triad of
FORM

Form inhabits two planes: metaphysical, i.e. in the mind as a thought or an idea or concept and physical – as a ‘real’ or tangible artefact that one can touch and feel. The student needs to pay attention to the relationship between the two and especially to the former, as concepts that are unresolved38 may not be worth pursuing. The concept and its representation are two sides of the same coin. They shape each other, and in the process, each undergoes refinement through an iterative process. Design thus is an iterative, integrative and recursive process of refinement of intentions, concept and its representation, ad infinitum.

INTENTIONS

An iterative process involves control and correction of the design. This happens through intentions that guide the designer’s actions. The transformation of intentions and actions finally into an artefact is crucial to the designer, as it offers a sense of agency or ownership over one’s actions and authorship over one’s design, i.e. it “bears one’s signature”.39 If design is the social construction of meaning,40 then embedded in this meaning-making is the purpose of the design and intentions of the designer.

CONCEPTS

An idea is an outline of a thought. But ideas need fleshing out: a body. Consider the case of flying. Human beings seem to have an irresistible urge to fly. Throughout history, one can find innumerable examples of how this desire has been accomplished – wings clipped to shoulders and wingsuits, gliders and aeroplanes, hot air balloons and airships, jetpacks and hover boards and, now, drones and flying cars. Each of these concepts is an instantiation of the idea of flying that displays disimilarlity from each other, to a lesser or greater extent. Each achieves the goal or intent in a different way and even for a different purpose. Each of these constructs is a concept. A concept exhibits coherence: it needs to make sense in concurrence with its representation.

REPRESENTATIONS

One can think of representations as the vehicle that embodies the concept. Concepts manifest themselves through representations. If the concept has a metaphysical existence, then the representation is physical in nature. Its tangibility cannot be denied. The twain — concept and representation — have to meet.

The examples of flying quoted above are all different forms (means) through which flying (end) is accomplished. It is evident that these examples are of different scales and configurations. The act of design involves the shaping of material. The appropriateness of form is crucial to the design.

All ‘forms’ exhibit an aesthetic. An idea can have as much appeal as music to the ears, an intention may be as repulsive as the reaction that a stench may evoke and a concept may be as beautiful to admire as a sculpture in a landscape. An over-emphasis on physical form not only undermines the role of design and the designer but also reduces the designer to a styling agent. Though the place of beauty in our everyday cannot be denied, it would be grossly unfair to view design as mere beautification.

Form is a “diagram of forces”41 — a process of constant negotiation between the push and pull of these forces. Form requires the designer to not only form(ulate) intentions and purposes of the design but also translate them into a physicality that functions. This is the much sought-after or coveted ability of the designer — as form givers of intentions, concepts and their representations — that is much valued, for in doing so, designers arrive at the essence of things, their place in our worlds and the relationships between us and them.

  1. Just like narrative plot holes reveal inconsistencies or contradictions in logic, characterization or world building, concepts can also have ‘gaps’ that need to be addressed. In concepts, these gaps usually defy sense-making.
  2. read Suparna Choudhury and Sarah-Jayne Blakemore in Intentions, Actions and the Self (Chapter 3) in Does Consciousness Cause Behaviour? (2008).
  3. read Klaus Krippendorff in On the Essential Contexts of Artifacts or on the Proposition That Design Is Making Sense (Of Things) (1989).
  4. read D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson in On Growth and Form (1992).