En

As mentioned in class design is art work that serves a specific purpose, and or acts as a tool to aid people in their daily life. Whereas art can be measured subjectively do to aesthetic pleasure, design paired with obligation to function can be measured objectively. Design is only good design or design at all, if it functions properly as created to do. Design attempts short of this fail and are bad. One could argue that while something functions strongly on an acute level, the aesthetics may be so poor that the design is considered a failure, although aesthetic pleasure is subject to personal opinion. While the ugly can be portrayed as beautiful and the heartbreaking funny can an art piece be considered design if form does not agree with given function? In which case is the form now art or just a failed design attempt?

While design surrounds us daily how much is considered useful and how much isn’t considered at all. In reflection of a daily routine I come in contact with many items of design. The bed on which I wake, the lamp I switch on, the bland blind I lift to let (Sunlight!) in, the tacky IKEA fleece blanket I toss of while I throw on my L.L. Bean slippers. The coffee pot I turn on and the shower located in my kitchen, which while functions properly as a tool of hygiene, certainly seems oddly placed where the kitchen pantry was intended. The $6.00 hair brush that never fails to comb my hair, the 15 Kroner shoe rack and the wooden hangers my clothes hand on. My Rocketdog sneakers and my J. Crew socks keep my feat warm while my L.L. Bean jacket my body as I walk through the beautifully landscaped Orstedparken on my way to DIS. By which point I’ve worn my D&G designer glasses, my Burton snowboarding hat and my street bought pashmina scarf. I’ve used my HP Laptop and my Samsung cellular phone. I’ve walked down hundred year old stair cases into a carefully laid out courtyard where I deposited my water bottle and cardboard box into an organized communal recycling system. It seems I’ve touch and used many design elements, while not all are equally valuable all prepared suitably prepared me for my first Danish Design class.

And what do these products say about my identity. The brand I’ve created for myself. How do I appear to my classmates and is the impression I give suitable for the way I feel when I wear and use these products? Do they say I am an independent travel seeking American? Do they say laugh a lot and am 21 years old? Do they say I am a bartender, a design student and an aunt? If this is not communicated properly perhaps I poorly coordinated my design choices. Surely all these things served the function I purchased them for; otherwise I would have discarded them and moved on by now. I wonder if there is an art in the way we express ourselves, in the products we chose to help create our own identity. Or have we all designed ourselves and our identities?