand and navigate. Trends become out of fashion so fast now that it doesn’t make sense to have trends anymore. Timelessness should be the new focus.
Related: Can Design Save The World?
Conclusion
There are so many answers to the question ‘Why is design important?’. It’s undeniable that it plays a big role in our society and it will continue to do so.
Unfortunately, most things in our society are designed poorly. But we continue to build and create them because it’s what we are used to.
A new product can either fix a problem or create a new problem. Sometimes a product is made to create a product only to make the customer buy another product to fix that first problem. This is not a good design. That’s dirty marketing schemes. It’s neither ethical nor sustainable.
Whether you are designing your business’s brand, a new product or simply creating decorative illustrations, there are so many things to consider. As they say, a picture is a thousand words.
All images from Unsplash