Design in Our Lives

         Design is a part of art, and it can be separated into two categories: one has high functionality; the other one is less practical. In my opinion, the first work is designed for real world utility and people can use it every day live. Its function is to make people’s lives easier. The second kind of design has less chance to be used in our ordinary lives. Most of them show possibly as decoration. Today we are talking about four works in the Museum of Modern Art.

         Whether a design is high functionality or not, it has advantages.  A work with high functionality can   provide many conveniences for people. For example, you consider these two work s “X-IT Emergency Escape ladder” and “Rescue Board 790”. As you can see in the first picture below, the ladder is made from aluminum and fabric, and it doesn’t look like ordinary ladders that are too big to store everywhere. It can be folded and set a little room. People can put this kind ladder in every room. If fire happens, and people are trapped in the room, they can use this easy tool to save their lives. The recue board is made from papers. It can be folded and is very light to carry. It saves the time to get unconscious people or seriously injured people to hospitals. Every second is very important in the first aid. The invention of this tool will save many people’s lives.

         Although I prefer high functionality work than less practical design, less practical design has its strong points and function.  “Design for An Overpopulated Planet: Foragers” is a design that confused me. At the first moment I saw it, I could not figure out what it was. After seeing the title and checking it in the internet, I realized that it was designed to extract nutritional value from its existing surroundings. I believe that this work focuses on warning people of the serious situation of overpopulation. As for “Forks”, these forks in the picture are bent and are very different from ordinary ones. You can imagine that you use these forks to eat dinner. You may need to spend one hour to finish your steak. It is a work of ornaments. These two works both are less practical and it seems impossible to use them in real word.

         Personally, I like high functionality design very much. However, less practical design is also important in our lives. I had really good time in the Museum of Modern Art.

Title: "X-IT Emergency Escape Ladder"

Artist: Aldo DiBelardino

Ezio DiBelardino

Andrew Ive

Title: "Rescue Board 790"

Artist: Hiroyuki Tazawa

Title: "Design for an Overpopulated Planet: Foragers"

Artist: Anthony Dunne

Fiona Raby

Title: "Forks"

Artist: Bruno Munari