What is Design and How it Works?

The definition for the word design is to PLAN; a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something. For many outside of the DESIGN profession, the word design is about the appearance of something; its look or style. For practitioners, Design is about both.

Design as a PROCESS: is a methodology, a protocol and/or a plan. A plan with clearly defined and prioritized goals and objectives, with methods and media identified and articulated for achieving those goals and objectives. Design as a PRODUCT; creates, produces and delivers material for the identified media. The material produced is prepared and presented in ways and by means to achieve those same goals and objectives.

This experience is essentially the same for all serious design offices. However, the size and organizational structures of different offices will FIT different designers, differently at different times in their design careers.

Each structure shapes how a particular office performs. Clients may never notice a significant difference between structures. However, designers who work in two or more of these different organizational structures will be dramatically shaped by those experiences.

Metaphorically speaking The Pyramid, The Picket Fence, The Wagon Wheel and The Tool Box represent the four ways in which most design offices are managed. Future missives will address how the different organizational structures effect how those offices, do what they do, for their clients and their client’s audiences as well as the advantages and disadvantages for design personnel in each of those different offices.