“What is a designer” was first written in the late 60s and then updated occasionally with new releases. Personally speaking, I have underlined and marked a (non-literal) ton in this book.
Below are a few excerpts to give you a feel for the book.
“…design work is ten per cent inspiration and ninety per cent fairly hard work” (p. 19)
“A design capability proceeds from a fusion of skills, knowledge, understanding, and imagination; consolidated by experience.” (p. 21)
“A designer's priority is openness of creative response, the capacity to mix the levels of his thinking, to ask productive questions;” (p.64)
There are also critiques, a touch of poetry, high-minded theory and the most base level practical step-by-step advice for approaching the practice of design.
Here's a critique of pop culture mediums with which to wrestle:
“A language of gesture and exclamation tends always toward infantilism; a measure of its warmth but also of its inadequacy.” (p.45)
And perhaps a prescient contribution to the future argument of “should designers know how to code” ;) — “Obviously a product designer will always need close contact with a client’s technical staff” (p. 66)
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Full-time Freelancer