Culture and Design

Can designers work outside ‘culture’ or must they always be part of it?

To answer this question, we should define the meaning of “Culture” and “Design”. Starting with these questions: What is culture? Are there different types of culture? What is the relationship between culture and design? Nowadays, with a development of technology, society started to change in some ways. Many countries are opened to the worldwide. According to that, design also starts to change. Today, design now concerned more about how it can fit in the society. There are many designers are working within their country or overseas. The world now is more international, so it has come to designers an issue that can they work outside their ‘culture’ or they always be part of it. In this essay, I will answer this question.

What is culture? So what is culture? First, we have to define culture in different aspects. And because of the sociology of design, we must point out different culture in different societies. To have wider understanding of culture and society, we can understand the nature of culture and how it integrates with design. There are at least two every day, commonsense meanings of culture. The first is the best achievements and products in art, literature and music. The second is the artificial growth or development of microscopic organisms or species of plants, a meaning deriving from a much older usage of the verb ‘to cultivate’: meaning to husband, and originally referring to agricultural techniques. The culture may be seen as one as society, so concerned with values and meaning, developing concepts and interpretations relevant to the society in which they take shape. Therefore, the modern society is now having concepts, ideas, words and other symbolic systems arise out of the society or group in which they are operate (Rosamund, Sheelagh, Lenore, Annette 1991). The complex of social and economic changes we call industrialization, brought with them a range of theories and concepts through which people tried to explain the structural changes which were occurring, utilizing the concept of culture in a variety of ways.
One is that in general culture serves an overall integrative function in society and the second is that there is a functional if complex relationship between culture and social structure. The concept of culture is essentially a semiotic one. Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun. We will look again at culture as a semiotic system, but for the moment we need to look at a major theme in the sociology of culture, culture is functional for the continuation of society.
In the industrial society, we accept that an essential part of the spirit of the age was the idea of human progress, and then the various theories of culture are part of the attempt to regulate and channel progress. The idea that humankind should seek for perfection was not new, but early nineteenth centuries connected this with the new possibilities and problems of industrialism. In this context, the concept of culture was equated with the idea of civilization.
In summary, culture affects every aspect of our daily life – how we think and feel, how we learn and teach, or what we consider to be beautiful or ugly. However, most of the people are unaware of their own culture until they are experience another. In fact, we don’t usually think about our culture until somebody violates a culturally based expectation or we find ourselves in a situation where we have the feeling that we violate somebody else cultural expectations, but are uncertain how.

What is design?
You see now design is everywhere. Just by looking at definition may not help to understand what design is. Design is what drew your attention to a piece of furniture, shirts, shoes… that you bought. It can drive whole business cultures and making sure environments from hospitals to airports are easier to circulate. There are broad definitions and specifics ones to “design”. Either are too general meanings or exclude too much. But according to Richard Seymour (2002), design is “making things better for people”. It emphasizes that design activity is focused first and foremost on human behavior and quality of life, not factors like distributor references. Meanwhile, the definition will focus on products or 3d realizations of ideas.
A design can be understood as an activity that translates ideas or images of our mind into a blueprint or something realistic, whether they are cars, houses, graphics, or even services and processes. The important part is the translation of the ideas. Scientists can invent technologies, manufacturers can make products, engineers can make them function and marketers can sell them, but only designers can combine insight into all these things and turn a concept into something that’s desirable, viable, and socially successful and adds value to people’s life. A design doesn’t have to be new, different or impressive to be successful in the marketplace, as long as it fulfills the needs of people. Watching users in reality world especially their culture, behavior that leads the ideas to fit in the society.

Design and culture:

Early links between culture and design became apparent in the domain of social anthropology where civilization was evaluated through the evolution of objects and it was traced through the cultural characteristics left on those objects. Culture generates diversity and it is naturally revealed in all human action such as the products people design. The relationship between design and culture has taken many twists and turns throughout the last centuries, as design is seen both as a mirror and an agent of change (Moalosi et al. 2005a). Culture generates multiplicity and it is naturally appeared in all human action, for example the products people design. The relationship between culture and design has taken many discussions through the last centuries. Through the former’s evolution to the development one in the later, design is seen as a factor to change culture and at the same time is shaped by culture. For example, in product design, it is argued that cultural beliefs and social practices create the frame of meaning which determine ways of relating to a product. These cultural frames determine the products meaning and affects ways in which people use or not use that particular product. Through the products form and function, we can see the reflection of one society culture inside.

Can designers work outside their culture?
The answer is no, it is impossible for designers to work outside their culture because culture and design are strongly associated. Now within the modern era, societies more concerned about the word ‘international’. It leads to the changing of society and culture to associate with the world today. Design now also has become business, it needs to be mass produced, time considered, but as a same time interrelated to culture. Even though they are changing, culture are always appear in design.
Design and culture have always been closely interrelated, but in many circumstances design is viewed as the true measure of culture, rather than belonging to part of cultural context of the society. Design has become an example of a larger process of creative ‘culture-mongering’. The process means to capture ideation, innovation and enterprise and made to stand for cultural identity.
Design is now becoming synonymous with the marking of culture; “design culture”, which now represents both the emblem of prosperity and also means to legal the regeneration of urban areas in order to gain international recognition as well as mediating for social change. For example, the siting of the London Olympics in the east of London and Qatar’s award to host 2022 World Cup Finals and to build a national identity based on Football. This is an amazing feat for a tiny peninsula in Persian Gulf that was no more than desert twenty-two years ago.

This is further evidenced by the increasing visibility of design, and engineered art and architecture. Design has become a symbolic tool for showcasing culture, and the official cultural tag at international events such as Olympic, European Capitals of Culture, Trade Expositions, Design Fairs and Biennale, Creative Industries, around the world.

The culture attribute of difference and diversity have been now weakened. The result is now design is imprecisely reproduction without a true sense of identity. It is for everyone. For example, comparing Frank Gerhy’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Spain, which has a specification of setting and place, with the lack of connectivity of SANAA’s Museum of Contemporary Art in New York USA. Despite its architectural merit, as cultural icon, it could be located in any number of cities and lack connectedness.

In traditional ways, culture is describe as a pattern that signifies human activity manifested by the arts, music, sculpture, theater, dance, film, fashion, design, food and architecture. In contemporary popular culture, it also includes the internet, entertainment, as part of a sort of cultural signifiers. But in a wider view, it was defined by the quality of production. Within a context of human development, the level of societies lies in its strength of culture, as is personified in its signification of its cultural identity and richness of cultural objects. Typically, from the Inca’s, the Egyptian’s, the Greek’s, the Roman’s, to the Renaissance etc. all were characterized by distinctive cultural signatures, and celebrated by the wealth of meaningful things.
David (2011) concluded that historically, culture has been identified with the creation of the ‘civilized state’ and social cultivation, (the progressive refinement of social behavior) frequently associated with persons who were educated, stratifying culture into high, low, popular and primitive. The identity of a given culture within a society is that which is sustainable and is widely recognized. But where the primary culture is challenged, sub-cultures emerge and are recognized as tangents to the mainstream, whereas classical culture represented a form of mono-culturalism in terms of nationalism or national identity, as a core to cultural symbolism.
Because culture are also influenced by trade, colonization, migration, religion and media, mechanism that challenge and reinforce one culture over another. Whereas the multiculturalism of today, accepts that there are sub-cultural symbols that can co-exist in parallel to the mainstream, as individual sub-cultures.
In the field of design, the idea of a neo-liberal form of globalization must be strongly contested (De Souza and Dejean 1999 and ICSID 2002). Globalization is seen as a force that must be opposed because it leads to unification of users’ culture through standard of products. Designers now are challenged to bring up culture diversity through localization of products in the face of globalization. The variations of national culture are still strongly remained but the expansion of global market effects on users. This problem is quiet obviously if you take a wider view in the word ‘international’. Society now has to concern about global market, that is the reason international contacts and exchanges increase. The designers have to outburst attitudes of defense of national and regional identities. The design has to have cultural background but as the same time be recognized internationally. Within the modern era now, clients around the world are no longer willing to simply settle for one-size-fits-all products with standard design. They are now demanding for a wide range of sizes, shapes, colors, materials and features and these have become important factors for creating successful products. So the designers have to balance core shared values with local empowerment to best satisfy clients wants and needs.
Many factors today impact on design and especially culture. Globalization, which is tied to consumption, is really a continuation of the culture that has been challenged and being replaced by subcultural. Moreover, the expansions and lead to the fusion of culture, particularly in the context of fracturing and migrating global economy. Design has become all-over within culture, and it has been adopted as a convenient badge to add value and market products, and to signify identity. We can take one example, the rise of the museum as the Ark of cultural identity in 1990’s permanently converged design and culture into one thing, and it was universally communicated as the measure of cultural success, perfectly personified by the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum in Spain 1997.
In the 21st century, the task of capturing culture into design is becoming more difficult in terms of expressing culture through the medium of design. Design increasingly struggles for a clear sense of definition, and one is left asking, what can Culture really mean today, if it is no longer tied to consumer lifestyle? We remain in a post-contemporary state where we require a redefinition of meaning, value and identity. Nowadays, design is losing its clear sense of definition. Design, in a context of rapid change, is lack of cultural identity and we should concern about that change. ’Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.’ (Albert Camus). The comprehensive scale and rapid growth of globalization has undermined independent cultural identities, due to the unconcerned about the nature of where design and production takes place, and lack of knowledge concerning the true origin of materials and products. This is further confused by a combination of diverse sourcing, and unsustainable methods of labor and manufacture.

The examples:

So within my field, I am an interior design student. To my point of view design has to be related with culture. Every time when designing for a client, we always have to consider about his or her background, especially a client’s culture background. Because you can understand the particular way of life of a client, including the colors, the materials, the furniture that he or she wants to have. And there are many approaches to relationship between design and culture. As my point of view, yes, culture has big influenced on design. Especially in interior design, it depends on clients requirements. Each culture has its own ideas, thoughts, and expectations they bring to each situation they may encounter. It has practical implications for the interior design. If the design is not match the clients’ culture then the interaction between the two will not be as positive as it could be. There are many examples about culture influences on design. It is even more interesting that this type of setting occurs in a different place than the original place of culture. For example, Japanese interior planning entails an uncluttered obvious lookup, which is why a number of Japanese house seem to be vacant as opposed to traditional western properties. The Japanese home utilizes plenty of natural materials in its building. Japanese interior planning is all concerning the creating and never regarding including items to a room. It is truly all about minimalism. When designing an area for instance a bed room according to Japanese interior design, it actually is essential to visualize the actual run of each and every furniture piece because Japanese interior design is decided through the minimal approach. Throughout researches, Nicholas (2012) concluded that it is hard to believe that it is possible for a designer to work outside of culture. No matter what the reasoning is for creating something, there is some influence from culture that led to that design. It may not be designed for popular culture, but it is influenced by some sort of subculture that desire specific changes or qualities in a product. There are always different criteria revolve around the market and what needs to be done in order for the product to sell well because success is measured in sales for most industries. So the products design is dictated by the audiences wants and needs because they are the ones buying the product. It’s through culture that all designers get their inspirations for design. It’s the way they interpret those inspirations that create differences in designs. According to Ferrier, people are too afraid to break away from the norm. Even in groups that go against the establishment like punk rockers, or Goths. Even though they go against the norms of the popular culture they still don’t break to far from the beliefs of their subculture they have built. It is human nature to want to fit in in some way so it is impossible to fully work outside of culture, because it won’t be accepted well.

And even for famous designers and architects, taking Tadao Ando as an example. He is a great architect that was internationally recognized. Tadao Ando’s concept of architecture is one good example about how culture impact on design. He adopted many different aspects of his Japanese culture, in order to come up with the concept of water, light and recognition. Although almost of Tadao’s buildings are outside Japan but they are all worldwide accepted. And every works of Tadao Ando have his cultural identities that you can never mistake with others.

Conclusion:

This is obvious that culture provides new knowledge, ways of thinking for designers. It can also deal with design issues and help them in the work of creativity and building structure for innovation. Culture also ensures that designers’ solutions can match with client’s needs, abilities and desires. Even though when designers are working outside their cultural areas, it is always necessary to learn and study about new culture because lack of culture means ignoble civilization and therefore imminent downfall.

Bibliography:

_ C. David, “Design and Culture – A return to fundamentalism”, March 2011.
(http://davidreport.com/the-report/design-culture-time-cultural-fundamentalism/). Accessed by June 16, 2013.

_ Michigan State Univercity, “Crossing cultures”.
(http://studyabroad.isp.msu.edu/studenthandbk/crossing_cultures/culture.html). Accessed by June 16, 2013.

_ T.Tiffany, “Designers and culture”, 2012.
(http://tiffanynthompson.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/can-designers-work-outside-culture-or-must-they-always-be-a-part-of-it/). Accessed by June 18, 2013.

_ C.Nicholas, “Can designers work outside ‘culture’, or must they always be part of it?” , 2012.
(http://nicholassasser.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/can-designers-work-outside-culture-or-must-they-always-be-apart-of-it/). Accessed by June 18, 2013.

_ D.David, “Think Outside the suit”, 2010.
(http://designmind.frogdesign.com/articles/work-life/think-outside-the-suit.html). Accessed by June 18, 2013.

_ R. Mohammad and R.Mariano, “The influence of the designers’ own culture on the design aspects of products”, 2008.

Bibliography: (http://davidreport.com/the-report/design-culture-time-cultural-fundamentalism/). Accessed by June 16, 2013. _ Michigan State Univercity, “Crossing cultures”. (http://studyabroad.isp.msu.edu/studenthandbk/crossing_cultures/culture.html). Accessed by June 16, 2013. _ T.Tiffany, “Designers and culture”, 2012. (http://tiffanynthompson.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/can-designers-work-outside-culture-or-must-they-always-be-a-part-of-it/) _ C.Nicholas, “Can designers work outside ‘culture’, or must they always be part of it?” , 2012. (http://nicholassasser.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/can-designers-work-outside-culture-or-must-they-always-be-apart-of-it/). Accessed by June 18, 2013. _ D.David, “Think Outside the suit”, 2010. (http://designmind.frogdesign.com/articles/work-life/think-outside-the-suit.html). Accessed by June 18, 2013. _ R