NEW PROPOSAL

I started researching my topic by reading a few books, all surrounding my original idea of “the Importance of the designer “. These books have given me new issues to think about and different directions to adapt my essay to.

So I have decided to condense my thesis and alter my topic, still focusing on the same ideas, just giving them more of a direction and a connection to topics that interest me and relate well to design.

In my essay I propose to find the role of the designer in consumerism and consumption in today’s society.

Consumerism:
The fact or practice of an increasing consumption of goods (a critic of American consumerism).
The movement seeking to protect and inform consumers by requiring honest packaging and advertising, product guarantees, and improved safety standards.
The theory that a progressively greater consumption of goods is economically beneficial. Attachment to materialistic values or possessions:
Movement advocating greater protection of the interests of consumers
Consumption:
The utilization of economic goods to satisfy needs or in manufacturing; (the consumption of energy has increased steadily)
The act or process of consuming something: Being consumed, an amount.
The using up of goods and services by consumer purchasing or in the production of other goods.

My new thesis connects Industrial design and Digital media design with new technology development and to our consumption of products and objects.

The process in which we all use up products interests me and I feel it’s a growing issue and a publicized topic in today’s society. Looking at connections between consumerism, consumption and design I want to find out, do designers just keep up with the consumers demand for objects they want and not need? Focusing on quantity not quality. Or are designers consciously thinking about the environment and being green? Thinking about the end of the products life? Also looking at the merging of Industrial and Digital media design and how in today’s environment this has influenced and changed designers.

I will still research and investigate the usefulness and importance of designers, and their impact on different environments and society’s, as it will be an underlying topic and will further my knowledge. Not to find a quick fix definition of designing or of the designer but to investigate the past, (the industrial revolution) where did it start, where did it change, what is it now? Discover the processes applied through time, find the purpose, admire the diversity, and respect the individuality.

Another main focus for my essay could be the word design which comes from Latin, De + Signare meaning to make sense of, to distinguish, to make significant, to designate a relation to other things, owners, users or gods.
The idea of design is to make sense of, design makes sense, and every person has a sense of design. Is the way we design and consume products making sense? Does the designer make sense in today’s environment? This could raise different issues surrounding consumerism and consumption and strengthen my point.

From an argument position I could be for a change in the way we consume products and the great development in technology we has changed the way we live and the role of the designer, or I could be against the way we consume and look at how much it has changed and how our aspect of life and reality has caused it to become an important issue in today’s society – effecting the designer.

By looking at these issues, it will further my original thesis, give a justified outlook on the role of designers in today’s environment and give further outlook on a worldly issue.