Design Environment Affects Design

Design is present everywhere in our society. The world of design expands far beyond dresses, posters, and fancy living rooms. In this case design can even be a piece of chewing gum.

Last week in Design 1, Professor Housefield mentioned the 2010 nobel prize winning invention called graphene, which is the thinnest manmade material. The fact that it is only one atom thick is not the only thing that makes graphene unique; what is especially interesting about this substance is that it was invented during a "playday." The scientists responsible were encouraged to create freely and see what they end up with, without having a specific plan or a specific end result in mind. This creative process is similar to that which we applied to our stone soup project.

still from the 1971 film, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

Recently, I came across an article from the telegraph.co.uk that describes researchers applying a similarly creative design process to create something that before now had only been a fantasy. While attempting to develop technology that would release drugs to specific parts of the digestive system researchers created microcapsules that require different amounts of chewing and saliva to break open. They now want to use this technology to recreate the infamous three-course-meal chewing gum from Raold Dahl's classic children's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which caused the gum-loving Violet Beuregard to blow up like a giant blueberry.

The main difference between the process of developing graphene and designing flavor-changing gum is that the gum developers had a goal in mind that they were striving to reach. However, these projects are similar because they were both developed in a freely creative environment. They are both new and creative ideas born from a design environment that encourages innovative thinking.

This is an excellent example of how a positive and stimulating design environment can foster the creation of incredible ideas. Designer's design because they have to. The mind of a designer can't be switched off, it is constantly creating. This creativity should never be repressed, but instead should be encouraged. Great things can come from it—anything from a Nobel Prize worthy invention to a whimsical candy creation.