The ANTIDESIGN

Geim and Novoselov were awarded with the Nobel Prize in Physics this year for the successful creation of a substance called graphene. This is essentially a substance of 2 dimensions in a 3 dimensional world. The two prize winners were able to make a sheet of material virtually one atom thick.

The qualities of this material are what make this discovery truly useful. It is a conductor and allegedly stronger than steel. Although this futuristic material itself deserves the creators grand recognition, I think the Nobel Prize may have been awarded to them due to their creativity in their method.


In an interview with Novoselov from the official Nobel Prize website after his nomination, he brought up the simplicity of the concept that led to this creation, these "friday night experiments".

" ...we just try to be curious in everything and most important is to have fun. So Andre introduced this habit of Friday evening experiments which ... where you do just crazy things and then some of them sometimes come out, sometimes not. And basically graphene was one of those as well." 

- Read Novoselov's nomination interview

The New York Times published an article yesterday that delves deeper into this idea of a regular designated period of time allotted for them to just go wild and work on whatever projects they feel drawn to, no matter how strange they seem.

"In one of them, Dr. Geim managed to levitate a frog in a magnetic field, for which he won an Ig Nobel — a parody award for “improbable research” — in 2000. On another occasion they produced a “gecko tape” that mimicked the way geckos and Spider-Man can walk on the ceiling."

- Read The New York Times article

As a child, choosing what we want to do for a living seems like a most crucial and time-sensitive decision. I remember just knowing that everyone in my third grade class already knew exactly what they wanted to be when they grew up, and were already working towards their goals. I was behind. I never felt like I knew what I wanted to do for a living. What I knew was that I was fascinated by things that made me feel intensely, and had some kind of unusual draw towards dramatic situations. Since I was 7, I have gone through many passions, but they always change, and I always get bored. Choosing to major in design was not an easy decision for me to arrive at, in fact, it's one that I chose in the last few days of registration. This isn't the first time that having a deadline to make has eased the decision making process a bit. Although I was rushed, I know that design was the right choice for me personally, not only because of future goals, but also by looking back at what I enjoyed and found interesting when I was young.

When I think about design as a career choice, I still find myself thinking that it's best suited for someone who has a passion for creating new things. That isn't my experience. Personally, I do not consider myself a creator, or even one who is passionate about the idea that we can create new things. What I'm really passionate about is being inspired. Seeing new things makes me excited, and it always has. It is enjoyable and effortless to soak up style, technique, mood, and composition of new artwork that I see, but also by structures and objects I find as I move through the world. Being in a new place in the way that novels, video games, movies, and travel can offer is absolutely a source of inspiration to me. That truly encompasses what being a designer is about for me personally. Designers are just pros at being inspired.

Since the term "design" is one of the many English words that has no true and agreed upon meaning, the topic of "design in society" is an intensely broad one. In our world, we can witness design in several ways that are immediately recognizable; things like architecture, fashion, websites, jewelry, and other objects we use in our lives and consider to be of artistic or creative value. There is also the less recognizable design, the objects that aren't considered of any large scale artistic value, but are designed to make life easier.

For my sake, I am limiting design to what I'd consider to be successes in society. This doesn't necessarily mean only objects and designs that have been recognized by society to be of merit, but also designs that I personally recognize as having potential to add value to our world.


If design was a cupcake, art would be the frosting. Art in itself is something difficult to define as well, but there is no disputing that art and design overlap in a major way. To me, design also seems to envelope a large mass of things that are not considered art. For some people, the terms 'design' and 'art' are entirely interchangeable, but for the sake of getting a closer hold on the meaning of design, I am limiting art to aesthetics, where i find design to be rooted much more in reality, in that it can be found in things that cannot be seen.

Sometimes the definitions aren't important. Most of us can tell when something is or is NOT design related, but I might argue that everything has the potential to be used in design. To me, design (loosely) is the process of taking from x to idealize y. In terms of design in society, this relates to almost everything that we do, regardless of the field. Creation is part of humanity, and to create we first have to imagine it into existence. That is where I see design, right in between seeing something new and having created something new.