The Idea of Design [Paperback]

Victor Margolin (Editor), Richard Buchanan (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262631660 | ISBN-13: 978-0262631662 | Publication Date: February 21, 1996

The Idea of Design is an anthology of essays that addresses the nature and practice of product design and graphic design in the contemporary world. The essays, selected from volumes 4-9 of the international journal Design Issues, focus on three themes: reflection on the nature of design, the meaning of products, and the place of design in world culture. The authors are distinguished scholars, historians, designers, and design educators. The diversity of their work illustrates the pluralistic and interdisciplinary dimensions of the idea of design in contemporary culture.Contributors : Rudolf Arnheim. S. Balaram. Richard Buchanan. A. Cheng. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Yves Deforge. Clive Dilnot. Alain Findeli. Jorge Frascara. Tony Fry. Rajeswari Ghose. Takuo Hirano. Martin Krampen. Laus Krippendorf. Tomas Maldonado. Victor Margolin. Abraham Moles. Victor Papanek. Gert Selle. Ann Tyler. Barbara Usherwood.A Design Issues Reader

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Buchanan is Professor of Information Systems at Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 315 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (February 21, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262631660
• ISBN-13: 978-0262631662
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #665,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A complex read, April 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Idea of Design (Paperback)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Literature, January 25, 2008

By 

Jurgen Faust "Jurgen Faust" (Cleveland, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Idea of Design (Paperback)

I know that designers sometimes would like to have a 1 minute answer, because design is still seen in the most cases as a practical discipline. But this book, even now a few years old, was one of the first important design readers which had been focused on the future,.. and theories, models are essentially more complex if the environment is also getting more complex. I would recommend thsi book for all designers as well as students who will be designers. It is a little theoretical, but it is worth while to read.

11 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bah!, May 11, 2001

By 

F. Ritze (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Idea of Design (Paperback)

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!