Knowledge of Design
The best designs are the ones which follow the basic design principles. It is as simple as that. But what are these principles and where can we find them? Moreover, the real question is how can we acquire and utilise these principles and guide others on the path of recognising valuable designs and how can we make the best use of the Knowledge of Design to create designs that can add value to our society?
Where to Find that Knowledge?
The knowledge of anything is as vast as the universe. In my previous article, I talked about how design was originated in a cave and grew to existance in such a way that we find ourselves surrounded by design. Now, if we sit and break down each design from that history into smaller pieces, about what inspired these designs and how these design impacted the society, we can find a lot about how design was developed as a whole. Knowledge can be acquired from anywhere, not necessarily only from certain books, or the “YouTube University”. Now that we’ve the knowledge, it’s time for experimention, filtering out the good stuffs and composing them together. Even the best of the designs created by god, like this beautiful nightsky, are the compositions of several different things.
Sharing the Knowledge
Knowledge kept under closed doors has a very restricted use. We spend hours and hours perfecting our game in design. It’s a lot of work but it adds up to nothing if we don’t share it. Often we get afraid of the fact that someone might “steal” our ideas and we become hesitant about not sharing the knowledge that we learnt and fear that they might become more proficient than us or might earn more money than us. But, we don’t realise that we chose design to be an integral part of our life because we love design. The feeling it provides us is unexplainable and no matter how overwhealimg it becomes, it inspires us and drives us to be the best. So, if we love design so much, why shouldn’t we contribute towards it’s growth?
The Master and Padawan Approach
We are all a ‘Baby Yoda’ at sometime of our life and one day, we might become a ‘Master Yoda’, but the thing that will make us a perfect Master Yoda is passing down the legacy of our knowledge to young padawans. The goal here is to never stop learning. We don’t master something at an instant. It’s a continuous process but once we do, we need to make sure that the knowledge we gained is being learned by others in an efficient way, by guiding them and showing them the path to that knowledge, so that they don’t get lost in thier journey. Who knows? Maybe helping them out might help you too.
Most of the time, we forget to develop as soon as we enter the industry. Deadlines and Client requirements get piled up and in the persuit of having more monetary gains, we forget the purpose of our existance. This article is not only for designers but for all those individuals who chose their profession based on something they love to do and are passionate about it. It’s a request, no matter how far you go in your respective field, never forget to keep learning and keep sharing. That’s how you can contribute to a great flow of knowledge.
The more you learn and share, the easier it becomes to learn further.
