Modern humans spend a great deal of their time indoors. Actually, most of the time. We still love the outdoors and visit when we can, but the majority of our daily existence happens between walls and under a roof. Our homes, schools, offices, stores- the list is long. It’s a fact that some of these places are more pleasant to be in than others. Even though we are inside, we still like to look outside through the windows and are still attracted to natural lighting. Our spaces often feature potted plants, another reminder of nature’s beauty. Sometimes we eschew those elements of the outdoors for spaces that serve a particular function, like a movie theatre, or a sports arena, where a dark, sparsely decorated cavern is forgiven because our attention will be on the performances offered. When it’s necessary to spend time in less dramatic spaces we find ourselves turning to non-natural elements like decorative paints, furniture, and electric lighting to engage our senses, creating a pleasant feeling that we all desire. The desire for beauty grows even stronger in the confines of an artificial space, and because of this we have created a whole industry to support this need- the art and science of design.
Design has been with us since the dawn of time. Early humans painted amazing friezes depicting the world around them on the walls of caves. Later civilisations created new kinds of wall art like stone carvings, woven tapestries, and oil paintings. Furniture came into common use, another wonderful medium for us to express our creativity, whilst also serving to make us comfortable and provide useful platforms for our daily functions, one example being a dinner table. Today’s designers have taken these basic concepts and expanded them into whole new ways of thinking about and shaping our surroundings. These modern pioneers of human-centred design are constantly probing the limits of expression and the human imagination to create new synergies of form and function for today’s complex world.
Today’s professional designers have a rich palette of tools and useful items at their disposal to employ when translating their inner visions into the physical world for others to use and enjoy. When designers enter an empty space they see its potential to be shaped into a new reality that all who enter can wonder at and enjoy, their goal is to inspire and awe the imagination, creating a new, unique place made by human hands for human minds to treasure.
Australia is lucky to be a nation that is supportive of the arts, understanding their profound value to all who create and experience them. If what you have read here inspires you, we urge you, no matter who you are, to get in touch with the designer we all have inside of us and create something! This simple act is one of the most rewarding things anyone can doand is one of the key traits that define what it is to be a human being.
