What ia Product Design?

These pages from Laura Slack's book briefly discuss the meaning of product design and how it evolved with industry. They make me think about whether designers create a need for a product or respond to consumers' needs. I particularly liked the timeline of iconic products (like blue jeans and paper clips) and the corresponding key socio-political events and movements.

These pages also look at re-appropriation of objects into hybrids (blending existing objects into something new), information flow for optimal design (like the feedback loop between consumers communicating their needs to the designer in the research and conceptualization stages, and the designer then getting feedback from consumers to refine designed objects in the production and distribution stages), and design morality - namely design life span and impact on available resources. Design has consequences. This section really made me think about materials from a perspective of impact on the environment and impact on the economy.

Some quotes I particularly liked:

"Product design - the creation of an object that originates from design ideas - in the form of drawings, sketches, prototypes, models...can extend into the object's production, logistics, and marketing."
So, design is more than imagining and creating. It involves industrial production and the economics of selling those products.

"An object becomes a desirable product when it gives the appearance of having improved functionality."
Simple and sweet thought. I might add, "and/or having improved appeal" (by changing one's perspective or enjoyment).

"Design takes on the realms of art where a political, social or cultural point is made through a product."
This quote speaks about the often blurry lines between design and art, design and politics and design and social change.