I was recently thinking about this question - mainly for other reasons than what I am raising here. But, I remembered that it was first posed to my fellow design students and me during our second day at the School of Design.
We had a lecture series that was a presented by our professors that addressed fundamental design principles and Prof. Michael Pause, I believe, presented the first lecture. I say it was a lecture, but it was quite participatory which was the way Michael ran his classes. He was always asking questions. Of course his goal was to make us think. This was no exception.
After introducing himself, he immediately hit us with the question, ?What is design?? The obvious answers came first, communication, stylization, surface, expression, arrangement, organization, a poster, a package, a building etc.
That?s when it started to turn. Michael had a stick in his hand and we were the hornet?s nest. He asked, ?So if Design is these things, then is music Design? Is arranging notes in a matter that creates melody Design? Is scooping an ice cream cone Design? Is placing vanilla, on chocolate, on strawberry, Design?? Our collective reaction was. ?Um, yeah.? He continued. ?You are here to become designers. You?re saying you can be a designer scooping ice cream?? His question was not one of class or prestige, but one of fundamental reason.
We backed off a bit and began wondering if he was ?right?. Are you a Designer when you scoop ice cream? The more we talked, it became apparent how difficult it was to describe what design is - beyond the artifact.
This was his point. Design was and is defined incorrectly. Typically the artifacts we create, not the process that created the artifact defines Design. He believed that Design was a Process and that while not being self-proclaimed designers, the soda jerk is using some form of Design Process to create a tasty treat for his customer. This illustration was intended to show us that Design - as a process - is valuable to solving a number of design problems. Further, if we approached our design work with a focus on the process rather than the artifact then our artifacts would better solve our clients needs. From this experience, we would also discover that a Design process could benefit solutions for a number of problem solving situations - even outside the sphere of design.
The reason I chose to discuss this is that we seem to be more concerned with the artifact rather than the process though which we or other designers create those artifacts.
So a few questions:
1. What is design? (Think about it.)
2. Can the artifact supplant the process?
Meaning, does the preconceived notion of the end result render the process lame?
2B. Is this necessarily a bad thing?
3. Do you use a process? (I can tell you the answer is, yes.)
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