There are only a few books that I
have come across whose contents stand up to justify their alluring titles. “The Shapes of Design” is one such book
that goes beyond just doing what it is meant to do!
This “philosophical handbook”, by no means, was compiled after years of
refinement or was intended to become an international best seller. But, it is
simply a manifestation of serendipity and has an interesting story of how it
came into existence. It is an outcome of the overwhelming response received by
Frank’s talk in Build (a design festival) back in 2009. This motivated Frank, a
Brooklyn based designer to become an “accidental writer” and a successful entrepreneur
as well.
No, I am not talking about Advance, the design studio that he was
running, but the book in itself became an entrepreneurial success story. Around
the year 2011, Frank started a humble Kickstarter campaign that was incredibly
successful (raising a whopping $112,000 in just four hours and this target almost
tripled later). This not only made him a
successful self-published author in 2012, but also proved that what you do just
because you like doing it (without any intent for making money) can become a
commercial success too.
“What is the marker of good design?”
It moves.
Could there be a better way to start a book on design?
Without any pompous paragraphs intended to
arouse the so-called “curiosity” and suspense to begin, Chimero sets the
context straight and simple. But, the underlying message is resilient enough to
penetrate through the initial friction and break the ice. It is about how a
successful piece of design moves and guides the world one step closer to
perfection. In all of the reviews I’ve written so far, I had the task of
collecting all the noteworthy points for making a nice compilation for the
readers of this blog. This time, Chimero has saved my time and efforts in doing
all of it by himself!
This book is just what is to be
conveyed: nothing more and nothing less!
It is organised into three broad sections with the chapters under them sharing
a common theme: “THE SONG”, “IN- BETWEEN
SPACES” and “THE OPENING”, discussing
various elements of design and thinking.
THE SONG:
This is the primary section of
the book and goes about discussing the basic philosophy that backs up every
work of design. According to Frank, every design can be analysed based on the “WHY”
and the “HOW” of it. The “WHY” explains the thought process that goes behind
the making and “HOW” refers to the techniques and execution part. Both of these
must go hand-in-hand with each other for a design to be successful. At times, a finished piece of design is
deceptive and draws our attention more towards “HOW” and hides the “WHY”
completely.
This section also goes into a detailed
discussion of the importance of aesthetics and beauty. Through an apt example
of how hand axes were made by early humans, Chimero makes a point that adding “more
love” is important for a moving design than it being just functional. Stradivari’s
violin made out of “labour of love” (with that extra emotional touch) is said
to make them valuable till date.
In this part of the book he also
talks about the importance and limitations of improvisation, an important tool
for designers. Reference to traditional Japanese Haiku poetry is appropriate in
explaining in it. The reason for the revolutionary success of the Jazz album “Kind of Blue” of Miles Davis is this spontaneity and also a loose boundary to play with. However, Chimero warns that
this can be a distracting process and suggests that it is better to be more specific.
This section ends with “Form and magic”,
which are his ideas on how experimentation with the media and material can do
wonders for the designers. He explains this message based on three simple
factors: the message, the tone and the
format.
IN-BETWEEN SPACES:
“Design can speak the tongue of
art with the force of commerce”
For a design to hold good, it
must connect with the context and audience. It must add value to all the
stakeholders involved in the process. Chimero gives a beautiful example to
explain this : “ A train station that
doesn’t create a lust for exploration is flawed, just as a cathedral that doesn’t
inspire awe is a failure”.
In the later part of this
section, he discusses the importance of knowing the problem by relating it to
the process of knowing a person. It happens gradually. He also states that the
process of understanding a problem happens over time and cannot be completed.
There has to be a line drawn somewhere. The example of Robert Irwin, a popular
installation artist (and his workflow) is an apt fit for conveying this idea.
Not just, this Chimero also talks about the relevance of technology and culture
through the illustrations of chair designs.
THE OPENING:
In this final part of the
book Chimero shares some nice secrets to make the design “resonate” and “propagate”.
One of those is what we all know, but take it for granted – “The
power of stories”. He explains how stories can weave a magic in
spreading a message. It is something that we have used to construct realities
for ourselves since times immemorial. The
Iroquois story of earth, Greek tales of Prometheus are some examples he
cites. He also suggests exploiting the advantage of “passage of time” in
various formats. It could be through large photos in publications or changing
the contents of the same billboard for advertising. Stories can find place
anywhere in capturing the attention.
Another important concept that he
discusses here is that of “Framework”. It is a set of rules to play and
encourage a collaborative atmosphere in the process of design. He throws light
on the role of empathy in this. The screenshot of one of the interfaces he
designed for sharing photos among friends comes as a handy illustration.
The last part of this book gives
some insights on incorporating “surprise” and “delight” into design. The
analogy of gifting presents to the process of designing, strikes the perfect
chord in this context.
On the whole, I was moved by the
elegance of this book. The writing style
of Chimero is simple with good choice of words and effective in carrying the
message across. Even without knowing him personally, one can easily sense his
modest personality through this book. The narrative tone is natural and adds a
profound human touch to it. Nicely formatted juicy texts, powerful images and
thematic graphic illustrations make it quite evident that this book was indeed
authored by a designer himself. The overall presentation of the content along
with a great care for details makes this book one of its kind.
This is one of those books that
would not give you the contentment of having completed it in the very first go.
It would rather instil a desire to read it again and again, projecting a
different fascia every time with a deeper meaning of the same content.
If you want to experience all
these, then you can read it online here.
Rating- 4/5
