Designing normally requires a designer considering aesthetic, functional, and many other aspects of an object or process, which usually requires considerable research, thought, modeling, interactive adjustment, and re-design. Yet, we do not need a textbook definition to describe design. Walking down the street anywhere in America we are surrounded by design. We wake up in our households surrounded by design, flip on the television only to be bombarded with commercials specifically designed to attract consumers, then leave to go to work in a car where countless amounts of dollars have been invested into creating a specific look. We are consistently surrounded by design, by the concept of design, and design concepts. With this perpetual assault of design how do “designers” know what will appeal to people and what will not. The truth is that people want to be hip and perpetually seek to be on top of the latest trends and covet the newest looks. So, this is where designers come in. Design in itself is a perpetual search to create hipness. As John Leland points out in his novel Hip: The History, hip is essentially tied to self-identification.

Although it may be contradictory to the core of hip, design is created with the intent of the mass market. Companies, corporations, designer’s etc. try and design for the consumer. Whether it is a car, a movie, a room or a commercial they create with the intention of selling what appeals to society. They intend to present a desired look that people will want to represent themselves. That is why design exists. The vague term "design" has come to encompass a large variety of of terms and ideas but to water it down dramatically, design is the way something looks. Inevitably the way something looks, whether it be a Rap CD Album cover, a Nike advertisement, a new Bentley or a high rise apartment, people want something that represents them, because unavoidably it will. That is why design is linked to hip. Hip's core is self identification, whether you like or not, it is. As John Leland points out that you can only be hip when there is an audience, when someone is looking, or when there is something to notice. So naturally the way a person, object, or space looks will be tied to their hipness.

In our three blogs we address consumer design through three different design mediums. Within these areas of design we analyze the importance of the consumer and the product that’s being designed for them, touching on what makes this product hip, whom it appeals to and what the current trends are. Our three influential methods of design are, Car design, Interior Design, and Advertisement Design.

Hip Advertisement Design

Advertising is much more then commercials interrupting you favorite TV show, or pictures in magazine. When designing an advertisement for a product the designer and company must put into consideration the needs of the consumer. Questions are asked, Who is the consumer? How to reach the consumer? What appeals to the consumer? The reasoning behind asking these questions is, to remain on top of the game. Serious research is done to discover what is hip, what the general public is looking for, and how to present it to the public. The hard work usually pays off because in the end a company will hopefully have created an ad that appeals to you and your needs.
Traditional ads tend to be the most successful, but at the same time there are constantly innovations being made in advertising; contemporary, state-of-the-art ideas, on how to present a product to the world in new ‘hip” ways. I.e. advertising on cars, on straws or manholes in the city, but whether these new forms of advertising will remain hip is hard to say, because they are so new. On the other hand presented in my blog are some already successful forms of advertising, in particular commercial and print ads.
The reason behind the success of these styles of advertising is their ability to reach so many people at one time and their ability to adapt to all consumers. A Folgers ad placed on a manhole in the city is pretty hip, but at the same time it doesn’t reach the consumer that doesn’t live in the city. This is why commercial and print ads are so much more effective.

Hip Interior Design

Interior Design is more than merely hoosing curtians and furniture. It is a way of creating an enviroment that not only will you inhibit but will echo your personality, style, likes, dislikes and essentially who you are. While it may be true that you cannot judge a book by its cover, it is also true that by simply observing the interior design of a persons apartment or househod you can tell a whole lot about them. It may be something as simple as color associations,for example you walked into a room with a lily pink low gloss paint coat opposed to a room with deep royal blue flat paint finish - the obvious answer is that the first was clearly a females room while the latter is a males. Now of course a pink room does not definitively assign a room to a female nor does a blue to a male, but instantly we see how our first impressions can lead us to assumptions about the owner.

The possibilities of interior design are endless. That is a fact. In any given wall, room, apartment, or any amount of space the options are literally countless. So how you choose to orgainze your space will be inheriantly linked to you. There is no answer as to how to decorate an interior in a hip fashion. I apologize. But in reality there is no way not to design hip. Hip is linked to self identity, just as interior design is. You can decorate or not decorate or do whatever with a room as much as you want, but regardless the design is the first recogonizable thing and therefore a tribute to ones self identity. In my eyes, that is the beauty of interior design that the possibilities are endless.

However, like fashion design, car design, or any other form of design, there are styles that phase in and out. In class, we studied how hipness inevitably will lead to the consumer because people like to be "hip" - and companies realize this. In my web blog I explore some designing schemes that are trendy - and who knows- maybe trigger inspiration for ones own hip interior look.

Hip Entertainment

It is the way in which a product is marketed that influences one’s decision to purchase a certain car or select one brand of furniture over the other. Similarly, entertainment design is carefully developed by companies in order to attract their target customers in the most effective way possible. While it may seem redundant, these designs are, in fact, ever-changing, as companies are forced to adapt to the short attention span of our society. While I investigate entertainment design within the context of advertisements in Times Square, promotional music videos, and CD artwork, and discuss the history and current trends of each, I find that I am most intrigued by the various companies’ continued ability to implement new means of entertainment design.

Times Square in Manhattan is much more than an intersection. Television screens soar above department stores, flashing advertisements, as companies compete for the attention of pedestrians below hoping their minds will retain the logos and images displayed. Literally compacted into a square of streets, Times Square embodies a sea of neon, a surreal atmosphere of consumerism, and a hip display of entertainment.

Music videos can consist of a variety of themes and upon their launch in 1981 the world of advertising and consumerism took a dynamic shift. However, since MTV and VH1 no longer play any music videos, most people are forced to watch videos online at sites such as Yahoo!. It therefore becomes necessary to design the video properly in order to effectively promote an album. The hipness of music videos is debatable, as some artists would prefer their listeners to draw upon their own thoughts instead of visualizing the promo video when hearing the song.

CD artwork can consist of a much larger range of themes that tend to vary by decade. While usually hip for their innovative design, some of the most memorable album designs are hip for their simplicity. Much like music videos, one could argue that the artwork is hip for what one interprets from the images.

Hip Car Design

When one makes a 20 thousand dollar or more purchase on a car there are many factors that go into it. Safety, reliability, gas mileage, and performance are all aspects that one considers. However, the design of a car is a very important aspect that is often overlooked. If someone is spending all that money on a car, they probably should like it right? When companies put time into their cars design they have to take into account a variety of factors that will appeal to the consumer. Maybe how sleek the car is, how much cargo space the trunk has, as well as a variety of innovations that have recently been taken into account. Three of these innovations include customization, accessories, and doing it or not doing it yourself.

Customization can range from what color you want the car to be, all the way to what parts you want to add onto the engine in order to improve performance. This recent trend of customization can be partly accredited to the street racing fad that has been taking over underground society in addition to certain car companies gearing their cars to the consumer who wants to customize their car.

Accessories such as navigation systems, speakers and subwoofers, as well as decals are all accessories that are available to all car enthusiasts. These accessories are fairly new in the car design category but nowadays they play a vital role to consumers wishing to purchase these cars. Accessories allow consumers to “soup” up their cars as well as playing a role in customizing their cars.

Doing it and not doing it yourself involves consumers who enjoy actually taking apart engines, rebuilding engines, and installing new parts. There are various websites on the internet that give step by step instructions on how to install certain parts as well as listing their type of car so people with the same car and learn from them. Not doing it yourself involves new accessories such as how the Lexus LS460 has a button that allows the car to parallel parks itself. Doing it and not doing it yourself gives a certain appeal to various consumers who indeed take these factors into consideration when purchasing a car.

If car design doesn’t sound like it would be an important hip factor when determining a car, you might want to think twice. If you are to make a 20 thousand dollar or more investment, car companies should take into account that you have a different opinion on style then other consumers. Car design is hip in that everyone wants a different look or way about their cars and that is what makes design so unique.