Ep. 313 - The Philosophy of Order in Design with Prof. Kirti Trivedi

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Summary

In this insightful conversation, Kirti Trivedi reflects on the concept of order in design, drawing from his experiences at IDC and the Ulm School. He explains order as the relationship between elements, discusses hierarchy, mapping, and the interplay of inner and outer order. Drawing parallels with Indian philosophy, aesthetics, and spiritual ideas like dharma and Vishnu’s iconography, he emphasizes that true beauty emerges from well-formed internal order, not superficial styling.

Topics shared in this episode

• Could you start by talking about your assignment in IDC on the order system, which was part of the Control Panel Organization course?

• If I have to take a step back and explain more granularly, what is order itself?

• Why do we need order at all? Why can’t things be just disorderly?

• Does Gestalt help in creating hierarchy, mapping, or order?

• Is there something that consciously should be overlooked, or does beauty naturally emerge from order?

• Are you also pointing to inner order as something related to spirit or soul—like in the Vipassana example of hair?

• Can we say there’s no such thing as noise if we define music as organized noise and say disorder doesn’t exist?

• How does cultural conditioning shape our perception of what is ordered or disordered?

• Could India’s chaotic system actually represent a higher form of order?

• Is the square shape a major cause of disorder, compared to the natural harmony of circles?

• How does the iconography of Vishnu—Shankha, Chakra, Gada, Padma—symbolize cosmic order?

• What is the significance of the concept of “restore” in design?

• How can the act of restoring point to the need for an originally perfect order?

• How do you think designers can aim to create systems that self-correct or restore like the cosmic order?

Reference links

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirti-trivedi-340327271/

• http://www.visualogue.com/speakers/trivedi_e.html

• https://iiti.academia.edu/KirtiTrivedi

• https://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/people/faculty/trivedi-kirti

• https://www.dsource.in/case-study/teaching-design-based-classical-indian-knowledge-system/literature-review-focussed-2

• https://www.designindia.net/thoughts/people/masters/yeshwant-chaudhary

• https://thebranvetica.com/yeshwant-chaudhary.html

• https://www.admecindia.co.in/graphic-design/10-most-popular-indian-graphic-artists/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulm_School_of_Design

• https://wrede.interfacedesign.org/gui-bonsiepe-chair-designing-for-possible-futures/?cookie-state-change=1751095399713

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gui_Bonsiepe

• https://www.dsource.in/sites/default/files/showcase/prof-sudhakar-nadkarni/slide-show-presentation/file/Design_Journey_of_Prof_S_Nadkarni.pdf

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_qualities

• https://www.memphis.edu/amum/collections/williamhuff.php

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sori_Yanagi

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nusrat_Fateh_Ali_Khan

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayant_Narlikar

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhimsen_Joshi

• https://ndion.de/en/gui-bonsiepe-in-virtual-reality-everything-is-design/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Moles

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massimo_Vignelli

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Gropius

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapila_Vatsyayan

• https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/4/verse/8

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandit_Narendra_Sharma

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