In introducing our company, Vikram referred to his childhood in India and his fascination with the streamline era of Industrial design - specifically with trains such as those designed by Brooks Stevens. This certainly was a romantic era for design, capturing the optimism and promise of the future (as envisioned at the time). It was about so much more than mere transport of goods and people.
Afterward I was chatting with Vikram and we got to the topic of hobbies. I find the topic captivating because it highlights the point where our appreciation for utility transforms into fascination and obsession. As a practicing designer, I want to design things to work better in a person's life - but the artist inside also wants the product to transcend that utilitarian aim somewhat... to create something they cherish. It reminds me of a quote from the preface of Oscar Wilde's A Picture of Dorian Gray:
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.” - Oscar Wilde
We may not be making pure art as designers serving industry, but I do feel that the drive to bring an element of design "magic" to these artifacts enhances the ownership experience in a meaningful way for the user. In designing for the casual user we search for ways to enhance that engagement, but when we tackle a product for a truly engaged user (the hobbyist or enthusiast) we confront a specialized language which we need to study and internalize.
But that topic will have to wait for another day, and another post...
