The term design (of Latin origin) can be understood as meaning
"from the sign," "out of the sign," "on account of the sign,"
"concerning the sign," "according to the sign," "through the
medium of the sign." All these possible understandings point to
the semiotic nature of design activity. Balducinni defined design
as "a visible demonstration by means of lines of those things
which man has first conceived in his mind and pictured in the
imagination and which the practised hand can make appear." It is
generally agreed that before Balducinni's attempt to define the
field, the primary sense of design was drawing. More recently,
though, design is understood in a broad sense, from actual design
(of artifacts, messages, products) to the conception of events
(design of exhibitions, programs, and social, political, and
family gatherings).
"Nearly every object we use, most of the clothes we wear and many
things we eat have been designed," wrote Adrian Forty in Objects
of Desire. Design and Society since 1750 (London: Thames and
Hudson, 1986; paperback edition, New York: Thames and Hudson,
1992, p. 6).
International Style: generic name attached to the functionalist,
anti-ornamental, and geometric tendency of architecture in the
second quarter of the 20th century. In 1923, Henri-Russel
Hitchcock and Philip Johnson organized the show entitled
International Style-Architecture Since 1922, at the Museum of
Modern Art in New York. Among the best known architects who
embraced the program are Gerrit T. Rietveldt, Adolf Loos, Peter
Behrens, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, and
Eero Saalinen.
H. R. Hitchcock and P. Johnson. The International Style. New
York: Norton, 1966.
Jay Galbraith. Designing Complex Organizations. Reading MA:
Addison-Wesley, 1973.
Devoted to the art of drawing, a collection of lectures given at
the Fogg Museum of Harvard University in March, 1985, Drawing
Defined (Walter Strauss and Tracie Felker, Editors, New York:
Abaris Books, 1987) is a good reference for the subject. Richard
Kenin's The Art of Drawing: from the Dawn of History to the Era
of the Impressionists (New York: Paddington Press, 1974) gives a
broad overview of drawing.
Vitruvius Pollio. On Architecture (Edited from the Harleian
Manuscripts and translated into English by Frank Granger).
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970.
Marcus Cetius Faventius. Vitruvius and Later Roman Building
Manuals. London: Cambridge University Press. 1973. This book is
a translation of Faventius' compendium of Vitruvius' De
Architectura and of Vitruvius' De diversis fabricis
architectonicae. Parallel Latin-English texts with translation
into the English by Hugh Plommer.
Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, 1887-1965). One of the
most admired and influential architects and city planners whose
work combines functionalism and bold sculptural expression.
Since the time design became a field of study, various design
styles and philosophies crystallized in acknowledged design
schools. Worthy of mention are the Bauhaus, Art Deco, the Ulm
School (which continued in the spirit of the Bauhaus), and
Post-modernism. A good source for information on the becoming of
design is Nikolaus Pevsner's Pioneers of Modern Design,
Harmondsworth, 1960.
The Scholes and Glidden typewriter of 1873, became, with
refinements, the Remington model 1 (Remington was originally a
gun and rifle manufacturer in the state of New York.)
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edition, Micropedia, Vol. 12,
1990. pp. 86-87). See also History of the Typewriter (reprint of
the original history of 1923). Sarasota FL: B. R. Swanger,1965.
Peter Carl Fabergé (1846-1920). One of the most renown
goldsmiths, jewelers, and decorative artists. After studying in
Germany, Italy, France, and England, he settled in St. Petersburg
in 1870, where he inherited his father's jewelry business.
Famous for his inventiveness in creating decorative objects-
flowers, animals, bibelots, and especially the Imperial Easter
Egg-Fabergé is for many the ideal of the artist-craftsman.
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933). American painter, craftsman,
decorator, designer and philanthropist who became one of the
most influential personalities in the Art Nouveau style who made
significant contributions to glassmaking. Son of Charles Louis
Tiffany (1812-1902), the jeweler, he is well known for his
significant contributions to glassmaking.
Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873): British
politician, poet, and novelist, famous for The Last Days of
Pompeii. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edition, Micropedia, Vol.
7, 1990. p. 595).
James Gibson. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979.
In our days, design is focused on major themes: design integrity
(promoting exemplary forms of typography and form studies, as
with the Basel School and its American counterparts), design
function (of concern to industry-oriented schools), computation
based on design. Originating from Gibson's studies in the
psychology of man-nature relations, the ecological approach in
design has its starting point in affordance. Thus many designers
reflect concern for an individualized approach to the
understanding of affordance possibilities.
Costello, Michie, and Milne. Beyond the Casino Economy. London:
Verso, 1989.
D. Hayes. Beyond the Silicon Curtain. Boston: South End Press,
1989.
Mihai Nadin. Interface design: a semiotic paradigm, in Semiotica
69:3/4. Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter, 1988, pp. 269-302.
-. Computers in design education: a case study, in Visible
Language (special issue: Graphic Design- Computer Graphics),vol.
XIX, no. 2, Spring 1985, pp. 282-287.
-. Design and design education in the age of ubiquitous
computing, in Kunst Design & Co. Wuppertal: Verlag Müller +
Busmann, 1994, pp. 230-233.
Kim Henderson. Architectural Innovation: The reconfiguration of
existing product technologies, in Administrative Science
Quarterly, vol. 35, January, 1990.
M. R. Louis and R. I. Sutton. Switching Cognitive Gears: From
habits of mind to active thinking. Working Paper, School of
Industrial Engineering, Stanford University, 1989.
Patrick Dillon. Multimedia Technology from A-Z. New York: Oryx
Press, 1995.