DSDN 171 blog assignment 8

The Marshall Plan involved America pumping money into the European countries decimated by the 2^nd world war. The strategy being to halt the spread of socialism and re-establish the local economies. By this time the arms race had become a battle of social popularity rather than military might, an argument over whose ambition or way of life was better. Design was one of the tools which America used to spread capitalism by advertising it as the ‘good life’ and were using consumerism to promote this.

It is hard to think of a modern political issue that is comparable to the time of the Kitchen debate in terms of its influence over design. While consumerism and the idea of the ‘good life’ is still very much alive I believe sustainability has become the biggest change in the branding of design. Global warming, carbon emissions, energy efficiency and even the growing and aging population have become some of the greatest political issues of today as seen by the G20 summit and carbon emission taxation. Sustainability is now a huge influence on consumerism and the branding of design, a selling point for any product or organization now is to be labelled ‘green’.

NZ itself has promoted itself with the “Pure” brand which leverages off the sustainability and clean/green concepts. Every product right down to paint is using the environmental friendliness of their products as a marketing tool, as seen in Resene's line of VOC free Eco paints.

DSDN 171 blog assignment 7

When it comes to my approach to design I try to be as unbiased as possible. As far as my cultural background goes I would be classed as a New Zealand European despite my heritage. My great grandparents were Maori and German my dads family have a Scottish heritage as you can probably tell by my name.

Regardless of my families Maori background it does not affect my opinion on design, I am not a believer in the 'from Maori, for Maori' approach and think the alienation and categorization of design is backwards. Only through the integration and acceptance of all cultural and religious beliefs can we move forward as designers. This does not mean I am against the appreciation of such culture but design has to be contemporary. Artists such as Rachael Rakena have realised Maori design can move away from traditions such as whakairo, ta moko and raranga without going so far as to convert to a Euro centric view, or as Tracey recognised, accepting the universalising of design.

My view on design is mostly independent, I have no family with artistic background and my role models were and are my teachers. I went to an all boys school where creativity was sometimes confined within technically based subjects such as graphics and design, which led me to my unique style of constructive sketching.

In my opinion my background, whether it be my schooling, culture or sex does not dictate my design, I believe who I am as a designer is yet to be decided and that is why I am here. I approach design in the way I see fit at the time and it changes everyday.

DSDN 171 blog assignment 6

When comparing the philosophies and methodologies taught at the Bauhaus with those taught in the first year programme it is not hard to find similarities. The first day at the school of design I was told I was not an artist, I was a designer. This is because the school values craft amongst a technology based course, much the same as the Bauhaus, they believed the individual should be credited.

The Bauhaus has a unique pedagogy, that the values of many different designers can work together to create great design, hence the fact that Gropius, Itten and Maholy-Nagy were all teaching despite their sometimes conflicting views. In the first year programme the lecturers and tutors bring their own unique skills and design theories which contribute to the underlying outlook the school has on design as a whole.

The Bauhaus believed that a shared/universal design language was possible, as Herbert Bayer tried to portray in his universal alphabet. They also believed that the so called Utopianism of the future world should not intrude the creativity of designers, meaning they believed that as far as design is concerned, technology does not always equal progress. The school of design shares the same view, while many of the courses are based primarily on technology such as DSDN 104,112 and 142 as well as the blogging and photography elements of the other courses, the first year programme encourages a hands on approach to all projects with emphasis of craft and abstraction. This is so the essence of design is not lost through the ease that technology has created in the design process.

Ignoring the fact that we do not participate in gymnastics in the first year design programme the methods used by the school are very similar to those of the Bauhaus, the same can be said for the schools' philosophies and teaching style due to the view on creating a shared design style as well as emphasis of hands on craft.