No Comments Written by Robert on May 23, 2008 – 11:50 pm

Conceptual design is not so much a specific category of design as an approach to design that exists across a spectrum of activities.

Conceptual designs speculate with form in ways that “push the boundaries” of what is understood to be acceptable in design.

In some ways, conceptual designs are philosophically close to conceptual art in that both are motivated primarily by ideas over other material considerations (form, functionality, aesthetics, or marketability, for instance).

As such, they are generally not intended to be mass-produced but rather, to circulate through exhibitions or publications.

However, the categorization of conceptual designs as art instead of design assumes a very narrow interpretation of what design entails. Indeed, the very purpose of conceptual design is to use design as a medium to provoke discussion and debate, and to challenge assumptions regarding what it means to be a designer, a user, and a consumer. Furthermore, conceptual designs do not address the concept or the idea in complete isolation from principles of functionality, something that applied arts can afford to do. In other words, expectations of everyday use are always important to conceptual design, whether the designer is defying them (unusable furniture, unwearable jewelry), challenging them (barely legible grunge graphics), or creating alternative or future scenarios of fictional or hypothetical use.

This latter category of conceptual design typically considers the speculative psychological, social, and ethical relationships between people and objects as much as (or parallel to) their functional relationships.

The ostensible “function” of these designs may or may not ultimately be feasible or even rational; in fact, conceptual design proposals of this sort are often intentionally made to be unrealizable in order to highlight the (economic, social, cultural, philosphical, and so on) forces that limit their potential. As designers, we need to develop ways of speculating about future scenarios and emerging technologies that are grounded in fact, yet engage the imagination and allow us to debate different possibilities.

The danger of course is that these designs will become mere fantasies, and therefore the designer’s challenge often lies in maintaining a sense of realism. In this capacity, conceptual designs could be said to engage the same suspension of disbelief that filmmakers and writers use.

In other words, interactions with these products should generate complex narratives related to use; by emphasizing alternative scenarios and future interactions before they happen, conceptual designs of this type exist somewhere between fiction and reality, and are nearer to the intentions and processes of cinema and literature than those of art. They can be approached as props for nonexistent films, for example, or as prompts for playing back imaginary films in our own minds.

As with critical design, the conceptual design process is therefore not about problem-solving so much as setting up a situation that facilitates public engagement, discussion, and debate. In one way or another, the main subjects of conceptual design are questions about the future of society, technology, aesthetics, and social behavior questions about the future of design itself. It is a process that provides a space where ideas can be tested, presented, and communicated, a parallel design channel or genre dedicated to conceptual exploration.

As mentioned above, most conceptual designs are not intended to be mass-produced, but rather to make users reflect, ask questions, and think about the impact of the design in their lives.

There are many forms of speculative design approaches that are ultimately market-driven: concept cars shown at automotive shows to test the market’s openness to new ideas, for example, or future-vision projects undertaken by large corporations to speculate on new product possibilities and applications.

Haute couture is also often considered to be quite conceptual (but is somewhat idealistic and utopian in aspiring to something beyond “the now” that you can buy, own, and wear today). These forms of design are clearly related to conceptual design in that they are speculative and future-oriented, but the objectives behind the processes differ considerably.

The act of conceptualizing design the process of prototyping various possible solutions in search of an optimum final design is also distinct from conceptual design as described in this text. Any formal design process clearly requires stages of idea generation and conceptual analysis.

The difference lies in whether or not these ideas and concepts challenge or take precedence over the expected material or commercial considerations.