Design and Interpretation

Fact, it’s a sign design to represent a burger. But interpretation could be varied from one person to another. One person may say it’s a burger, another may say it’s a flying saucer. But in reality, it is a “sign of a burger”, not a burger. To truly understand what I am trying to describe here, we really need to understand what sign is. Sign in google is defined as, “an object, quality, or event whose presence or occurrence indicated the probable presence or occurrence of something else” in other words a representation or should we say an alternate reality. Meaning the sign itself is not what it represents but a representation itself.

In relation to design, we really have to know what design is all about. Design is defined as a plan for the construction or reconstruction of an object or a system. In reflection towards architecture, let us take the Vitrahaus by Herzog and de Meuron as an example. The building’s design orientation is to take in the surroundings with its organic configuration while using the simple form of a house.

Vitrahaus, Herzog and de Meuron

Vitrahaus design elements.

Design and interpretation are linked in one way or another, but they should be understood as two different processes all together. The design of the Vitahaus is the representation, but when the user begins to experience the space or the interpretation the signage, it is actually the process of de-sign breaking it down to their understanding of the meaning behind the design where the alternate reality is complete.