The Constraints of Design

one design constraint i would like the IDers to comment on is purpose ... when you design something it is for a purpose .. a watch to tell time .. a house to provide shelter and sercurity ...even use humans design our herd animals , by sleective breeding , sheep for wool , cattle for meat , horses for carrying capacity and speed ...so Any Designer would have to address the purpose of the design when planing the work ....so if all of this is designed .. whats is it for ?

im never sure if there can be art for art's sake .. any bit of art seems to come with a purpose .. ever if its a little obscure ... like the artist wishing to expresse their happy mood .. it still carries a purpose of showning that feeling and event ...yes you could have a painting of a lighthouse .. because you want a picture of a lighthouse .. but thats still has a purpose .. and here we can clearly see the restriction on nthe design .part of where i was going with this come round to the point purpose would normally predate the design , , and therefore place its constraint from the very beguining , and affect the whole chain of steps the design goes through .thus are comception of what the purpose might be would help understanding how the design evolXXXX err changed during the early phases of the process ..

i would add that design has a fixed goal ....it is not a case of lets mix A with B and see what we get .. it is i want to have C , and i can define what C is , to a greater or lesser degree ...put another way design starts with a target and has a end pointthe route to that target may or may not have limits due to the nature of the target ,but othwerwise a open .

hmm i would call that experimentation not design ..you mix a bunch of things together and see what happens ...you start with a bamboo forest and see what appears there ...where as with Design .. you would go .. i need a creature to eat bamboo and then design a giant panda ...or start with a panda and design bamboo