3 core aspects of design but 1 focus. What do people overlook?

Road to timeless, sustainable designs…

-99 design studio
4 min readAug 28, 2017
Creating designs that focus on Aesthetics, Functionality and Sustainability.

Design has been a part of human life probably since the very beginning. Maybe functionality was the only desire back then, but people always loved creating “pretty” looking things and staring at them over and over again. But what about actually using those designs?

First it was art, then art integrated into our daily lives, after that, art became a real part of today’s world. With the amount of competition going on, if your product, service or work does not offer an eye-catching design, you’d lose at the very beginning. Yet still, the very question we asked at the beginning remained. How about putting more on top of aesthetics? What if something good can actually be USED for a LONG period of time?

Don’t judge a book by its design.

The wild and futuristic design of Urus was completed with even more futuristic side mirros.

Just like websites, user interfaces and experiences, the world of automobile design can be a perfect example here with a wider timespan than many latest technologies in web design. If you take account Lamborghini’s SUV model, Urus, it had an eye-catching design that featured no side mirrors, but instead cameras on the side that did the job. While on many levels that can be considered a design plus, it’s functionality and sustainability were questionable. The same goes for Fiat’s Multipla, the ever-cursed car in the world of design. Unlike Lamborghini, Multipla provided sustainability and actually a tiny bit of functionality with those weird looking lights. And let’s face it, many midlife crisis people loved showing it off!

Fiat Multipla’s aesthetics were harshly criticised but the car itself was sustainable and offered functional things.

Going back to our digital playgrounds, what we aim to do here at -99 design studio is to bring all three aspects of design together. Create aesthetic solutions that actually have functionality as well as sustainability. Because why build something that looks great but has no other use or becomes obsolete after a certain amount of time? Digital trends change almost by the second and we think that adaptation along with foresight are the only solutions for defying time. For when clients set out to renew their websites, apps or go through a full on re-design, they lean more towards sustainability. While we love offering straight award worthy designs, that just doesn’t cut it for our clients and we prefer offering solutions that can push the boundaries between timeless and useful.

Exemplary works from us.

In the case of our own website, even the smallest bar that might seem “empty” is animated, indicates scroll animations and the number of the page you are currently on. Plus, it changes colour, which means there’s always an interaction that gives useful information. When we set out to re-design our website, our main goal was to make it look great but also sustainable and useful. Our formula seems to have worked out because we’ve been blessed with “Site of the Day” awards as well as further international recognitions.

Let’s take a look at our in-store application for Sneaks Up, Turkey’s popular sneaker store. Sneaks Up wanted an interactive design element to up their stores and make them more appealing to the younger generation. They also wanted this solution to increase the overall sales in their flagship store. We came up with an interactive screen that shows live stocks, models, detailed information and such where users can easily browse the model they like and even purchase securely. When we look at this through 3 core aspects, the screen and the installation itself look aesthetic, and instead of just putting a big screen, we made the screen functional. Also by making it easy to install and use, the customers were easily applying it to other stores on their own, which touches the ground on sustainability.

Sneaks Up in-store installation.

The creative world is filled with plethora of approaches and each of these approaches mean cutting-edge aesthetics, functionality and sustainability. But the main aim for us, is to be able to put all three together instead of focusing on one and neglecting the others.

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-99 design studio

-99 design studio is a multi-disciplinary digital agency specialized in creating useful and engaging digital products.