Objectified

When you se an object you make so many assumptions; How it looks, how it works, what it does, who made it and what it should cost. You have connections to products, and it makes you feel a certain way. Back in the days people made products themselves, such as arrows for war. When a fellow soldier died in battle, the other soldiers could not use his arrows for they own bow, because it simply did not fit. That was when standardizing of products began. Many products thereafter where standardized in order to fit all people. It is said that all products are designed, even if we do not think about it. Products from scissor handles to toothpicks are all designed to fit a need.

Good design is:

• Innovative
• Useful
• Aestetic
• Honest
• Unobtrusive 
• Long Lived
• Consistent in every detail
• AS LITTLE DESIGN AS POSSIBLE

Great design makes our everyday gadgets function better, really without people even thinking about it. Your doorknob, your toothbrush, and your water boiler - are all designed to fit a purpose. Most products are redesigned, often, in order to fit a new trend or even to create a trend. The redesign may simply be because of an idea of a better solution. So when the markets spit out new and improved products, even though we are perfectly satisfied with  or old ones, we go ahead and buy an upgraded edition. May it be a new phone, a new toilet brush or a new vacuum cleaner. It provides a promise of a better and easier way of living. But is this true? Nobody have died of holding on the the same phone for over a year! 

People show off through clothes, bags, interiors and cars. Cars are frozen in time, so the car designers have to undergo a massive process when designing the cars. The front of cars have always had a "face" - with front lights, a grill and a license plate. The back of the cars have now also evolved a "face", which means double opportunity for design. All designers must now take sustainability into consideration when designing products. This means redesigning every single object in a product, making every component of the product sustainable. So designers have to take into consideration the life of the product after we are done with it. 

"Every product tells a story, if you know how to read it" - Henry Ford