ELLA LUPTON - Curator of Contemporary Design - Cooper-Hewitt
Ella Lupton is a Graphic Designer, who has been Cooper-Hewitt’s curator of contemporary design since 1992. In conjunction with her twin sister Julia, She has published a book titled “Design Your Life: The Pleasures and Perils of Everyday Things”. The video is a brief insight into the book, which talks about the unnecesarry, over-designed nature of simplistic items like electrical appliances, baggage, pillows, and even bras.
For me, the video was quite boring to watch, however I strongly agree with the point she was making. In the past I have found myself being constantly confronted with things breaking; wether it be my car, my phone, my camera, or something else, I am constantly trying to fix things. Instead of putting the amount of research and design into “new features”, why can’t we put more time into making sure that a product won’t keep constantly malfunctioning. I know that products get designed around ‘obsolencence’ to keep businesses operating, but surely practicality shouldn’t be compromised.
Ella also talks about how design affects our behavior. Putting wheels on our luggage, and even the way in which toilet paper is dispensed, manages to affect us without us even knowing it. She makes a good point when she talks about the practicality of an "open ended" toilet paper holder, as opposed to a "closed end, spring loaded" one. The amount of steps involved in changing a roll of toilet paper on a "closed end" just seems completely unnecessary, and also causes alot of frustration that is not needed.
What Ella Talked about was nothing ground breaking, but it was quite a refreshing look at design, and how it affects us. It brought to our attention the simple parts of design that don't really get noticed when we're focusing on 'improving' existing objects.
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