In Response to : Good Design is GoodWill

As I was reading this very interesting section by Paul Rand, I began to highlight some very specific portions that I really identified with very much.

For the past couple of weeks, we have been working in groups to bring to full fruition our specific projects. Although, we have been working very dilegently and things are slowly but surely coming along, there is one particular sentence in this reading that has finally givin me the clear expression of how I wanted to communicate my thoughts on working in groups.

While, I am an individual who is able to work in groups and individually, I do enjoy exploring things on my own as well. This class has been a very amazing experience thus far, truly it has, and my group are dynamic people who will do wonders in the world but now at this point in time I think I want to explore some things in design for myself.

In this reading, in about the 7th paragraph it says, qoute.." Design is a personal activity and springs from the creative impulse of an individual. Group design or design by committee, although occasionally useful, deprives the designer of the distinct pleasure of personal accomplishment and self-realization. It may even hinder his or her thought processes, because work is not practiced under natural, tension-free conditions. Ideas have neither time to develop nor even the opportunity to occur. The tensions encountered in original work are different from those caused by discomfort or nervousness.--end quote--

When I read this I thought...wow! Absoultly, brilliant...design is very personal and I came to that conclusion this weekend! I wonder if someone would agree or disagree with me....and while it is very important to understand how to work in groups etc. in design it can be a distraction to the individual's personal art that they are trying to communicate with the world, it is their personal sense of identity, and it is their personal self-expression that creates a world of things beyond anyone's imagination. Collective is cool( not that I don't think groups can make extreme impacts--its done all the time) but personalization is priceless...