Unit IV Summary: Reflections

The reflections unit was really about analyzing how far we've come in the design world. From our "foundations"set in prehistoric sights around the world where  it is evident that circles stacks and groves were the ways in which our ancestors were expressing their ideas, to the more sophisticated clean geometric forms in our modernized environments. Though we have come a long way, we still look to our past to regain a better understanding of where we need to head. Reflecting on important issues in design directs our culture to where that road is going.

The world's fairs were our first exposure to other culture by way of design and lifestyle. Countries all over the world were outlining their national identity and at the same time, experiencing other perspectives. It was the world's fair of 1964 in particular that set the trajectory of globalization and innovation. With the advancement of technology came  easier access to the ways in which designers and innovators were making leeway for simplistic living. Mass production made these newfound lifestyles readily available and big corporations were making footprints around the world.

Post-modernism then makes a stand against the vastly manipulated culture and designers began to think eclectically in terms of shaping the environment. Being unconventional in a time when everything seemed to be so linear was an appropriate response in order to sustain creativity and nourish our desire for variety, where all around you're faced with the many types of branding by large companies. Post-modernism was breaking out of normal comfort zones and creating an identity much different from what globalization was doing and what traditional mainframes had done.

With the identity crisis of post-modernism, we see new cultural values being depicted on our living units such as the snout house. The snout house with a prominently featured garage taking up much of the facade, tell the onlooker that our valuables are set at a high standard, this is a societal standard that alludes to the bulk middle class. Post-modernism was only a subsidiary movement from the mass consumerism mentality post industrial revolution. Though we may not be consuming as much as we once were, we still hold our valuables at high stake, and obviously wish to take great care of them which would make a garage necessary.

Innovation is the direct product of evaluating and addressing issues that are thought of a necessary to be solved, and then finding ways to fix them. It is this act of reflecting on societal values and other such paradigms that lead us into the future. Designers help to shape the always changing culture around us. Designers look at the current state of matters that directly affect society and culture and find ways to accommodate or alleviate if necessary, the many burdens that could make life a little more stressful. Sometimes this calls for looking to the past and studying how similar issues were resolved or attempted to be resolved, and finding what worked and what didn't. Reflections is all about finding what works  to progress into the future.