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.