UGLY: How Unorthodox Thinking

Will Save Design, by Tad Toulis

Posted by core jr I 30 Oct 2008 I Comments (15)

Maarten Baas' 'Clay Furnfture - Stacking Chairs'

18 IGood Deslgnl 811 aephrxlatlng dogma?

Design is a peculiar activity: It's a creative process, but a process that
subscribes to and reinforces certain restrictive attitudes. It can be rigid and
self-policing, since a profession that earns its living by discerning what is
good and bad must necessarily become judgmental. Ultimately this
judgmental nature creates and enshrines certain points of view, which left
unchallenged, become dogma. Today, one could argue that this dogma.
generally predicated on longstanding ideas of 'rightness' and 'beauty' is
choking the profession down, and worse yet, stifling its creativity as it faces
some truly great problems-problems which if handled with new thinking and
true creativity, will define the substance, practice and contribution of a
generation of designers.
 Embracing the word lugly"-sO readily identHIed
with everything popular design claims to have
been a reaction against-seems a logical choice
H we are to create a vision for the practice of
design freed from the restrictions and prejudices
of its past.

~r.tty: Right priced beautv

But wait. Truth and beauty are good things, right? Not necessarily. Design's
traditional preference on establishing 'order' has had the consequence of
driving a collateral and unchecked pursuit of beauty. Beauty lies in the eye of
the beholder, of course, and as such is subject to the vagaries of cultural bias
and popular opinion. By degrees this pursuit of beauty has gradually been
replaced with the much more predictable and less admirable accomplishment
of achieving 'pretty'. And while consumer culture, planned obsolesce and
design culture in general have benefited soundly from the creation,
production and documentation of pretty things-the pursuit of pretty hasn't
pushed the discipline of design into the tighter, less comfortable and
Ultimately more rigorous inquiries that outside forces (sustainability for
example) are aligning to demand of us.

How might product designers better position the discipline to take on the
hairy problems of sustainability, economic uncertainty, global competition and
the like? Well, one thing is for certain, simply co-opting present patterns of
consumption into activities and services linked to conservation won't get us
there. That path might work if the world population of 6.5 billion was to stay
fixed. but with an additional 3 billion consumers arriving to the party by 2050
we'll need to find more expedient (read: more creative) solutions.

Tjep's 'XXL Chair' and Front Design's 'Sketch Furniture'

-
PrettyUGLY: The ca•• for 'UGLY. thinking In popular design
Whether attributable to a crisis of faith or economic malaise, High Design's
 recent fascination with the aesthetics of the unorthodox has given rise to
some of the freshest design proposals of recent memory. It's too early to tell
whether these musings signal a genuine turning point in the evolution of
design, but the newfound acceptance of UGLY as a legitimate voice in design
sets the stage for some interesting possibilities at a time when the profession
faces deep challenges.

Longtime anathema of design circles, I'd like to suggest that design capitalize
. on UGLY's present arrival on the scene to boldly re-imagine itself and its
fl,lture. Appropriating UGLY affords a latitude that would serve to liberate
design and design thinking, expediting the introduction of new voices and
ideas that might stimulate and revitalize the practice of design. Embracing a
word so readily identified with everything popular design claims to have been
a reaction against seems a logical choice if we are to create a vision for the
practice of design freed from the restrictions and prejudices of its past.

UGLY thinking: Where do we look for It?

There are three contemporary developments I believe are already starting to
re-characterize design; three developments that When mingled with the
liberating effects of thinking UGLY offer potential insights on the future
practice and content of design. These developments are: the impact of
Computational Culture on design, lessons of Centralized and Decentralized
Structures, and the implications of DIY/Hack Culture for product design.

-_. _ .... _----~

-

Top: Rapid Prototyped Graffiti by Yale Wolf. Left: 'Cinderella Table' designed
by Jeroen Verhoeven for Demakersvan, The Netherlands. Right: 'Type&Form'
by Karsten Schmidt for Print Magazine's August 2008 issue.

Computational Culture
That the computer and its attendant culture are influencing design is clear.
Less clear and certainly less often considered is the specific manner in which
the computer is mutating the practice of design itself. Fueled by the power of
algorithms, computation culture is radically democratizing and retooling how
we execute design. In the visual domains of rule-based systems, dynamic
graphics and algorithmic art. new aesthetic vernaculars are being forged. On
the process front, the computer's penchant for iteration is formally migrating
a generation away from the idea of 'a solution' to the notion of 'a range of'

- solutions. In so far as these tools anticipate not one but several potential
solutions, they are cementing into design the power of the 'happy accident'.

Similarly, the relative ease and economy with which the computer permits us
to blend, splice, and mix across source material enhances design's natural
inclination to branch and sub-branch into mUltiple lines of Inquiry. In that so
much design happens inside the act of iterating and refining, computational
culture Is empowering the single greatest domain of design: the process
itself, or more spectflCally the 'flow' of the design process. It permits us to
slowly relinquish our ftrm clench on aesthetic expectation, let go of our visual
prejudices. and 'give in' to what the process offers up.

-
 --- -- - - - - - - -

~
•
•

'Stacheln' from Sha.peways. This Nether/ands based company allows users

to customize design from its online database.

Computational culture is also changing design by breaking down

long-standing barriers to fabrication and distribution. Rapid prototyping
services such as ZapFab, FirstCut and Shapeways offer professionals and
non-professionals alike the tools necessary to execute and disseminate their
work. Accelerating the situation. an ecosystem of sites like Ponoko and Etsy
stand ready to provide these 'blackmarket' results a very real pipeline to
consumers. The relatively low barrier of access to these tools in terms of cost
and resources means that larger numbers are now able to bring their specific
needs and ideas into discussion alongside formal design (aka big D design).
While there is no guarantee that the increase in participants will elevate the
quality of design work, it does suggest that the small and relatively exclusive
core of design culture will be increasingly confronted with new and divergent
points of view. And that's a good thing.

Failure to appreciate DIY/Hack Culture is to risk

having professional design become as Irrelevant
to the contemporary landscape as record labels
and network televIsion are in the age of ITunes
and YouTube.

Centralized and Decentnllized Structures

The lessons of Centralized and Decentralized Structures are important to
design's future because they bring into discussion the interrelated concepts
of platforms and systems-concepts which are essential to the future
practice of product design because they invite us to think holistically,

One consequence of computational culture has been to deliver us a shared

mental model of the web and an accompanying appreciation for the merits of
networked systems. This common understanding is important because it
equips all of us-consumers and designers alike-with a scaled model for
the forces at work in the environment at large. The forces at work in the
node/web dynamic are important because they mirror the forces at work in
local/global relationships. In both cases the strengths and weaknesses of

-- networked systems become readily apparent. A virus introduced to a

network can start at one node and threaten the health of the entire system.
Similarly, pollutants generated in China can cross the pacific and rain down
on the western seaboard of North America. Or (borrowing from today's
headlines) an economic system built on credit can be felled by the
 introduction of one flawed instrument: mortgage backed securities, for
example. In both models nothing exists in a vacuum; for every action there is
a reaction somewhere, sometime, someplace.

The lessons for designers of centralized and decentralized structures aren't

just in regard to sustainability and global credit; they also lie in the insights
they offer into models of manufacturing and distribution, of resource
management and economic compensation. Kiva's Microloans, Zipcar's
. shared vehicles, Netflix's mega-management of DVDs and a host of emerging
service models succeed because of the way in which they leverage the
power embedded in networked structures. That the power of these systems
is intimately wed to their fragility is a critical lesson for product design as it
attempts to address increasingly interconnected problems. As designers we
flatter ourselves when we forgo understanding the context of our design
efforts or when we lend our professional talents to producing thoughtless
iterations of old ideas. Thinking within systems will force us to operate in
more responsible ways; to consider both agreeable (easy) and disagreeable
(hard) factors as we work to gain understanding of a problem. MaJnstreaming
resolution of design problems across such contradictory filters is essential if
we are to evolve as a profession and as a practice.

DIY/Heck Culture: Voices of the Ameteur

DIYIHack Culture yields its lessons to design through evolving notions of
popular aesthetics and consumer behavior. Informing these movements is a
dramatic change in the consumer's stance relative to product: a shift from a
'read-only' model of consumption to a 'read-write' model of consumption.
The participatory relationship between user and product has always been
implicit; what is new is the degree to which consumers can now modulate
the performance of products once thought too complex to be modifiable.
Like 2x4s in a lumberyard, an emerging generation of consumers sees the
shipped product as little more than a jumping off point for solutions that
better support their own specific needs, tastes and whims. So much for the
voice of the consumer; say hello to the will of the consumer.

The elevation of hack culture from a subversive activity to a pedestrian

preoccupation also casts a light on changing notions of propriety. Websites
such as LifeHacker, ThinkGeek and Inventables routinely categorize and
publish burgeoning catalogs of top hacks. Reviewing these sites frequently,
one can catch a glimpse of a new species of product design emerging. Alice
Wang's Tyrant alarm which drunk dials your friends if you refuse to turn it off,
or ThinkGeek's SnuZnLuz, which threatens to donate your money to the
GOP offer up something truly new in consumer electronics: product with a
soul layered atop its physical design and functional as.

----
ThlnkGeek's 'SnuzNLuz' and Alice Wang's 'Tyrant' alarm.

DIY/Hack Culture is also significant because it starts to break down the neat
partitions between consumer and fabricator upon which contemporary
product design has found its present place as arbitrator. Regardless of your
position on amateur culture, it is clear that formal design will need to
reevaluate its positioning if it is to continue to act as mediator between these
converging groups. Failure to do so is to risk having professional design
become as irrelevant to the contemporary landscape as record labels and
network television are in the age of iTunes and YouTube. In a marketplace
where designer, manufacturer and consumer finally meet on an equitable
plane. the tools of specialization we've inherited will need to be rethought. If
product evolves to accommodate the consumer's ultimate modification and
final purposing of the object, what is the design process that supports this
new definition of product?

How might product designers better position the

discipline to take on the hairy problems of
sustalnability, economic uncertainty, global
competition and the like? well, one thing is for
certain, simply co-opting present patterns of
consumption into activities and services linked
to consetVstion won't get us there.

What do•• It all meant

Design has long been about solving problems. Today the problems we face
are in part problems created by our own professional activity. In such a
climate, continued reliance on the practices and behaviors that led us here
just won't do. New solutions need to be found. New practices identified.
Let's take a look at what an UGLY methodology might look like:

General assumptIons of UGLY'

- Question existing assumptions (I.e. is beauty intrinsically admirable?).

- Utilize intellect as well as intuition; temper your muscle memory with

intellectual rigor.
- Don't rely on what you can anticipate; believe in the creative power of
experimentation.

- Change: expect it, embrace it, understand it, leverage it.

- Sustainability: stop segregating it into a class of problems separate than the

one you are currently working on.

Process notes for UGLY:

- Iterate Iterate Iterate: work to get it right, respect the resources required to
execute your solution.

- Cut/Paste/Slice. Don't get locked in, draw upon sources from outside of
your core discipline.

- Move in, out and across mediums frequently. The change in perspective will
serve you and your ideas, forcing connections that might otherwise remain
hidden.

- Be prepared to walk away from the problem you are tackling, but come
back.

Behaviors of UGLY'

- Don't know, Do. Invest the time to vet out your ideas and assumptions.

- Usten to those you don't agree with, you'll learn more.

- Try things that scare you, you'll grow and your tool kit will as well.

- Co-opt an opposing point of view: live tn the skin of another viewpoint.

- Disagree early and frequently, the debate will add depth to your solutions.

UGLY is about fundamentally recognizing the role 'popular' design has played
in creating the culture of disposable consumption. UGLY seeks to utilize
design's unique position as co-conspirator and change agent to help evolve
a practice of consumer design that goes beyond stylistic achievement in Its
effort to seek out new techniques and processes that can progress the
profession toward an offering better aligned with contemporary problems.
While UGLY finds its name in a word seemingly at odds with aesthetic
achievement, it does not reject aesthetic achievement. UGLY rejects aesthetic
achievement only when it is arrived at to the exclusion or disregard of
contemporary factors such as environmental impact, excessive cost or
redundancy of purpose. If classic design of the post-war period arose as a
response to a world without order, can there be any better chance for our
profession then to adopt a new set of ideas in the face of world comprised of
too much order, too much corporate influence, and an increasingly
border/ess consumer culture? I doubt it.
 Tadeo TouNs is Creative Director of the Product Studio at Teague in Seattle
Washington. Prior to joining Teague, Tau/is worked at Lunar Design,
Motorola's Advanced Concepts Group and Samsung's LA LAB. TouNs was
also a founding member of designRAW a San Francisco based design
collective.
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 Tadeo Toulis is Creative Director of the Product Studio at Teague in Seattle
Washington. Prior to joining Teague, Tau/is worked at Lunar Design,
Motorola's Advanced Concepts Group and Samsung's LA LAB. Toulis was
also a founding member of designRAW a San Francisco based design
collective.

Posted in Business I Education I Featured Items I Materials I Object

Culture I Technology • Permalink

Digg This! I Save to del.icio.us I Submit to Reddit I Stumble It!

DON'T FORGET

\\. -~I
Eurobike 2009 Maker Faire Mrica Nidecker 1Hour Design
OUR MASSIVE THE INAUGURAL Snowboard Design Challenge
GALLERIES OF THE EVENT CELEBRATING DRAW THE MOST
WORLD'S LARGEST AFRICAN INGENUI1Y Competition
CHECK OUT OUR IDEATION SKETCHES IN
BIKE SHOW 60 MINUTES!
GALLERY OF WINNERS!

#-Hy~rlvJww. t-t>"< 71,lA)VV\ / hfo~ I +c~~- d·( Vv\C:7/ J~ l J- h.ovV_

VV"\.{-thA.~0><_ ~ ~ 1I'\..~-t4 - V\.li \' - ~ AV< - -\,C;:.{.~ V1 - bV) ­

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