I first took an interest in design when I started living entirely on my own, and on my own nickel, after college. When faced with a choice between two or more comparable consumer purchases, I tended to go for the cheaper option. I soon realized that what I saved in cash I lost in design: the product invevitably failed to work as efficiently or smoothly as the one which cost a few dollars more. Design, how we relate to a thing, is an essential element of the thing itself, not a secondary consideration.
Hence, I now subscribe to 99% Invisible, a podcast on design. A recent show pulled back the curtain on the incredibly complex process of naming things from consumer products to theories, which requires competence in linguistics, semiotics, and ontology. The Biblically literate cannot help but wonder how much more efficiently Adam would have completed his first task had he been able to outsource it to a naming company.
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