Orphism, Salutations, the Burj Dubai, and the National Football League

As I perused Google Trends, pondering the seething mass of searchers and their varied volition, I noticed something. I may have been seeing pictures in clouds, but a handful of the top trends described a constellation—an Ursa Major of linkbait—of meaning. The Burj Dubai opening, the upcoming NFL Playoffs, and the concussion suffered by Miami quarterback, Pat White; all these connected for me. Through these searches, the Google aggregate demonstrates a profound need we have that lives at the intersection of design and technology.

Well, it does to me anyway.

I happen to believe that, fundamentally, design is vision. Designers are necessarily visionaries. A designer was somewhere in the process that brought a helmet to Pat White. A designer will be involved in the process of creating a better helmet, one that right now, simply does not exist. The endless parade of infographics we’ll be seeing as the NFL Playoffs approach will satisfy, or not, in large part depending upon the scope of the vision of their designers. What is the Burj Dubai if not a testament to vision.

Increasingly, design is married to technology. Perhaps it has always been thus. Technology provides the platform, implements, and canvas. Technology is the currency of design; the currency of vision.

But there is a terrible pain here. These two worlds, technology and design, each carry their own preconceptions, language, and posture. The people that populate these domains of knowledge and practice have great difficulty getting it together. Yet, somehow, they do. There is an alchemy in that connection.

Which, that is where Orphic enters. This blog is an exploration of the whole Venn diagram of design and technology. Orphic is very fortunate to have as authors, a collection of very thoughtful, skilled, and talented people. We’re still preparing their bios and providing them the ability to begin posting, but the diversity of their knowledge and insight will soon be apparent.

We appreciate your visit and patience as we get everything in working order.