Discovering Design: Explorations in Design Studies (Hardcover)

by Richard Buchanan (Editor), Victor Margolin (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Discovering Design reflects the growing recognition that the design of the everyday world deserves attention not only as a professional practice but as a subject of social, cultural, and philosophic investigation. Victor Margolin, cofounder and an editor of the journal Design Issues, and Richard Buchanan, also an editor of the journal, bring together eleven essays by scholars in fields ranging from psychology, sociology, and political theory to technology studies, rhetoric, and philosophy. The essayists share the editors' concern, first made clear in Margolin's Design Discourse: History, Theory, Criticism, with the the development of design studies as a field of interdisciplinary research.

The contributors (Gianfranco Zaccai, Albert Borgmann, Richard Buchanan, Augusto Morello, Tufan Orel, Nigel Cross, Victor Margolin, Langdon Winner, Carl Mitcham, Tony Fry, and Ezio Manzini) focus on three broad themes that form a sequence of fundamental issues: how to shape design as a subject matter, how to distinguish the activity of designing in the complex world of action, and how to address the basic questions of value and responsibility that persistently arise in the discussion and practice of design. The editors' introduction provides a useful overview of these questions and offers a multidisciplinary framework for design studies. The essays discuss such topics as the relation of aesthetics to technology, the place of design in social action, the role of the consumer in design decisions, and the need for ethical practice in contemporary design. Manzini's concluding essay shows how the issue of ethics should connect responsible behavior to decisions made every day in the manufacture of objects.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 283 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (April 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226078140
• ISBN-13: 978-0226078144
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,512,403 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Food for thought on design., November 26, 2002

By	Danny Siden "seriosity" (Santa Cruz, Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Discovering Design: Explorations in Design Studies (Paperback)

Design is a topic of social, cultural, and philosophical investigation. This book presents several essays by many contemporary philosophers of design, with a good mix between highly academic rhetoric and slightly more informal writings. Not light reading, but highly enlightening.

5.0 out of 5 stars re-discover design!, March 16, 2008

By	Tiago Toledo (Brazil, Rio de Janeiro) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Discovering Design: Explorations in Design Studies (Paperback)

Very good. The best book i've ever read to define the profession. Good recommendation for students and professionals of product design.

I've been doing a lot of reading and this book was the fundamental piece in understanding what is for real design today. The reading is heavy - that kind of reading that you can spend some time in only one page.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Food for thought on design., November 26, 2002

By	Danny Siden "seriosity" (Santa Cruz, Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Discovering Design: Explorations in Design Studies (Paperback)

Design is a topic of social, cultural, and philosophical investigation. This book presents several essays by many contemporary philosophers of design, with a good mix between highly academic rhetoric and slightly more informal writings. Not light reading, but highly enlightening.