What Is Design?

The word “design” originates from the Latin designō (de + signō), which means “to draw” and “to mark out”; the Latin signō itself is derived from signum, meaning “a mark” (and is also where the English word “signature” comes from).

In the Middle Ages, putting a mark or a sign on something meant using sealing wax and a unique item (such as a signet ring) to leave a personally identifiable mark as a method of verifying the status of important or confidential documents, a sender’s identity, or as a form of decoration—basically to say: I have written this letter, created this object, etc, and it can be verified by this personal mark I have left imprinted on the envelope, package or container in sealing wax.

Design can then simply be understood as an expression that can take nearly any form, by an individual who leaves behind their own unique, personal imprint in the process of creation.

A brief history of design

Victor Margolin, design scholar and Professor Emeritus of Design History at the University of Illinois, Chicago and author of World History of Design (available as a journal contribution and a book) describes design as an activity that was born out of an instinctive human need to organize our material environment for the basic purpose of survival—for example, the first creators and users of prehistoric tools—and continues to exist today in much the same way, but for some reason it has been somehow relegated to the sidelines, collectively viewed as an artistic or aesthetic practice only, and this misunderstanding has obscured awareness of all the designing that happens outside the category of design as art.

Design with a “D” and design with a “d”

Design and its history is therefore inextricably linked to past economic, political, and cultural structures, and is an activity that has always been central to the creation of culture. Because of this, the term design alone is broad and frequently used in varying contexts and to mean various things over a vast and often disparate range of industries and activities.

There are two broad categories of design we can start with to begin making sense of it all: design with a small “d”—what people have always created to satisfy needs and organize their environment, and Design with a big “D”—the official term associated with mass production and mass communication that may be its closest association today.

Deconstructing design

Form, Function, Meaning

Form follows function is a principle that has its roots in pre-WWI Germany, as architects collectively turned away from the fanciful and toward the rational and functional as a response to the prevailing questions of that time about aesthetics and use of materials.

The idea that the shape of a building or object should primarily relate to its intended function or purpose became a movement that is now almost inseparably associated with iconic modernist architects and industrial designers of the 20th-century—among others, Le Corbusier, Charles and Ray Eames, and Dieter Rams, most of whom were strongly influenced by Bauhaus ideologies.

Written by min who lives and works in Singapore designing things and stuff. You should follow her on Twitter