An Essay on Design - by Deuce Ellis
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The word design used to really piss me off. Around the time when Kanye and Virgil were running around Paris doing internships for rich fashion houses, I kept wondering who this Virgil is and what exactly he did.
*Product Design*
Even Steve Jobs, I remembered reading his book, and how he didn't particularly invent or create anything - however his vision and his empire were built on design. Steve Jobs understood that product design not only solved functional problems, but also guided and defined the entire user experience. Designing products that were aesthetically beautiful and that interfaced intuitively and easily with the user made q piece of high technology that my grandmas use and enjoy everyday.
Through Jobs and Abloh I could for myself begin to see the common threads of how design united us, divided us and helped to shape our stories.
You see, we humans do judge books by their cover. There's the famous story of the book that doesn't sell well - its beautifully written and well composed - when along comes a publisher with the idea of giving the book a new cover, and boom! It's a smash hit.
I think of Tinker Hatfield - the story of him designing the Jordan 3 & beyond and the research and dedication he put into translating Jordan the man and the player into Jordan the shoe. Many don't know that Tinker also designed the famous sneakers from the Iconic 'Back to the Future' series. It's dope to note how a through design something as simple as a sneaker can capture and communicate a concept such as greatness or the future.