The Design of Your Life设计生活

Those old sci-fi movies were wrong. The twenty-first century doesn’t look at all the way they said it would. We citizens of the future aren’t wearing conformist jumpsuits， living in utilitarian1 high-rises， or getting our food in the form of dreary-looking pills. On the contrary， we are demanding and creating a stimulating， diverse， and strikingly well-designed world. We like our vacuum cleaners and mobile phones to sparkle， our backpacks and laptops to express our personalities. We expect trees and careful landscaping in our parking lots， peaked roofs and decorative facades on our supermarkets， and auto dealerships as swoopy2 and stylish as the cars they sell.

以前那些科幻片中的描述都错了，21世纪根本就不是电影里所设想的那样。我们这些未来公民不穿循规蹈矩的连衫裤，不住实用的高楼大厦，也不吃看上去乏味的片剂食物。恰恰相反，我们要求且正在创造一个具有启发性的多元世界，设计之完善令人赞叹。我们希望自己的吸尘器和手机样式新颖夺目;背包和笔记本电脑彰显个性;停车场里精心布置绿化美化景观;超市屋顶尖尖，正面装饰感强;而汽车经销店如他们所销售的汽车一样，流线型设计，新潮时尚。

“Design is everywhere， and everywhere is now designed，” says David Brown， a design consultant and the former president of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena， California. And it all happened so fast. It wasn’t that long ago that Apple’s iMac turned the personal computer from a utilitarian， putty3-colored box into curvy eye candy4—blueberry， strawberry， tangerine， grape， lime. Translucent jewel tones spread to staplers and surge protectors and microwaves—even American Express cards.

戴维·布朗是一名设计顾问，也是位于加州帕萨迪纳的艺术中心设计学院前任院长。他说：“如今设计无处不在，无处未经设计。”而这一切又发生得如此迅速。不久以前，苹果公司将其生产的麦金托什牌个人电脑由原来重实用的浅灰色盒子形设计成带曲线的，配以养眼的多彩色——蓝莓蓝，草莓红，橘子黄，葡萄紫，柠檬绿。半透明的珠宝色广泛用于订书机、电涌保护器、微波炉，甚至是美国运通卡。

Since then everything around us has been getting a much needed face-lift5. Volkswagen reinvented the Beetle. Karim Rashid reinvented the ordinary trash can. Oxo reinvented the potato peeler （thus proving that people will happily pay an extra five bucks for a kitchen tool if it looks and feels better）. Even toilet brushes have become design objects， with something for every personality. The handle on Philippe Starck’s sleek Excalibur brush looks ready for a duel， while Alessi’s Merdolino brush （designed by Stefano Giovannoni） sprouts like a bright green cartoon plant.

从此，我们身边的一切事物都在改头换面，这正是我们非常需要的。大众汽车重新设计了甲壳虫，卡里姆·拉希德重新设计了普通的垃圾桶，奥秀重新设计了土豆削皮器（这表明如果某样厨房用具看上去更舒服，用起来手感更好，人们就会乐意支付那额外的5美元）。连马桶刷都成了设计作品，每款设计都各具特色。菲力浦·史达克设计的Excalibur系列马桶刷造型优美，其手柄看似一把随时准备决斗的王者之剑，而艾烈希旗下设计师斯特凡诺·焦万诺尼的Merdolino系列马桶刷恰似一株卡通般的嫩绿新芽在破土生长。

When Target introduced a line of housewares developed by architect-    designer Michael Graves， few customers had ever heard of Graves. But his playful toaster quickly became the chain’s most talked about， and most expensive model. Target increased the number of Graves offerings to more than five hundred and is still adding more Graves items—and more designers.

塔吉特公司推出一系列出自建筑设计师迈克尔·格雷夫斯之手的家庭用具时，很少有消费者听过他的名字。但他设计的烤面包机很好玩，很快就成了该连锁店最为人乐道、最为昂贵的一款。于是该公司推出了500多样他的设计品，并仍在不断推出更多新品，以及更多设计师的作品。

“We’re seeing design creep into everything，” says Chicago industrial designer Mark Dziersk. The 1990s were the decade of distribution. Wal-Mart set the standard for low-cost， hyperefficient retailing， while the Internet made everything available everywhere. You can live in a small town and still buy stylish goods.

芝加哥工业设计师马克·杰尔斯克说：“我们正亲眼目睹设计渗透到各种事物当中。”20世纪90年代是商品分销的10年，沃尔玛为低价高效的零售模式树立了标杆，因特网则让我们在任何地方可以买到任何东西。即便是住在一个小镇上，你也同样可以买到时髦的东西。

This trend doesn’t mean that a particular style has triumphed or that we’re necessarily living in a period of unpre-cedented creativity. It doesn’t mean everything is now beautiful， or that people agree on basic standards of taste. The holy grail6 of modern product designers is mass customization， not mass production. “Mass production offered millions of one thing to everybody，” writes Bruce Sterling， the science fiction author and design champion， in Metropolis， “mass customization offers millions of different models to one guy.”

当然这种趋势并不意味着某种特定的风格已独占鳌头，或是我们必然生活在创造力空前的时期。也并不是说如今每样东西都是美的，或是人们对于品位的基本标准已达成共识。现代产品设计师们梦寐以求的是批量定制，而不是批量生产。“批量生产是大量制作同一种商品提供给所有客户，批量定制是大量制作不同款型提供给某一客户。”科幻作家兼设计冠军布鲁斯·斯特林在《大都会》杂志上这样写道。

Ours is a pluralist age in which different styles can coexist， as long as they please the individuals who choose them. You don’t just buy blue jeans anymore; you customize， picking the exact wash and cut you like best. If you don’t like the look of the nearest Starbucks， the company gives you choices. “You can go three stores down to a different Starbucks and say， —I like this better. I just feel better here，” explains a Starbucks executive. And once you’re there you don’t order just a cup of coffee. You navigate a long menu of customized combinations， including different beans， styles， and flavors.

我们的时代是一个多元化时代，只要有人喜欢，不同的风格便可以共存。你不再随随便便买条蓝色牛仔裤，而是定做，挑选自己最喜欢的洗水风格和款式。如果你不喜欢离得最近的一家星巴克咖啡店的格调，星巴克公司也会给你提供其他的选择。该公司一位管理人员说：“你可以走过三家店面，来到另一家星巴克，觉得‘我更喜欢这家，在这儿感觉比较舒服。’”进店后，你不会随随便便点杯咖啡，而是浏览长长的定制咖啡菜单，选择不同咖啡豆、做法和口味的组合。

All this choice required technological and business innovations， but the shift expresses deeper cultural changes， too. The extension of liberal individualism—the primacy of self-definition over hierarchy and inherited， group-determined status—has altered out aesthetic universe. The issue is no longer what style is used but rather that style is used， consciously and conscientiously， even in areas where function used to stand alone.