> I increasingly subscribe to the thesis that many designers and design teams design primarily in an effort to impress other designers. They don't have to use the things. They often don't even really care if the things work at all. They care that other designers - their artistic peers - are impressed.
To put things in perspective, this is how we get stuff like the Eiffel tower.
The Eiffel Tower was built as a temporary display for the World's Fair. It was very much intentionally designed to impress other designers; that was kind of the point
> The Eiffel Tower was built as a temporary display for the World's Fair. It was very much intentionally designed to impress other designers; that was kind of the point
I'm not sure I got the point across. The whole point is that focusing on design is how we get outstanding, high-quality results. It makes the product more appealing and can even make it transcend it's status. High quality design creates value with negligible impact on cost.
The Eiffel Tower exemplifies that. It was designed as a temporary exhibition but it's impact transcends that of a mere temporary structure. It became the landmark of a European capital, and the symbol of one of the richest, most successful and culturally dominant nations on earth, and in the process generates fortunes in revenue due to tourism.
Another good example is the Sagrada Família cathedral in Barcelona, or pretty much each of Gaudi's work. Even the Gaudi's Park Guell, which failed as a real estate project, is a resounding landmark and tourist attraction.
Not at all. And I understand the now obsolete technical show-off value of the tower at its time. But now I think it's just a humdrum industrial eyesore.
I think most people disagree with me so I don't think it's going anywhere. But that's my view of it.
I know, I've seen a few of those. Most of them are tiny replicas built ironically for the novelty factor. Besides the ones built for tourist traps, most are justified as radio towers. But as radio towers the design is laughably obsolete. Compare with guyed masts, which virtually every developed town and city around the world has numerous examples of.
To put things in perspective, this is how we get stuff like the Eiffel tower.