I just watched this great movie called, "Objectified". It asks the question, what makes good design in the objects we use every day.
A lot of whats said in the movie can also be said about route setting and the product we create every day in the gym.
If you haven't seen it, you can stream it on Netflix. I'm curious what you all think about this movie and the idea of route setters as designers.
http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Objectified/70114976?trkid=1211018
As a Designer myself I take routesetting in the same way, with the same kind of concerns and methods I use for other types of design.
But I see routesetting as a design discipline in a very imature stage, we still think that rules and standardization are against creative freedom, this creative freedom doesn't exist in design. This is one of the major differences between art and design, the designer creates for a specific goal, he follows a certain amount of rules that he can break but being aware of its implications in the final product.
Objectified is a very good movie!
Hey Mike,
I have seen Objectified and also thought it to be a good movie. I remember best the elder gentleman who used to design for Braun, a german electronics company
I was a graphic designer for a long time and like Fred I used a lot of my experience as a designer for setting.
For me being a designer meant finding creative and personal solutions to achieve a specific goal. I think route setting can be seen the same way. I am not sure how immature setting is as a creative discipline but I would say we don't (yet) pay enough attention to whom we are working for.
Hey Grande I was surprised they didn't interview you for the movie. I kept waiting to see your face on the screen. I agree that we don't pay enough attention to the audience or end user of the route. However, I also think that setters don't think enough about the overall route or where that route or problem fits in with the broader world of climbing and movement.
Fred, In most cases we as setters have a very specific set of parameters to work with when we create a route. Our goal is to make a route that hits a grade, perhaps an age category, a comp problem number (mens #4). Movement has rules in and of itself. Rules I wish I could break sometimes.
Can you have great design with unlimited freedom? Or does it have to constraints and rules?
I personally like to think of us as choreographers of the vertical. Obviously we are designers, as we are designing each route, but we are also forcing people to do a series of moves.
I think we need to think of ourselves as more than just designers.
Movement will always have rules.
I agree a routesetter is a designer of sorts, however we differ from the design world when it comes to how we interact with out "clients." Designers in almost every other arena are concerned with ease of use. A good routesetter, however, is always trying to push people beyond thier comfort zone into new levels of climbing.
Feedback is good, but how many times have you had someone bitch and bitch about your route until they figure out the beta and finally send it. Then it is the best route they've ever been on. I guess the trick is to learn what feedback to listen to and what to ignore.
In every sense of the word.
As a student of architecture, I try as much as possible to use my surroundings and the tools that I am given to design the path of least resistance in a fun, yet challenging way. I use the aesthetics of the wall and try to simulate what you might find outside, by just following a theme or feature. And some days I throw it all out the window and try to come up with my on ideas and concepts of what I think is artistic yet functional.
There are no boundaries in climbing. Just because you cant do it doesnt mean that someone else cant.
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