RGE Design

27/02/2025

Great Design

Great design is many things and the theme running throughout Nicholas Oddy’s lecture is that great design comes from innovation, be this innovation in market or in engineering or even in the process.

In many of the examples through the lecture, Oddy focused on how designers were innovative in the market which lead to them being seen as great designers.

Innovation in the market can come from a range of areas one of which is having an understanding of the market. An example of a designer who really understood their market is Raymond Loewy. Loewy, widely considered the ‘father of industrial design’, was a power house of design in the 1930s designing anything from Coca-Cola bottles to locomotives to household appliances.

And while stylistic obsolescence has been used since the early 1920s, Loewy was the first to apply it to the household appliance industry. His use of this type of obsolescence has lead to the western consumer culture of today. By using design to make technologies look old-fashioned, Loewy created new demand for these appliance during a time when money was tight and unemployment was high. Loewy’s understanding of the market meant that his products sold as he prioritised appealing to consumers’ emotions over the function and ergonomics. He is quoted as saying, “success finally came when we were able to convince some creative men that good appearance was a saleable commodity, that it often cut costs, enhanced a products prestige, raised corporate profits , benefitted the customer and increased employment”, showcasing his deep understanding of what the consumer wants and the gap in the market while having the ability to play to the companies he designed for.

Margaret Calvert’s, a British typographer and graphic designer, most notable work, UK road signs, is an example of innovation in design while also showcasing unrecognised misogyny. Many road signs across the world to indicate children crossing at the time Calvert redesigned the UK road signs had the boy leading the girl, Calvert inverted this

While unintentional, this sign of feminism in her design was unseen in this area of the design world and has been widely adopted by other counties. Calvert’s understanding of what she was design and for whom she was designing for lead to a simplification and clarity in the UK road signs which is under appreciated today.

This lecture lead me to a new viewpoint as to what actually is great design.