THOUGHTS AND EXPLORATIONS

CHARESE ALLEN’S DESIGN STRENGTH

I had a talk with Charese about what exactly she considered her design strength to be. She told me that her strongest point as a designer was her ability to appeal to the senses in a design. She stated that she was able to identify what is needed and wanted by the senses of the user in her specific designs in order to design really well. I think this is a great way of looking at design; to really analyze exactly what the human user of a room, piece of furniture, or even a car needs in order to inform a design. While this is different from what I consider to be my design strength, I think it definitely applies to my design strength. I have a lot to learn from Charese. If I can analyze exactly what it is that I love about a specific painting or photograph, and then try to understand what exactly it is about it that appeals to each sense specifically, I will probably be a more successful in my designs. In general I think what Charese’s design strength speaks to is that as designers, we are almost always designing to the human scale. Designing for a human means we must get down to the core of what and how exactly behave, interact and respond. These simplified concepts can be applied to almost every design situation, and I’m sure I will build on these ideas in the future.