By Dr Tony M Monda
Design is not the overtly glamorous artistic discipline it is often portrayed to be in popular magazines and mass-media.
On the contrary, design is a practical and function-oriented subject which enables innovation on old industrial products in order to create new ones as demands arise.
Concisely defined Design is “the appropriate combination of materials in order to solve a design and production problem to create a new prototype”
Design is a knowledge-based discipline with a unique set of proficiencies required to enable one to excel in the specific chosen discipline of design in industry.
It is a study of various components of human activities and commerce and how we respond to environmental and physical material challenges. It requires critical thinkers capable of new ideas to produce new products.
According to industrial designer, Michelina Andreucci, “Raymond Loewy was ‘the Father of Design’.
His design guidelines are universal . . . his designs transcended niches to touch other disciplines proving that design is not limited to one industry or field.
During his life, he contributed many creative designs from the first king-size bottle and the first Coke steel can to refrigerators, locomotives, motor cars and ships.
Notable products that shaped our lives during the 1980s included Lucky Strike cigarette packs; the Coca-Cola contour bottle design and Deluxe fountain dispenser, as well as logos for companies such as Shell, Exxon, TWA and BP”.
Coco-Cola’s Deluxe fountain dispenser
Often perceived as a man’s domain by the West, design in the historical traditions of Zimbabwe was equitably practiced; in fact, design was principally carried out by women.
They created and took part in the conceptualisation, design and manufacture of most of the domestic utensils; from clay pots to basketry, weaving of mats, sewing of cloths and general home making; summed up in the proverb musha mukadzi (the homestead is a woman’s domain) In the Shona context, woman played a central and mandatory role in designing, building and maintaining the homestead and its associated institutions such as agriculture, shelter, food provision, childcare and education.
They were the administrators of domestic provisions and the designer and distributor of spaces in the home.
The unique indigenous functional implements and ornamentation produced In Zimbabwe by local craftspeople included women in the production process.
Using natural materials to craft unique functional implements with elaborate geometric, organic and asymmetrical forms attest to the design genius of Zimbabwean people.
These sophisticated cultural objects, coveted worldwide for their design pedigree make up Zimbabwe’s indigenous design heritage that we should be proud of.
Whilst they appear simply made, they possess remarkable aesthetic qualities and properties while incorporating the complex art and design theories such as the universal principles and elements of design, concurrently integrating arrangements of culturally symbolic colours, patterns and codes of communication.
Ancient Zimbabwe civilisation and the cultural material produced in the classical age of MaDzimbahwe attest to Zimbabwe’s design pedigree.
These simple design objects form an important part of the nation’s cultural heritage and identity today.
Design in Zimbabwe is one of the most gender equitable academic and trade disciplines that can offer professional career employment opportunities for both sexes.
It is a thinking person’s discipline, which offers especially for young girls, boundless possibilities of creative economic empowerment.
There are many specialised disciplines, occupations and trades that require design proficiency, more so if we wish our industries to be revived viably.
The word “design” has a fortuitous double meaning; simultaneously describing the intrinsic structure of an item and the willful act of conceptualising and creating a design prototype of a product, concept or service.
However, it must be understood that design is not child’s play – mahumbwe.
For design to be understood and used effectively in the fields of industry, commerce,
technology and even trade we need to enhance our knowledge of the professional understandings of the role of the designer through the most appropriate education, and not simply add the moniker “design” willy-nilly, whether applicable or otherwise.
Design is essentially structure, form and function.
It is simultaneously morphology and construction. In terms of morphology, design is inherent, whether its sources are organic, unconscious, commonplace or the carefully premeditated product of the work of the professional designer.
Conceptualisation and construction in design is also an act, a manifestation of agency and a process of transformation whereby one is cognisant of design laws and incorporates the existing universal designs intrinsic to found objects, architectures, landscapes, processes, human relationships and cultures.
The function of the designer therefore, is to engage in the matrix of designing, re-constructing, re-working, innovating and re-voicing recognised designs for different interests and uses according to the needs of the times.
This naturally, opens up many opportunities in Zimbabwe for designers and consumers.
Regrettably, colonialism limited the choice and scope of professions for our children.
Since independence choices have expanded, students need to be exposed to the professional world very early in their schooling.
We need to engage young children from an early age into understanding the mechanisms of society, profession, industry, commerce, agriculture, medicine, law, etc.
Government ministries involved in the national formulation of policies for industrial development and planning as well as the relevant ministries of education and of commerce and Industry need to take cognisance of the missing cog in the wheels of production in the economy. This missing cog is the appropriate attainment of the knowledge of design for
industry in educational and vocational institutions.
By omitting design from our syllabus we are negating the re-discovery and flourishing of new ideas, new visual processes and indigenous inventions that enhance further scholarship, research and understanding of the African self.
Industrial design and other related design disciplines should be incorporated into the larger framework of Zimbabwe’s education development exercise.
The wide scope of possibilities and diversities available in the field of design would benefit economic growth and employment creation in the country.
A committed educationist, Dr. Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is a practicing visual artist, musician and Critic.
He is founding president of ZAAC. He served as a consultant on the 2015 education curriculum development programme and is a guest lecturer for private schools and colleges. Contact him on 0773 805 700 or email on tonymichelmonda93@gmail.com or tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
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