Whenever I think of any design, be it interior design or

product design, a few things very naturally come up in my

mind. These are in the form of questions.

The best part is, answers to these questions can give rise to

a very successful design in itself. Let's see how.

If I am planning to design a piece of furniture, let's say

a double bed, immediate I start relating to what I already

know about double beds, some picture/image I have already

seen, something I have seen in some furniture shop, etc...

Then I start thinking about what material I should think

about, the budget, dimensions, age group of people who are

going to use it, etc... If you answer these questions one by

one on a paper, you will get a blueprint of the design

process, so that you can convert in into technical drawings,

with all the joinery details and finally the product.

Amongst above mentioned questions some are directly related to

function of the double bed as a piece of furniture.

What does this mean?

When I ask myself, what should be the dimensions of a double

bed? I have very little freedom to decide the dimensions of

the bed, because there are certain norms to be followed in

order to serve it's basic function and that's comfort.

But what if I say that I will keep the overall surface area

of the bed same , but make it round in plan. Will it be ok..

Now here I am trying to achieve both function and aesthetics,

without sacrificing the comfort of the person who will use it.

So during any design process there will be times when the

designer need to take some decisions where he has to keep

aside his wildest ideas and pay attention to function first.

That's why the true success of an interior design project is

a good balance between function and aesthetics.

Expressing this kind of balance through design is not an easy

task, because function is universally accepted, but aesthetics,

not always.

What does this mean?

Beauty is always relative. A washbasin has a common universal

function of an appliance to be used for washing hands, but it's

beauty is relative. What is beautiful for me, might not hold

true for you.

So a design expression can have a unique style of the

designer himself. It is possible that the designer is more

comfortable with certain kinds of materials/finishes/color

schemes, etc.. which can reflect in his designs.

In spite of these personal touches a good designs always

caters the needs of the user first. A good designer has

a certain kind of convincing power in his/her style which

he uses to expresses in the design without sacrificing the

likes/dislikes of the user.

There are designers who are more comfortable in designing only

a certain kind space such as bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms,

public spaces such as restaurants, clubs, gymnasiums.

Of course this is entirely of a personal choice, but there

is this same message in their designs, shell out your ego

and design for the best parameters with worst possibilities

taken into considerations. This is what gives birth to

a great design.

I hope this article was helpful.

Copyright 2005 Shrinivas Vaidya