> BTW, it might be interesting to read e.g. Otl Aicher's seminal Die > Welt als Entwurf (World as Design) as an important historical trace
Most things that come to my mind where already said. But when digging in past and current reflections on the design discipline, there are several good books originally written in German to consider (re-)reading. During my studies in Düsseldorf, they made me think a lot about what it's all actually about. Unfortunately not all of them are available in English. Karl Gerstner, Programme entwerfen / Designing programmes A classic read, an introduction to design as envisioning dynamic "programs" or systems, and concrete artifacts being just results of those programs. It was written before the digitalisation took place, and provides an advanced way to approach design work, still valuable today. Systemisches Design, Cyrus D. Khazaeli Pointing in the same direction, that book introduces a systemic approach to design, taking into account psychological and semiotic insights. Here's a review: http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_systemisches_design.asp Helmut Schmid: Gestaltung Ist Haltung / Design Is Attitude It's actually more a collection of his works, but demonstrates how a designer/typograph can contribute to bridging cultures (in this case the Japanese and European), and account for the social responsibility behind concrete creative work. http://www.schmidtoday.com/ Felicidad Romero-Tejedor, Der denkende Designer / The thinking designer A comprehensive essay on the practice of design and a shift of paradigm from aesthetics to cognition, and to enhance artifacts by giving them a semantic meaning. I think the most important challenge to design as a discipline is how to prevent designers themselves to reduce the scope of their work to pure tactics and "making pretty things". I know design students and even practicioning designers who do that, and are "allergic" to any strategic thinking in their work. In most cases it's not the others who do this, it's ourselves. milan -- ||| | | |||| || |||||||| | || | || milan guenther * interaction design p +49 173 2856689 * www.guenther.cx ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
