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The Idea of Design

A Design Issues Reader

Edited by Victor Margolin and Richard Buchanan

1995

285 pages

Complementary Texts

Richard Buchanan and Victor Margolin

Rudolph Arnheim

Roland Barthes

Edward Tufte

Keywords

Theory

Visual Design

 

Rudolph Arnheim’s essay “ Sketching and the Psychology of Design”, outlines many of the same beliefs that he expresses in his others works, including, Visual Thinking (1969).

Richard Buchanan’s essay “Myth and Maturity: Toward a New Order in the Decade of Design” provides an interesting historical survey of Design as a profession. He draws mostly from Industrial design to explain the role of design in a corporate economy and the conflicts that arise in this situation.

Yves Deforge's Avatars of Design: Design before Design, theorizes design as a noun more than a verb. “Design involves two functions: utilitarian and sign” (21). Both must be present, but they can appear in varying degrees.