What happened to the flying cars I was promised?
We don't have flying cars because:
1. Face it, do you really want a bunch of Yahoos flying around in the air who already stop in the middle of traffic, don't know how to take a free right or are scared to travel on the highway? Of course not. And would you feel comfortable relying on mass-automated systems? Uh, I don't think so.
2. No one would buy a flying car even if it were offered. Ok, at least in the numbers needed to make it mainstream.
3. By definition, it would no longer be a car - it would be an airplane. Or at least a snazzy name would be coined by some marketing geniuses - maybe PFV (Personal Flying Vehicle), or PVF (Personal Vehicle of Flight) or FAANITS (Federal Aviation Administration Nightmare In The Sky). Yeah, something like that...
4. Because no one would buy it, no company would make it. See this is where the catch 22 starts.
So here's the quandry. We'll probably never get to the point where people are "Fierce" individuals and are confident to design whatever they want for their own lifestyle. Maybe that would be horrible and designers would be no more. Everything would be turned into ART and therefore nothing would be considered "bad design". Yikes!
But how do we get to the point where good design rules and there can always be innovation? It would be cool if there was always great stuff coming out of the auto industry. You know when you see a bunch of great design all at once? It feels amazing when you can look around a room, a website or other avenue and just be amazed at all the good stuff. It would be like an AM/PM commercial where there'd just be "Too much good stuff" but in this case - it would be CARS!
This would only happen if the majority of consumers embraced new design. That way, no one would worry about resale value because everyone would be more open to a higher level of design.
Moving to Europe seems like the easiest way to do it, right?
Seriously, how do we accomplish this HERE in the US?
1. Teach appreciation for design:
This is actually something they do in Europe. Because there is a higher level of mainstream design, people grow up with it. When you grow up with it, you're more sensitive to it, you expect it and therefore will purchase it.
2. Get Ikea to make cars:
Ok, not a great idea. But what if there was a big "movement" that actually snuck into America without people even knowing they're embracing design. Actually, with real estate, I think that's happening to a certain extent. Ever watch HGTV? I do. I think this is a great avenue for the average person to upgrade their "Design-dar".
3. This is where McCain/Obama come in:
Education is a huge part of this. For some reason in America, to be educated is to be a snob, whether or not you throw it in someone's face. This needs to be changed to where Americans feel good about learning new things, about exploring new places and being a goodwill ambassador for their country.
We need to reform education in this country. Art, music, math/sciences, history, social studies, personal fitness/well-being - all programs that lead to a healthy fulfilled life. What about religion you ask? For some reason you must be a Christian to be on the presidential ticket in the US.
- George W.
- Clinton
- H.W. Bush
- Reagan
- Carter
- Ford
- LB Johnson
- Eisenhower
- Roosevelt
- Truman, etc...
You get my point...
Last time I checked, religion didn't play a big part in anything I've ever designed. Not that it isn't a big part of people's lives - because it is. But these other subjects usually have a great deal of impact on design. So no matter what party or religion a president is, he/she should never deny Americans a proper education to compete in this increasingly competitive world market.
So is this the winning equation to bringing a higher level of design to the U.S.?
Education + Design = Design Freedom in America?
2 comments:
I would like to add that with better education system people are probably not too hung up with partisanship, stupid religious values, etc.
I can see that education system in America are for snobs, because the majority of the people have to spend sooo much money just to get good education (so they can get a job afterward). This makes the educated people in some kind of special club..
I don't want to be a hypocrite, because I was also educated in American school system,and yes it was expensive. But the education system was set up with capitalism in mind, so every step of the way students will rack up more debts, and at the end they will have to embrace the idea that they need to make so much money to better their life (and PLEASE don't forget the student loans!!) Money money money....
What I am trying to say, the whole system is screwed up. I felt like the capitalistic nature of things in US/developed industrial countries slowly degrade the quality of human.
Presently, we are in design overload society, because without design you can't sell products, therefore good designs, bad designs are every-friggin-where. Design is being set up as an integrated part of marketing and being used to differentiate products so corporations can sell more products to people.
I remember being told by some designers, that they are in design because they want to make products to better people's life (haha what a BS!). I truly believe that design can do just that, but it's not the case right now (sadly I am part of it). Maybe in the future we can do design to better humanity instead of designing to make somebody rich.
The short answer the question of "So is this the answer to bringing a higher level of design to the U.S.?" YES, I believe so...with proper education.
Excuse my rants above.
Renaissance, you bring up some excellent points that I have to agree with.
1. The fact that it is so expensive to attend college in the US isolates many people. This probably adds to the resentment of people that don't get to or don't feel like it's possible for them. This needs to change.
2. Once designers get out into the industry, they realize what it's all about. None of us want to work for "The Man" - we all want to design what we want, how we want, where we want. And this is the shock of going from school into the industry. We realize that in most cases, it really is all about the money. However in my own career so far, I've made certain job decisions to try and counteract some of this capitalistic emphasis.
3. Design should (and I also believe it can) be to make things better - not worse. Many times, designers get out there and into their first or second job and realize they're just churning out useless crap. Or they realize the thing they wanted to design is useless crap. This happens to car designers all the time. If you're designing door handles for a pointless vehicle, you won't feel too good about what you're doing. We all want to change the world and you won't do it that way - this is why most every designer I know didn't last long at their first job.
Mostly what I'm asking is how can we have more freedom to put quality design out there while still having the success of a conservative design? I'm not asking for an industry of Audi TTs but rather a place where companies can feel good about letting their designers go wild and not worry about sales. If sales somehow were not tied to the lowest common denominator of mediocre features, but a combination of excellent styling, great functionality and innovative features - regardless of the design language.
I think I'll put together a post of some examples of vehicles over the years of which I am referring. If we could have these types of cars available in showrooms at any given time as opposed to a couple leaders and a bunch of lame followers or copycats. We also need to get the rest of the automotive world available here in the U.S.!
Thanks for the comment!
Post a Comment