My reading assignment this time around was to read the Introduction, Perspective, and Exercises in Karl Aspelund’s book, The Design Process (second edition). And again, I find myself very interested in reading this book. If I thought the preface and acknowledgments were intriguing, these sections are even more interesting. I find myself really enjoying this book. Which, normally that isn’t the case when it comes to class textbooks. The way that Aspelund writes, it is in a sense in simple text, very easy to read and to understand. The text just grabs your attention and you really do learn a lot from it. In the introduction, Aspelund compares the design process as being similar to being in a romantic relationship. Each stage in a person’s relationship can be very similar to Aspelund’s seven stages. The way he uses this comparison can help one understand a little more about what his stages are about and how we can relate to the definitions of the stages. Something that caught my attention was his statement, “a designer’s job begins with a problem that requires a solution… Designers must begin by identifying the problem and determining what they are being asked to do” (Aspelund 5). We have been learning a lot about this in class. In reading this, I remembered that Professor Moss mentioned that our class is going to deal with a lot of repetition in the form of: problem- solution, problem-solution. Designers need to develop their skills in problem-solving, which is a very essential skill for a designer to have.
As far as Aspelund’s stages go, just by reading short summaries of them, I would say stage one, inspiration, would probably be the hardest for me as I have a difficult time coming up with an idea. Stage two, identification, and stage three, conceptualization, don’t seem like stages I would have too much difficulty with. Usually once I have an idea, I’m able to hold onto it to start my steps in developing it. The fourth stage is exploration/refinement. It sounds like it would be the fun stage. This would be the time to make any minor changes to the outline of your project and you could be reinspired by your project just by refining your outline. In stage five, definition/modeling, Aspelund says that this is usually where designers have the hardest time getting though. I can also see this as a troublesome stage because there can be events that the designer can’t control, for example, a minor change of plans by the client. The last two stages are communication and production. I believe that as long as the designer is able to communicate clearly and exactly what needed for production, I don’t see there being any difficulty in executing the last two stages. The end result will be a happy client and a solution to their problem which is the completed product.
In the perspective section, Karl Aspelund goes into more detail about his background. He seems to be very happy with his career path as a designer. I hope to achieve that as well. I want to build my experience as a designer so that I may have a career that I will love and not just do because it’s a job. I am looking forward to reading his book and what skills I will gain by learning more about his seven stages and how they will affect my future as a designer.
Aspelund, Karl. The Design Process. Second Edition. New York: Fairchild Books, 2010. 5. Print.
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