Designed Meaning

Design is often a veiled part of our society. It is everywhere; it is in the cups we drink out of, in the buildings we live and work in, in the signs that we see, and even in the streets we walk on. The realm of design is almost all-encompassing, and yet, at the same time, is almost nonexistent. In many ways, the design of our world has become ingrained into our social and cultural consciousness, to a point where most people don’t even realize that almost everything that they interact with on a daily basis has, at one point or another, been thought about and considered by another human who wished to bring it to fruition.

There are, of course, many objects, environments, and interactions which most of us view as being “designed.” Many people are drawn to certain products, such as the ipod, BMW, and Wii, to name a few, because of these recognized designed qualities, their “aesthetic meaning.” This meaning is more subjective and personal, and often deals with individual perceptions of beauty or hierarchy. This sense of meaning in design can frequently grow into a deeper, and more socially relevant form of “cultural meaning”, but the two are not always related.

While reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell recently, I became aware of a good example of how aesthetic or personal meaning does not always lead to cultural meaning and, in this case, how sometimes it is the opposite. In his book, Gladwell talks about the development of the Aeron chair, designed by Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf, and sold by Herman Miller.

Gladwell describes the extraordinary amount of research and development which was used for the design of the chair. Bill Stumpf was chosen to be on the design team because of his expertise in ergonomics and studies into orthopedic and vascular medicine at the University of Wisconsin and the design of the chair incorporates this knowledge heavily. Through careful considerations, the design of the chair departed from the traditional upholstered, by incorporating a stretched, flexible mesh surface, and multiple modular extensions. These elements were tested and incorporated to provide a multifunctional office chair which truly addressed the issues of ergonomics and the physical realities of sitting for extended periods of time. However, when Herman Miller was preparing the chair for production and sale, they made sure to do some consumer testing before releasing the chair into the general public, and what they found in these tests was disheartening. People did not like how it looked. They said that it didn’t look comfortable, and that its form felt unnatural for an office chair. Despite the consumer tests, Herman Miller released the chair in 1994, and it has now become one of the best selling office chairs to date and is collectively held in public view as being a symbol of comfort and style. This is its cultural meaning. However, initially people were opposed to its aesthetic meaning, which I believe can be contributed to the fact that this design was using materials and techniques in a new and innovative way which departed from the cultural perception of office chairs at the time. In their own way, the Aeron Chair and the designers who created it have created a new aesthetic and cultural meaning for office chairs and chair ergonomics.

I believe that the intrinsic meaning and value which we as humans perceive in products and environments is an idea which designers have an opportunity to control in many ways. It is a very important aspect of being a designer to take into account the total reality of a product, environment, or interaction. However, as much as we as designers can do to control the meaning of these things, the end result of “cultural meaning” is something which grows over time, and which is affected by many different and unforeseen factors.