Combining a wide-ranging discussion of the major issues of design with detailed and practical information, Norman Potter looks at the possibilities and limits of design, considers the designer as artisan and as artist, and asks: "What is good design?"What is a Designer prompts its readers to think and act for themselves. The work adds up to a powerful and endlessly rewarding resource for students of all ages. First published in 1969, the book is now reissued to present the enduring core of Potter's arguments. An afterword by Robin Kinross sets the work andits author in their contexts.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By EJPH
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I rented this book from my graduate college's library.
I had to own a copy. This book is one of the most direct and best explained
writings I've come across, that deals with what designers do and how our though process
works and is developed.
Potter has an easy with words and his ideas/concepts come across very fluently and easily.
The book still has a powerful resonance, even if it was written decades ago.
Highly recommended for Designers from every field.
I had to own a copy. This book is one of the most direct and best explained
writings I've come across, that deals with what designers do and how our though process
works and is developed.
Potter has an easy with words and his ideas/concepts come across very fluently and easily.
The book still has a powerful resonance, even if it was written decades ago.
Highly recommended for Designers from every field.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
"Norman Potter was an English cabinetmaker, designer, poet, and teacher," according to the back cover. This book is partly an autobiography of his career, partly a broad-brush guide to good design, and partly his personal insight into what it meant to be a British designer in the post WWII era. It ranges widely into all major aspects of the designer's world. I found the book often persuasive and interesting. The visually engaged should note that there are no pictures or drawings.
I found the book to be personal, engaging, and somewhat idiosyncratic in its approach: other designers might have seen the design world differently.
He writes the book for students, and "by the word 'student' I mean those who still question what they are doing, and ask why."
"Design is a socially negotiated discipline, and there are telling respects in which design questions are political questions." This statement will come as no surprise to current developers of housing and industrial sites, where planning and political negotiation can consume years.
Potter refers, moralistically, to such problems by noting "four main characteristics of modern industrial society: Its vastly complicated nature. Its continuous stimulation of, and reliance on, the deadly sins of greed, envy, and avarice. Its destruction of the content and dignity of most forms of work. Its authoritarian nature, owing to organization in excessively large units."
As Potter notes, "every human being is a designer..." and, the broad world of design affects "every field that warrants pause and careful consideration, between the conceiving of an action and a fashioning of the means to carry it out, and an estimation of its effects." For many of us, "it is perfectly possible to study design simply by doing it."
Potter is no great respecter of titles: "The words by which people describe themselves -- architect, graphic designer, interior designer, etc. -- become curiously more important than the work they actually do."
His view on constraints remains valid: "Designers get accustomed to the support of many constraints (limiting conditions) in the way they normally work. Remove these and it is like putting an engine out of gear suddenly, it returns to idling speed, or feels purposeless when accelerated. No elitist, "the study of vernacular form...is a source of joy to the spirits and the senses."
The difficulty of design is "in the realization of a design, against criteria that become increasingly elusive. This is the realm of the senses, of imagination, and of judgment." I suspect that Apple's Steve Jobs would have agreed, and also with "the importance of questions, and...the resourcefulness of attitude that prompts them." "Technique must be kind to the user and not only 'technically effective'." On the understanding of such issues, great fortunes have been built.
The book contains, also, a long list of axioms, questions for designers, a checklist for students, and much practical advice, some of which may remain meritorious for a current professional designer, or one in training.
I found the book to be personal, engaging, and somewhat idiosyncratic in its approach: other designers might have seen the design world differently.
He writes the book for students, and "by the word 'student' I mean those who still question what they are doing, and ask why."
"Design is a socially negotiated discipline, and there are telling respects in which design questions are political questions." This statement will come as no surprise to current developers of housing and industrial sites, where planning and political negotiation can consume years.
Potter refers, moralistically, to such problems by noting "four main characteristics of modern industrial society: Its vastly complicated nature. Its continuous stimulation of, and reliance on, the deadly sins of greed, envy, and avarice. Its destruction of the content and dignity of most forms of work. Its authoritarian nature, owing to organization in excessively large units."
As Potter notes, "every human being is a designer..." and, the broad world of design affects "every field that warrants pause and careful consideration, between the conceiving of an action and a fashioning of the means to carry it out, and an estimation of its effects." For many of us, "it is perfectly possible to study design simply by doing it."
Potter is no great respecter of titles: "The words by which people describe themselves -- architect, graphic designer, interior designer, etc. -- become curiously more important than the work they actually do."
His view on constraints remains valid: "Designers get accustomed to the support of many constraints (limiting conditions) in the way they normally work. Remove these and it is like putting an engine out of gear suddenly, it returns to idling speed, or feels purposeless when accelerated. No elitist, "the study of vernacular form...is a source of joy to the spirits and the senses."
The difficulty of design is "in the realization of a design, against criteria that become increasingly elusive. This is the realm of the senses, of imagination, and of judgment." I suspect that Apple's Steve Jobs would have agreed, and also with "the importance of questions, and...the resourcefulness of attitude that prompts them." "Technique must be kind to the user and not only 'technically effective'." On the understanding of such issues, great fortunes have been built.
The book contains, also, a long list of axioms, questions for designers, a checklist for students, and much practical advice, some of which may remain meritorious for a current professional designer, or one in training.
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 6
books:
See all 6 books this book cites
2
books
cite this book:
- Journey Through Utopia by Marie-Louise Berneri on page 137, and page 160
- Ezra Pound: 2 (Modern masters) by Donald Davie on page 84
- Journey Through by Steve Cox on page 137
- William Morris: Romantic to revolutionary by E. P Thompson on page 142
- Der Stuhl (German Edition) by Der Stuhl on page 141
See all 6 books this book cites
- Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design: Understanding Form and Function by John Bowers in Back Matter
- Letterpress: New Applications for Traditional Skills by David Jury in Back Matter
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