The history of humanity’s development is constantly fluctuatingand pulsating in regard to its qualities, so it is hardly surprising that the relationship between the object or the function created has any peculiar dynamics with the user. It is the responsibility of design to follow this dynamism in a way that said connection remains unbroken, since a break would mean the loss of design. Without reflecting human needs, desires and feelings, the product of design will remain ineffective. The pursuit of usefulness is therefore the main goal of designers, and their muse is the user.
Designers are autonomous creators, but their autonomy comesfrom knowing their limits. In the process of creation, they wish to move from what is unknown to them to a new quality for all. Designers eagerly jump into the unknown because they know that they will fnd the context by gluing the fragments together. They investigate and learn, and keep asking questions, they are not self-serving, nor defant. They seek the connection, through which the user of the object will later feel the desire to use it and to possess it.
The discovery of context is followed by the unfolding of genius.They shape and tame their idea. Once again, they push their limits, searching for a material and emphasising its best characteristics, in order to create not just a design but a feasible object. Relationships are built, and action is planned, by which the user interacts with the material.
The triad of function, material and user is part of a larger network.
The relationship between the work and the person using it is woven intoa larger fabric, where the object has a life after use. Objects become circular, their material is transformed and a new form is created, or the form is retained but infused with a new function. And these characteristics of circularity help the designer to also please the muse indefnitely.
The design section of the 2nd National Salon of Applied Arts and Design features designers who have responded intuitively or very consciously to this interconnection of everything and everyone. Their creations are the imprints of an era of design, born with an approach that seeks to make an impact not only on their own foreseeable present, but on the future too.
Fruzsina Tóth
industrial designer, design manager