Gestalt Ingenieur
I came across a quote from Dieter Rams in an article here:
I am troubled by the devaluing of the word ‘design’. I find myself now being somewhat embarrassed to be called a designer. In fact I prefer the German term, Gestalt Ingenieur.
Just a Doodler
Gestalt Ingenieur translates to Shape or Form Engineer; though I would not profess to being an engineer, I like the inclusive nature of this term. Besides, it sounds exotic. I’ve always been uncomfortable referring to myself as a designer, despite having held the title formally on numerous occasions. Thanks to the likes of Rams, Ive, Apple and many others, perhaps design is getting some proper recognition these days. Nevertheless, my father was, in my view, the ‘Real Deal.’ He could illustrate, by hand. He was trained. Me, I’m a doodler, albeit a fairly accomplished one, especially if you count the fact that a couple of my comic strips were published (full disclosure: it was a college publication circa 1990, and the editor was one of my closest friends).
Having been around and owned computers for virtually my entire life, I’ve never shied away from getting my hands dirty when it comes to coding, or scripting, or programming. The Graduate Supervisor at San Jose State University, where I’m pursuing my Masters in Computer Science, asked, “So you think you can code?”
Gestalt Ingenieur, What?
I do code. I wouldn’t call myself a programmer any more than I would a designer, but the reality is programming is a large part of what I do, but it’s all a means to an end, whatever it takes to accomplish the puzzle of the day. These puzzles, for me, tend to be usability-related. Sometimes, they’re people-related. All the jQuery in the world can’t solve those kinds if problems. In those situations, pretending to be a sea of tranquility is sometimes the best bet. In short:
[tweetherder]Check your own Gestalt.[/tweetherder]
