Design By Numbers
'DESIGN BY NUMBERS' synopsis
by Ralph Matthews
Historically, there has been a consistent correlation between economic crises and innovative design. The old order will simply not do in a climate where price is the overriding factor for buyers and companies are forced to come up with new and cheaper methods of making and marketing their products. The challenge of responding to this demand has often precipitated a major change in technologies and culture.
One such response to the current crisis is the prediction that the designers of the future will devise “design machines”. These machines will be an advanced form of interactive software, employing artificial intelligence in a manner that goes way beyond the scope of current software packages such as Adobe or Quark. While the latter might be regarded as essential “tools” for a designer, the “design machine” would offer an active and more comprehensive involvement in every aspect of the design process; a comparison of roles that echoes the step-up from tools to machines and artisans to engineers that took place during the Industrial Revolution.
