Designer-fill-in-the-blank.
Recently I read an article about dogs. It defined purebreds, hybrids, and mutts. The “hybrid” was labeled a “designer dog.” Of course this was the one I was most interested in. I am a designer.
What the hell does “designer-fill-in-the-blank” mean? Dogs are labeled “designer dogs” because many of them are bred “by design” for specific reasons like minimizing allergies to shedding and dander, having good temperaments as family pets, and eliminating excessive drooling. Is “designer-this-or-that” an admirable label? I can’t deny it, “designer dogs are pretty popular.”
The design thing:
“By design.” You know, everybody knows, designers are “trained” to arrive at beautiful looking and/or beautiful working solutions. It’s part of the process. It’s what we do. In a perfect world designers always use the process for our work-for-hire solutions. Some use the process for personal solutions, like “living and breathing” design. 24 x 7. I can think of several as we write.
This discussion begs two questions:
Is having a designer-this-or-that label hip, admirable, cute, smart? A sign of the times? 25-years ago? That’s question one.
If the designer label is a label of the times, wouldn’t you like to know what pet’s designers have and the reasons why? Did they use “the process” or was it a decision to take a break from the process? That’s question two.
Glad you asked. I had a lot of tropical fish and mutts before evolving into a designer. However, my last three pets were, though not hybrid-designer dogs had “designer” attributes: two black and one grey, naturally. A big poodle, a doberman, a weimaraner. The ex took the poodle. A neighbor borrowed the weimaraner for 12 years! The dobe passed. The dogs are all gone. Now I have a rescued, blind, very well mannered cat. I didn’t pick him out, I was selected by the owner. Yes, a pure breed, non-hybrid “designer” cat of course. An ocicat. What’s in your kitchen?
Here is the “designer” article that inspired this post.
PS: While researching this topic it becomes apparent that Craig’s List pet forum most definitely does not like the “designer” label. But that’s another story.













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Maureen Adams
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:08 am
Loved the article and especially the drawing.
October 7th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Per Your Request Human
Interesting. Robots rarely ponder the fact that humans choose not to consume some animals instead opting to keep them as “pets.” The notion of robots having human pets was considered at one time but dismissed, due to sanitation concerns.
October 7th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
So robutts don’t DU-T-2? Most interesting!! Y-NT?
October 12th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Friday Ark #160
We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….? Visit all the …
December 10th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
This is real good info. Thanks for sharing.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:30 am
Cool, but lacks a little creativity IMHO on %keywords%.