Video Reflections 2: Ross Lovegrove - Organic Design

The first impression i got from Ross Lovegrove was that he was too arrogant and to a certain extent, ignorant about anything else besides his point of view. By the end of the video, i knew why. He was so caught up in his own world and everything about it while ignoring anything else because his way was effective. It had been proven to work and has been made to improve many things. The ideas that derive from his way of organic thinking has led to many different forms taking place while at the same time it improved the functionality of the original product. He is also taking whats available to him so rather than to try make something that is totally new and radical to this world, he's just taken whats given to him naturally and translated that into something no one would have associated it with.

I was much inspired by the points he was making about organic design. He states that form can touch a person's soul and by using his acrynom of DNA (Design, Nature Art) he creates essential organic designs which means there are no unnecessary parts to his design. Ross said that he "doesn't set out to make funky things" when talking about the type of design he does which is very straight forward but i think that it would be rather boring to design without any novelty to the product. We are still basic human beings that succumb to shallow entertainment and one of those things that entertain us are funky colours and objects that have no other purpose than to be seen.

I was very impressed by the way he incorporated past century artists with the way an industrial designer should be working. He included Rembrandt, Da Vinci and a few others when explaining how we can intellectually see natural happenings and then translate that into a design form. He looks at a painting of water falling into water from Da Vinci and redoes one himself with 21st century tools to create a new water bottle. The result of his water bottle form that has a sense of individualism because each bottle is different really pushes his point forward that design should be inspired by nature.

Another thing that he stressed about in his speech was the use of new age materials. He describes the manipulation of polymers and other similar types of materials to be the new thing that everyone should be using. He incorporates not just using these materials for everyday products but also specific products such as ones that would be used for medicine. That point was very interesting for me because not only was he finding ways to improve everyday objects, but he was doing that while considering other fields that may need specific products.

In the end, the point that really got to me was the fact that he wanted people to understand that forms can evolve from anything. His explanation of form deriving from even a meringue was very insightful as most people would consider a meringue just something to eat. I very much agree with his statement regarding how form should be following nature, it should also evolve naturally and instinctively to create harmonious structures. I mostly agree with how he wants to take away any materials you don't need to do the job but the job may not always be as simple as one thing so while contradicting him a little bit, i think from watching this video, organic forms are going to be the new way of designing as mother nature has provided us with more than enough successful forms but adding human touches once in a while is what makes us evolve faster than any other specie.