In The Power of Design, Farson asserts a deeply engaging premise: Design can transform the world. It can put right what is wrong in our communities. It can address society's most intractable ills. Properly mobilized, he argues, design could make a whopping impact on deep-rooted dilemmas such as the ravages of poverty, the miserable state of the American education system, and the failure of criminal justice. It could do nothing short of move mountains. But the road to metadesign - a transcendent level of design that seeks to rectify fundamental problems by addressing the needs of all people - is no cake walk. Farson describes the many ways that designers of all types hold themselves back from serving society in meaningful ways. He exposes the evils of protectionism by professional societies, the ruinous results of commoditization, and the insidious nature of awards, for example. In the end, Farson leaves us with a powerful message of hope. If we have the courage to embrace design's unrealized potential, there appears to be no limit to the role it can play in the future of civilization.
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
A provocative tour de force re-imaging what design could be as the tool for helping us grapple with the deeply systemic and institutional challenges in our rapidly changing world. This book is a must-read not only for designers and their students but for anyone concerned with our collective future. A stunning and powerful book. --John Seely Brown, Former Chief Scientist of Xerox and Director of its Palo Alto Research Center, and Co-author, The Social Life of Information
Farson's wisdom, uncanny understanding of the human condition, and his at times infuriating but meticulously researched conclusions deeply challenge traditional thought about the role of design in society. This compelling and important book is a must-read for anyone involved in the major predicaments of our time, including our failing education system, healthcare, and growing global environmental challenges. Brilliant! --Jane Poynter, President, Paragon Space Development Corp., TV host, author, and Biosphere 2 crewmember
This is Richard Farson's masterpiece - the one and only book that illuminates the interdependence of design, organization and leadership. --Warren Bennis, University Professor, University of Southern California, and Author
A provocative tour de force re-imaging what design could be as the tool for helping us grapple with the deeply systemic and institutional challenges in our rapidly changing world. This book is a must-read not only for designers and their students but for anyone concerned with our collective future. A stunning and powerful book. --John Seely Brown, Former Chief Scientist of Xerox and Director of its Palo Alto Research Center, and Co-author, The Social Life of Information
Farson's wisdom, uncanny understanding of the human condition, and his at times infuriating but meticulously researched conclusions deeply challenge traditional thought about the role of design in society. This compelling and important book is a must-read for anyone involved in the major predicaments of our time, including our failing education system, healthcare, and growing global environmental challenges. Brilliant! --Jane Poynter, President, Paragon Space Development Corp., TV host, author, and Biosphere 2 crewmember
Farson's wisdom, uncanny understanding of the human condition, and his at times infuriating but meticulously researched conclusions deeply challenge traditional thought about the role of design in society. This compelling and important book is a must-read for anyone involved in the major predicaments of our time, including our failing education system, healthcare, and growing global environmental challenges. Brilliant! --Jane Poynter, President, Paragon Space Development Corp., TV host, author, and Biosphere 2 crewmember
This is Richard Farson's masterpiece - the one and only book that illuminates the interdependence of design, organization and leadership. --Warren Bennis, University Professor, University of Southern California, and Author
A provocative tour de force re-imaging what design could be as the tool for helping us grapple with the deeply systemic and institutional challenges in our rapidly changing world. This book is a must-read not only for designers and their students but for anyone concerned with our collective future. A stunning and powerful book. --John Seely Brown, Former Chief Scientist of Xerox and Director of its Palo Alto Research Center, and Co-author, The Social Life of Information
Farson's wisdom, uncanny understanding of the human condition, and his at times infuriating but meticulously researched conclusions deeply challenge traditional thought about the role of design in society. This compelling and important book is a must-read for anyone involved in the major predicaments of our time, including our failing education system, healthcare, and growing global environmental challenges. Brilliant! --Jane Poynter, President, Paragon Space Development Corp., TV host, author, and Biosphere 2 crewmember
About the Author
Richard Farson, PhD., is a psychologist, author, and educator. As co-founder and president of the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, he directs the Institute's centerpiece program, the International Leadership Forum, a think tank of influential leaders addressing the critical policy issues of our time. Long interested in the field of design, Farson was founding dean of the School of Design at the California Institute of the Arts and a 30-year member of the Board of Directors of the International Design Conference in Aspen, of which he was president for seven years. He served on the American Institute of Architects Board of Directors and is a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council. His most recent books include Management of the Absurd: Paradoxes in Leadership and Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins: The Paradox of Innovation (with co-author Ralph Keyes).
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Sometimes, when pressing, dire circumstances are staring us down at every turn, an unexpected answer comes along. Richard Farson's THE POWER OF DESIGN: A FORCE FOR TRANSFORMING EVERYTHING delivers just such an answer at a time we need it most.
Dr. Farson is a psychologist, educator and author who has studied many forms of design work---architecture, graphic, landscape, interior, information systems, and product, to name a few. In his book, Farson says that design, "the creation of form," has the power to transform culture, ignite education, foster community, even broker peace.
"Design," he says, "achieves its power because it can create situations, and a situation is more determining of what people will do than personality, character, habit, genetics, unconscious motives, or any other aspect of our individual makeup," a potent statement, for which he offers considerable evidence.
How, exactly, can design transform the world? Designing cities and towns so that people interact often and easily, rather than suburbs segregated from the rest of everyday living, promotes community. Designing education so that it's a lifelong experience, rather than one that stops at threshold of adulthood, promotes growth, maturity, understanding. Transportation systems can be re-designed to promote more activity, even better health, rather than time spent alone in the car.
Besides urban planning, education and transportation, Farson suggests design changes in healthcare, criminal justice and politics, and his well-researched recommendations aren't just fresh and attractive alternatives. They promise real change, if we trust in design professionals to take us where we need to go.
THE POWER OF DESIGN offers a hopeful premise lit by insightful observations, and it's remarkably enjoyable to read. Farson isn't just an academic observer. He's a player, telling us about his experiences, conversations and discoveries. It's the kind of book that you find yourself talking to ("Hey, yeah, I noticed that" and "What do you think about ...?").
Perhaps that will be the next advance in book design: A book that talks back.
Dr. Farson is a psychologist, educator and author who has studied many forms of design work---architecture, graphic, landscape, interior, information systems, and product, to name a few. In his book, Farson says that design, "the creation of form," has the power to transform culture, ignite education, foster community, even broker peace.
"Design," he says, "achieves its power because it can create situations, and a situation is more determining of what people will do than personality, character, habit, genetics, unconscious motives, or any other aspect of our individual makeup," a potent statement, for which he offers considerable evidence.
How, exactly, can design transform the world? Designing cities and towns so that people interact often and easily, rather than suburbs segregated from the rest of everyday living, promotes community. Designing education so that it's a lifelong experience, rather than one that stops at threshold of adulthood, promotes growth, maturity, understanding. Transportation systems can be re-designed to promote more activity, even better health, rather than time spent alone in the car.
Besides urban planning, education and transportation, Farson suggests design changes in healthcare, criminal justice and politics, and his well-researched recommendations aren't just fresh and attractive alternatives. They promise real change, if we trust in design professionals to take us where we need to go.
THE POWER OF DESIGN offers a hopeful premise lit by insightful observations, and it's remarkably enjoyable to read. Farson isn't just an academic observer. He's a player, telling us about his experiences, conversations and discoveries. It's the kind of book that you find yourself talking to ("Hey, yeah, I noticed that" and "What do you think about ...?").
Perhaps that will be the next advance in book design: A book that talks back.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
A dear colleague on the Intercultural Insights listserve recently gifted me with this book, in effect a provocative rant on the commercialization of design and the absence of Metadesign in US culture. If that sounds too vague, you could say that the book is about Crime and Punishment, General Hospital, and Columbine, the failures of the institutions of justice, healthcare and education in our contemporary society. All of this is made much more relevant by the coma of democracy in recent presidential terms and the current economic crisis. Given that, faulty design might seem a flippant euphemism for the straits of US culture, but perhaps not.
The author is a psychologist who has spent most of his life in the world of design. Hence, this particular perspective on reality. What is Metadesign? At a time when design has become a catchall word in a class with culture and communication, Farson is arguing for the wisdom and perspective of professionalism on the part of architects and designers of all sorts. The professional, according to Farson, possesses both a holistic perspective and an ethic that are above the all too common prostitution of technical skill to short term commercial interests. He or she sees the "big picture" implication of a design, whether that of a prison, a classroom, an organization or the economy itself as essential to what it produces. Faulty design cannot be repaired by more, bigger, better, faster, etc. It imprisons human effort and constrains imagination, inevitably producing more and more of the same, despite hard work and good intentions, until the whole comes crashing down.
While affirming the need of commerce to produce the abundance that supports democracy, the author denies its ability to serve the larger public interest. Real professionals cannot be beholden to it but remain answerable to those affected by it. They need to speak their truth to make a difference, even though it may betimes cost them a job.
There are paradoxes if not contradictions in this view. Some wag recently commented that US lawmakers on Capitol Hill should be issued NASCAR uniforms so the public can see clearly who their sponsors are, who they are working for. If the alternative to the commercial sellout is more public support of the professional, I fear Farson underestimates our propensity for corruption at the same moment that he is cataloging so much of its misery in detail. Is such support not likely to turn professionalism into a privileged class with the outdated protectionism he cites ads characteristic of professional societies, rather than empowering it as an attitude? Corruptio optimi pessima.
There are other contradictions in his treatment. On one hand Farson bemoans the tangible levels of fear for the well being of children that have re-enslaved parents with an impossible burthen of guardianship. At the same time he asks us to design a child's scale world in which children will not have to be challenged by adult dimensions. Something more for parents to be worried about.
In its last chapters the book turns to design from the perspective of leaders and managers and the responsibility of both to be design professionals, not just masters of managerial techniques. Perceiving contexts, they create the structures and environments that will achieve the social and performance standards that their organizations need to succeed. This includes, increasingly, the ergonomics of the virtual environments that most people currently are or shortly will be working in.
Is design the panacea? Obviously holistically savvy design can do a lot. In this sense, Farson's treatment of the subject is more valuable than his conclusions as indeed he helps us look at many things that need fixing in the design of our culture. Environment is what impels us to produce culture. Those who design human environments then have a demigod role which lacking divine omniscience begs demands trial and error, hard earned wisdom.
The book neither defines design nor articulates what its principles might be. It forwards an argument for the development of the contemporary renaissance wo/man, since in fact, Farson believes that "nothing is programmable." Learning from failure is key for the sacerdotal designer who would preside over the marriage of the tangible and the social.
The author is a psychologist who has spent most of his life in the world of design. Hence, this particular perspective on reality. What is Metadesign? At a time when design has become a catchall word in a class with culture and communication, Farson is arguing for the wisdom and perspective of professionalism on the part of architects and designers of all sorts. The professional, according to Farson, possesses both a holistic perspective and an ethic that are above the all too common prostitution of technical skill to short term commercial interests. He or she sees the "big picture" implication of a design, whether that of a prison, a classroom, an organization or the economy itself as essential to what it produces. Faulty design cannot be repaired by more, bigger, better, faster, etc. It imprisons human effort and constrains imagination, inevitably producing more and more of the same, despite hard work and good intentions, until the whole comes crashing down.
While affirming the need of commerce to produce the abundance that supports democracy, the author denies its ability to serve the larger public interest. Real professionals cannot be beholden to it but remain answerable to those affected by it. They need to speak their truth to make a difference, even though it may betimes cost them a job.
There are paradoxes if not contradictions in this view. Some wag recently commented that US lawmakers on Capitol Hill should be issued NASCAR uniforms so the public can see clearly who their sponsors are, who they are working for. If the alternative to the commercial sellout is more public support of the professional, I fear Farson underestimates our propensity for corruption at the same moment that he is cataloging so much of its misery in detail. Is such support not likely to turn professionalism into a privileged class with the outdated protectionism he cites ads characteristic of professional societies, rather than empowering it as an attitude? Corruptio optimi pessima.
There are other contradictions in his treatment. On one hand Farson bemoans the tangible levels of fear for the well being of children that have re-enslaved parents with an impossible burthen of guardianship. At the same time he asks us to design a child's scale world in which children will not have to be challenged by adult dimensions. Something more for parents to be worried about.
In its last chapters the book turns to design from the perspective of leaders and managers and the responsibility of both to be design professionals, not just masters of managerial techniques. Perceiving contexts, they create the structures and environments that will achieve the social and performance standards that their organizations need to succeed. This includes, increasingly, the ergonomics of the virtual environments that most people currently are or shortly will be working in.
Is design the panacea? Obviously holistically savvy design can do a lot. In this sense, Farson's treatment of the subject is more valuable than his conclusions as indeed he helps us look at many things that need fixing in the design of our culture. Environment is what impels us to produce culture. Those who design human environments then have a demigod role which lacking divine omniscience begs demands trial and error, hard earned wisdom.
The book neither defines design nor articulates what its principles might be. It forwards an argument for the development of the contemporary renaissance wo/man, since in fact, Farson believes that "nothing is programmable." Learning from failure is key for the sacerdotal designer who would preside over the marriage of the tangible and the social.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth the read for those who want to see where the future lies
March 8, 2009
A good idea is a powerful thing. "The Power of Design: A Force for Transforming Everything" is a discussion of the value of design and how it pushes society forward. Design solves the world's problems, but design is not always unhindered. Calling out protectionism and how its fierce use impedes modern society's advancement, he pulls no punches on calling out those who stand in the way of progress. Poignant and blunt, "The Power of Design" is well worth the read for those who want to see where the future lies.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
enamored with his own voice.
the author has several good points about how design can intersect real life, but these are over shadowed with his constant braging about his own work with designers. Read more
Published 17 months ago by P. M. Barnard
5.0 out of 5 stars
Farson Shares Insights
One of the most powerful books to date on design. My suggestion is to read all of Richard Farson's books!
Published 23 months ago by KC
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
