The Idea of Design

Rating:
Summary: Bah!
Review: Good for overintellectualizing and pontificating idealistic principles of design; bad for any concrete examples. Sure, fanciful ideas of design's capacity to revolutionize social, environmental and cultural change is a splendid idea, but I'll need you to show me something that manages to accomplish that first. And hold all the airy, abstracted philosophical fluff please!

Rating:
Summary: A complex read
Review: The Idea of Design is more the philosophy of design than anything else. It's true benift that is great for anyone in industial/graphic design and architechture is that it show a variety of view points. Romantics often get so caught up in their own vision they fail to see things from a different perspective. From reading the book I have learnt two very important lessons. (1) The most brilliant design resides in nature. Try as we will, our insight to solve one problem leads us to an ocean of social, economical and environmental difficulty. (2) In the past lies a higher understanding in which we often ignore. Before one creates, the designer must contemplate the change it will make in culture/society. This why studying a variety of different perspectives is imperative. Social responsiblity is hopefully making a comeback. Extremely interesting points are made in the essays, bearing in mind that you can grasp the daunting complexity of often abstact ideas.