6. Creating for yourself
Can a designer still design if he rejects his own individuality? Since “individuality” is a manifestation of everything that a person is, the answer would have to be no. However, if, rather than killing the self, the object is to create designs that give life to others, the possibility exists.
Can a designer design based on the individuality of another? It is possible to design by imitating the creative expression of another or by chasing the fashions of the era. Even if this appears to have been done, however, the resulting design is still only the individuality of the imitated person or the sensibility of the era as filtered through the designer’s own opinions and sensibility. You cannot step outside yourself.
So anyway, what does it actually mean to design for other people? To get an idea, we need to consider what is involved in creating things with a goal of universality rather than individuality. As an architect, it was a difficult thing for me to design the homes of the families of others. Since it is not really possible to understand people you have just met, the more I tried to earnestly think about that family, the harder the task became.
One day, however, I realized some of the things I touched on above: I can create mechanisms for the participation of others and, no matter how much I think about other people, I cannot step outside myself. It also occurred to me that all human acts, even the act of design, are a conversation between self and other. Based on these ideas, several methods come into view. One is to exercise self-restraint in expression as a way to encourage participation, another is to design for myself rather than the other person, and still another is to exercise self-expression aimed at the other person.
The result of these methods is design that simplifies expression, that avoids excess expression, and that is done for myself rather than for that other person known as “the consumer.” The conclusion I reached is that universal ideas can best be discovered in designs done for one’s self.
This principle can be expressed in the following way. A tool exists entirely for the purpose of expanding your body’s capabilities. Considering the physical characteristics of a given tool, the paramount consideration is to make a tool for you yourself. Taking Ichiro as an example, however, how much does Ichiro’s bat really differ from the bats of other players? We should be able to learn much from Ichiro’s bat. In fact, from Ichiro’s bat we should be able to learn what other people’s bats, and bats in general, should be like.
What do you think cameras, cars, or houses should be like? The shortest path to an answer to this question is to begin by thinking about a camera, car, or house that would be just for you alone. Gathering a bunch of statistics will not lead you to a universal design. Universality can be discovered within your own thought.
