The Genius of Design I
Ghosts in the Machine
-
"The modern city is a new kind of nature - man-made nature. It reflects back an image of ourselves through the things we have designed. But for the designer, the world is not enough. Plans for a new, improved version are always on the drawing board."
现代社会是一种新类型自然——人造自然。它通过我们设计出来的东西反映出我们自己的面貌。但对设计而言，这个世界还远远不够，物品新的更先进的功能一直处于设计阶段。
-
"Like Barby's cooking pot, Burgon and Ball's shears offer an alternative to the Wedgwood design aesthetic - call it the Roundhead tendency, rather than the Cavalier. Cavalier design, like a Wedgwood vase, offers fashin, status conspicoous consumption, and a willingness to recycle history. Roundhead design stands for functionality, a truth to materials and production methods, and an allegiance to the present - a distinction that still holds true today."
就像 Darby 的烹饪罐，Burgon 和 Ball 的剪刀提供了一种韦奇伍德装饰设计的美学替代物——被称作圆颅党，而非骑士设计。骑士设计，就像韦奇伍德装饰花瓶一样，提供的是流行、身份、消费以及追溯历史的意愿。而圆颅党的设计追求功用性，执着于材料本身和生产方式，忠于现实。这一差别至今仍然存在。
-
"That argument is used a lot, the idea that if something is functional, that it's going to be soulless. And it's not quite right, because they do have a soul, it's just that the soul is not in the foreground, it's in the background. It's much deeper, just like a human being."
这个观点到现在仍然适用：具有实用性的产品是没有灵魂的产品。这并不是十分正确，因为它们有灵魂，只是不在前台，它存在于背景中，存在于更深一层，就像人类一样。
-
"When you lift the lid, even just the way the knob just is interrupted from flipping back by the way it meets the handle. It'a beautiful piece of Victorian engineering."
当你打开它的盖子，壶盖的顶部后翻会碰到把手。这是一个很能代表维多利亚时期工业的设计。
-
"(The designer is )thinking not just about me, but also about the things that I might do with it. So I might take a chair and I might rest it like this (dish on the desktop) so I can clean the floor."
设计者考虑到的不仅仅只有我这个使用者，还有我可能用这把椅子做的事情。比如说我可能会把椅子倒放在桌面上，方便清理地板。
-
"Falling sales of Model T forces Ford to halt production in 1927, and to set about designing this year's model, the Model A. But Ford's reluctance to return to the drawing board cost his company millions of dollars in lost production, and its place as the dominant player in the car market. He had learnt the hard way a fundamental truth about the consumer society that was coming into being. We, the people, are not content with iron pots - we want Wedgwood vases too."
模型 T 的停止销售导致了福特1927年的停产，逼迫福特开始设计模型 A。但福特不愿改变设计方案，不仅让他的公司亏损几百万美元，也使得他在汽车市场的统治地位遭到威胁。他很努力地认识到了一个即将形成的消费者社会的基本事实——我们人类是不满意铁壶的，我们也想要 Wedgewood 花瓶。
-
"A day's output of Model Ts."