The Nature and Aesthetics of Design by David Pye Reflection

David Pye starts out this excerpt from chapter five by saying, "We must distinguish between 'limitations' set by our unwillingness to incur work and trouble on the one hand, and real limitations set by our inability as workmen on the other." I don't think we stop and reflect on how much energy we actually put into our work these days, he explains how we as people set our own limitations on our work because we are just being lazy, when in reality our process could be much more involved if we took the time to actually work as hard as we possibly can. From this he explains how manufacturers aim towards the cheapest way possible of creating products today, in order to make the most profit. This is where designers have a hard time of working, because they are set limitations from the very start of their work, only being able to use specific amounts and types of materials when creating for a customer. Throughout the body of Pye's article he talks about how time has transformed the way we handle and work with materials. I found his discussion on material to be very dry and repetitive. He moves into speaking about beauty and art in today's world. I love when he says, "The value of beauty, then, is that along with human contact it enables us to break out of the otherwise impregnable spiritual isolation to which every one of us is born and to feel ourselves at home in the world." The aim of design is to promote human happiness; so I love how he explains what we can take away from experiencing art and design, that in our broken corrupt world there is still art, a beautiful form of expression that can't be taken away. He jumps from idea to idea in a very stiff manner so at times it is hard to understand what Pye is trying to portray but the excerpt from chapter 9 is ended nicely when he says, "Crisis or no, while there is life there should be hope somewhere, and so long as there is hope there will be art..." which is extremely true in our world. Artists and designers won't every give up on making our world a more advanced and beautiful place; its what they were born to do.