What Design Can’t Do: Essays on Design and Disillusion

by Silvio Lorusso

Design is broken. Young and not-so-young designers are becoming increasingly aware of this. Many feel impotent: they were told they had the tools to make the world a better place, but instead the world takes its toll on them. Beyond a haze of hype and bold claims lies a barren land of self-doubt and impostor syndrome. Although these ‘feels’ might be the Millennial norm, design culture reinforces them. In conferences we learn that “with great power comes great responsibility” but, when it comes to real-life clients, all they ask is to “make the logo bigger.”

This book probes the disillusionment that permeates design. It tackles the deskilling effects provoked by digital semi-automation, the instances of ornamental politics fashioned to please the museum-educational complex, the nebulous promises of design schools. While reviving historical expressions of disenchantment, Silvio Lorusso examines present-day memes and social media rants. To depict this disheartening crisis, he crafts a new critical vocabulary for readers to build upon. What this exposé reveals is both worrying and refreshing: rather than producing a meaningful order, design might be just about inhabiting chaos.

What was once a promising field rooted in problem-solving has become a problem in itself. The skill set of designers appears shaky and insubstantial – their expertise is received with indifference, their know-how is trivialised by online services, their work is compromised by a series of unruly external factors. If you see yourself as a designer without qualities; if you feel cheated, disappointed or betrayed by design, this book is for you.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Art, Essays, Art Design, Theory

352 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2023

About the author

Uno che fa un sacco di cose diverse, benino o maluccio, a seconda dei punti di vista.

Reviews

[Sésame · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was waiting for this book for sooo long. Silvio Lorusso's never ending twitter thread on design desilusion was a major ressource for my master thesis (I even kind of borrow on of his meme for the cover) and a companion through the last years of my design studies.

I'm quite happy that this book exist. It offers a deep review of the main issues design and designers are facing, especially around power and relationship with politics. More important, it's a exigeant book who dare to face the fact that design won't solve the problems, those from he's responsible and others, that it's non-stop pretending to solve. I'm usually having a hard time to explain this point of view to my fellow designer, probably because I sound really cynical and a bit harsh. I think this book is a really good tools to do so, probably in a more subtil way than me. An other quality is, as the conclusion of the book explain it, being critical without having to give a new guide to doing-a-better-political-design. Also, I loved the numerous memes scattered through the book.

I still have a few critics or questions about it, but I first want to say that it's like the second or third book i'm reading in english, I may have misunderstood or not fully understood everything.

I really like the point Lorusso made about workers union in design field that those "unioninsing calls" have barely any effect because unionising would be aknowledging that designers are just basic worker and not intellectual one. But I feel it would have been really interesting to explore a bit more the question of unionizing in the design field. It's still for me the more interesting way for designer to face desilusion and in France or UK we have several union exemples. It made you think yourself as worker, and so connecting with other workers with common interest even if they're not designers, and give you a space to redirect your political ambition in usefull and impactfull struggle, instead of just being cynical and desilusional.
My second main "critic" is about the school chapitre (the 7th I think). I think it miss a bit of structural analyse of how art and design school were built, what is their relationship with the other field in university (and why they think themselves so different from them) and how they're affected by the progressive liberalisation of universities, especially in Europe. It would have give a deeper understanding of how these school are rooted in a neo-liberal agenda. In the art and design student union that we launch in France it helps us a lot to explain our current situation. But maybe I'm too french and became too much of a communist.

Well, sorry for the english mistakes, and thanks a lot for this really important book, I hope it would reach at least a bit of the french design field.

[laurent · Rating 5 out of 5]

current praxis = shoving this book in all my tutors' faces and forcing them to read cuz what else is going to famous european design school for. actually cute that they burst out laughing at the memes too. pog

[Juraj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed it, but I feel like it could have been a lot less pretentious while still getting the point across. There was a couple of humorous remarks but I wouldn’t say it made me laugh (as one of the reviews at the beginning of the book suggests it will). It did make me think though.

[William Hsu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew it took me a year (break) to regain the courage to pick this book up again after initally discouraged by its fancy words and highly conceptual thinking. Glad to say I finished it, but this book was truly a journey that gave me a slew of conflicting thoughts.

Okay, first of all I really appreciate and applaud Lorusso’s efforts in writing extensively about design theory because it truly is not a simple topic to write about. I realized that I have bookmarked multiple pages of the book because they are truly thought provoking and are approaches to design thinking that have never occured to me, or something I want to remind myself over and over again as a designer. As Lorusso brought up in the last chapter, this book was not meant to answer questions and end in a chirpy optimistic note on the future of design and I’m so glad he mentioned this because it was starting to get somewhat depressing lol. I really enjoyed his discussions on the double-bind of design, critiques on design education, the role of designers in this day and age, as well as the consistent mentions of political design. I believe that Lorusso has brought up questions and concerns with these specific topics that are really really worth further discussion and pondering.

With that being said, I also have a few critiques in regards to my experience reading this book. Though it contained great points of deep contemplation, the unnecessarily difficulty of vocabulary that pervades the bulk of the book honestly made it such a grueling experience to get through it. Now I don’t think it’s the end of the world that a design theory book consisted of big words, but I did find it kind of ironic that a book meant to raise questions about design disillusionment was made so inaccessible to understand and grasp? For a designer (me)….? I also understand that it’s not always easy or the best idea to write about these big ideas in simple terms, as well as the risk of oversimplifying these concepts, but I genuinely believe that so much of the writing felt pretentious and even unbearable at times. I also felt like sometimes in the act of generalizing or abstractly conceptualizing an issue, passages have somehow evaporated into something almost…..pointless? Even upon rereading paragraphs multiple times, nothing is really elucidated, and it also doesn’t help that there are almost never any elaboration or specific examples of what Lorusso is discussing.

I really do think chapters 1 & 7 as well as the last chapter were the best ones and chapters I really resonated with. I found it abit odd that for an industry that is so community based, there were seldom emphases on peer relationships, community, and network of designers in a more positive light? However I really appreciated his emphasis on political identity and how this aspect really seeps into every corner of design, how it’s inevitable, and how that informs our practices and works in design.

All in all, very mixed feelings, but undeniable that I have learned a lot and thought a lot from this book. Thank you Silvio <3

[Monish Rajendran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure how to review or rate this book. From a viewpoint of someone who has been apathetic to design as a profession, I was able to visualise the inner conflicts/struggles of an unprivileged design student/ professional.

This book made me understand the nuances of politics and autonomy associated with (any) profession better.

And how an educational institution can play a big part in disillusionment. In my opinion, I felt this to be the same issue faced by any student regardless of profession and to turn that by "progressively tearing the disciplinary veils to develop a realist understanding of what 'one' can do in the world."

There were some quotes that stuck with me and one such quote by Brad Troemel: "Raising awareness is ultimately the process of making people aware that you are of aware of the conversation that needs to be had."

And another one by Catherine Liu: "Members of the credentialised classes love to use the word empower when they talk about 'people', but the use of that word objectifies the recipients of their help while implying that the people have no access to power without them." And continued by Silvio: "Thus creating a distinction (at least symbolic), between the powerful and powerless."

It was a book which was easy to grasp even by someone without a background in design. An engaging and straightforward read with references cited accordingly which I would want to visit when I have the time to do so.

[Angelos · Rating 5 out of 5]

In "What Design Can’t Do," Silvio Lorusso offers a thought-provoking critique of the modern design industry, expertly weaving together themes of disillusionment, the impact of capitalism, and the power dynamics within the field. The book resonates with personal reflections on the dichotomies and challenges faced by designers, like balancing creativity and corporate demands. Lorusso's insightful analysis, supported by the innovative use of memes and design's folklore, illuminates the contradictions in design practice and education. While the book heavily leans on critique, often echoing the gender imbalances in the industry, it opens up a much-needed space for introspection and debate about the future of design. "What Design Can’t Do" is an essential read for those in the design field, offering both a mirror to current realities and a lens through which to view potential futures.

[Jan D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Positively surprised. Timely thoughts on the disillusion around design. This could go into abstract thoughts on why everything is bad in general, and design in particular, but it did not, and instead analyzed the problems of design as a discipline, the various tried solutions to get out of these problems and why they (largely) failed. Relatively easy to read and with a lot of referenced works I want to look up.

[altagracia · Rating 3 out of 5]

me ha gustado! pero creo que no hacía falta que fuera tan largo para decir lo que tenía que decir.
PERO me he apuntado muucha bibliografía!! o sea que citar de más no está tan mal. de hecho, igual es bueno para diferenciarse de un manifiesto.

desilusionarse y deshacerse de la ilusión:
"Luckily for us, disillusion is not just disillusionment, a passive feeling of dismay and disappointment. It is also disillusioning, the active lifting of illusions, an engagement with reality without at least some of the old veils. Thus, disillusion is a pendulum oscillating between lucidity and dismay."

por qué hay que tener cuidadito al hablar de transgresión para no hacerle la púa a la verdadera revolución:
"More than focusing on the state of things, design pays attention to how things ought to be. And, of course, they ought to be better.
[...]
Ultimately, design is terrified by what it is unable to change. It must systematically repress any manifestation of its impotence. The unchangeable is design's taboo, In this sense, it simply mirrors a broader condition which Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben describes as follows:
Separated from his impotentiality, deprived of the experience of what he can not do, today's man believes himself capable of everything, and so he repeats his jovial 'no problem', and his irresponsible 'I can do it', precisely when he should instead realize that he has been consigned in unheard of measure to forces and processes over which he has lost all his control.
He has become blind not to his capacities but to his incapacities, not to what he can do but to what he cannot, or can not, do."
cita a Bonsiepe diciendo una dura verdad:
"The technologist throws the politician out I...] But for that you don't need a designer, you need a revolution."

no pretende ser un what to do, pero yo me quedo con esto porque creo que debería serlo:
"The designer who plots a counterplan is, while doing so, not a designer: they may be a citizen, a politician, a terrorist, an activist, a lobbyist, etc., namely, a political actor. They become a designer again when deploying the plan through design."

no engañéis y no dejéis que os engañen, a los diseñadores no les importa la clase trabajadora, no les importan los homeless: les importa ponerle a sus proyectos un además bien valorado por el público. Sin arriesgarse a nada.
"Progressiveness, together with social and political engagement, becomes a form of positional consumption and, as such, it is an added value to the project and to the designer, This sets the context of evaluation by teachers, funding bodies and stakeholders alike. Thus, the design museum-educational complex offers a dispositional Grundkurs where one is urged to feign a more or less standardised expression of critical and socially concerned thinking within safe and somehow predefined ethical boundaries. A sort of humblebrag of good intentions that doesn't hurt or upset anybody. Against this backdrop, the notion of performance of politics is less a form of deep engagement than a garnish to apply to one's own projects and practice."

[mariya · Rating 5 out of 5]

/neither lullaby nor mock attack,
and hands down the densest meaning-packed, and most personal book i’ve gotten my hands on beyond curricula

when i see “made in @polimi” on an insta bio or a tote, when i am complimented on authenticity but it rings bitter, or when something unimaginable ends on my table i think about all of this book all at once.

in “the cynics room of mirrors” i think about how the things we design design us back
& how everything you make has you-ness, and how the identification in the profession turned into the professionalisation of identity
& that the only way to build real equity and add value is to wrap intelligence and culture around products
& the importance and slippery slope of desirable doubts
& the specialty made out of lack of specialisation, the contemporary designer as one without qualities, and todays design that is an attitude wanna-be-profession

it’s crystal clear that should i ever read this book again i will read a completely different book. and perfectly possible that the whole thing flew right above my head. but today it seems like what it takes to design, and even worse - be a designer - is only everything

but anyway it’s just a job hihi not taking anything too seriously duh

[Bolívar Escobar · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to keep track of all the points and interconections employed by Lorusso to convey his narrative, and, ironically enough, that is exactly what he is trying to say in this book: that designers need to do and say a lot to in order to keep things as simple and straightfoward as possible. A paradox inherent to the praxis. Brilliantly exposed by the author, who conveniently chooses to remain pessimist at the conclusion, refusing to point an alternative. That's the directon of the cricticism we need to develop now: is a refusing designer still a designer?

[sofia]

esse livro veio na hora certa pra mim. ajudou a nomear as insatisfações da profissão, a mania de grandeza que só uma recém formada com pouca experiência poderia ter. as muitas referências estabelecidas ao longo do livro foram muito enriquecedoras, mas talvez a melhor coisa que esse livro me deu foi a noção da minha pequenez diante a escala real das coisas, e como isso me deu muito mais tranquilidade pro meu trabalho.
demorei um tempo pra ler, mas foi uma dessas leituras que vão acompanhando acontecimentos da vida, e auxiliando as mudanças graduais de visão de mundo.

[Lara Agostinho · Rating 4 out of 5]

validou os meus sentimentos. muito grata

[Kars · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of those books I'd like all of my colleagues in design practice and design research to read, in particular the latter group, because they tend to be less in touch with the realities of contemporary design industry and as a result tend to be less aware of the various sources of disillusionment Lorusso traces here. A thought-provoking, and frequently painfully relatable argument, only occasionally let down by unnecessarily obtuse prose.

[4 · Rating 4 out of 5]

graphic design is my prison (im not joking)

[Mikki Janower · Rating 3 out of 5]

thrilled to find a voice in design theory that speaks to and from my generation. witty, topical, and approachable :)

[KW · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book quickly but also very slowly. It is not the kind of thing you can breeze through because every few pages you want to stop and underline something, or sit there feeling slightly called out.

It is a collection of essays about design and all the things we tell ourselves it can do: change the world, fix society, give our work some kind of moral weight. And all the ways those stories fall apart. Sometimes the writing is blunt to the point of being cruel (“every day I remind myself how lucky I am that I get paid for drawing rectangles”). Other times it is abstract and meandering, but still sharp enough that you feel it.

There are passages that sting with recognition if you work in design:
• The “double bind” of being told your work is world-defining while being sidelined in decision-making.
• The way “raising awareness” often collapses into branding.
• The observation that design schools produce some of the most forward-thinking individuals, yet release them into a profession increasingly precarious and insecure.

The main point, at least how I read it: design is not innocent, and it is not heroic either. Most of the time it sits somewhere in between, complicit and anxious and endlessly trying to prove itself useful. Designers are told they are responsible for everything (“every cigarette ad is on us”), but also treated as people who just decorate the edges of decisions made by others. It is maddening and also kind of true.

Reading it made me feel less alone, but not exactly comforted. It is not a hopeful book. More like a mirror held up at an unflattering angle. Still, I found it strangely energising. It made me want to think harder about why I do this work, and what stories I tell myself to keep doing it.

If you are in design and you feel both proud of and deeply suspicious of your own job, you will probably like it. Or at least you will recognise yourself in it, which might be the same thing.

[Liliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

While admittedly, there were parts that felt convoluted and lacked a clear argument, it was weirdly comforting, as it not only affirmed but reflected a growing angst I have experienced and witnessed in the industry.

Some points that I found interesting were:

- Design schools seem to educate us to work towards a profession that doesn’t exist the way they are teaching it - taught to be intellectual professionals, but encouraged to expect to sell their labour to the upper classes.

- Design panism as a marketing ploy for tech and software companies to encourage non-designers to believe they can create better on their own and for a lower price, thereby increasing sales, and disadvantaging designers

- Politics and economic responsibility have shifted from solving problems to merely addressing them or 'raising awareness'

- The existential balance of creativity, profits and professionalisation of identity

Silvio seems to say we should focus less on our self-perceptions as 'designers' and more on external perceptions of our value, and assert more agency in this capital conversion – how can we encourage more beauty, joy, and collaboration without dictating or being dictated?

Overall, a good read for anyone looking not for solutions, but a little self-deprecation and necessary criticality.

[Reader]

This book is a must-read for anyone in design. It feels like a reality check—especially for design students like me. Silvio Lorusso shows what design really is today: full of hope, stress, pressure, and contradictions. He asks hard questions: What is design? Who has power? Are we changing the world, or just part of the system?
The book is critical but never hopeless. It doesn’t try to make things look better than they are, but it also doesn’t feel negative. The humor, memes, and honest tone make you feel understood, not judged. It helps you see that you're not alone in your confusion or self-doubt.
Lorusso makes you think deeply about your role as a designer in a fast-changing world. While the book mostly talks about problems, it also opens space for reflection and maybe even quiet optimism. A bit more focus on the positive side of design could have been nice—but maybe that wasn’t the point of this book.
In the end, What Design Can’t Do helps you understand that design isn’t just about skills—it’s about identity, power, and survival. It won’t give you all the answers, but it will make you feel seen.

[Connor Lamphier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the majority but not of this, I think part of what I didn’t enjoy had to do with where I am at in terms of conceptual understanding rather than inherent flaws with the book. I found the meditations on design and its role in society to be interesting, and I liked how Lorusso didn’t pull his punches when it came to being straightforward about the powerless reality of present design. I also think the use and variety of references was strong, and I got good future reading material from the sources used.

I think returning to this book after doing some more design reading will be beneficial, because in all honesty I found myself lost at times in the specifics of the field. This book is clearly most intended for those working in the field, especially graphic designers, and I can admit my inexperience likely was the source of some of my struggles with content and staying engaged.

This book is longer than I feel like it should be, but it makes some interesting points and I definitely feel like I learned something. Will revisit someday

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

der titel passt, denn alles ist ein bischen desillusionierend, ernüchternd. phasenweise sehr akademisch, anstrengend. der große mehrwert sind vor allem die referenzen, die man jetzt im anschluss durcharbeiten kann (u.a. papanek, bonsiepe, maldonado), auch entreprecariat wird jetzt bald bestellt. das buch selbst verliert im zeiten teil etwas an fahrt. der erste teil (everyday designer, everything is design, will ki replace designers). ob und wie andere richtungen (speculative design oder programme wie university of the underground) eine lösung sein sollen, kann ich mir noch nicht so richtig vorstellen. viel quatsch, kein geld.

[Sophie]

This book pretty much encapsulates how I felt during my last year in college studying graphic design. I was frustrated that I was just doing conceptual stuff for fake brands and fake clients instead of real projects, and even when I did design for real projects through internships, something about it was always amiss. This book helped me figure out what that was.


I haven’t done anything graphic design related since graduating and I’m much happier that way, it’s helped me relearn what I actually like about art and design, and not focus so much on what I don’t like.

[Andreas Kennardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manages to capture essential points on the direction of design nowadays—like how it should be contributing rather than a showmanship of smartness, or how design shapes the environment, but the environment also shapes design, or how design is not about expertise while still encouraging experts to facilitate.

An interesting book, yet the writing feels like an essay with convoluted vocabulary.

[theo ploeg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed this book for Gonzo (circus) and the Sx. platform.

Design has become an empty shell, Silvio Lorusso argues, and he does so with a lot of humor and serious theoretical and practical observations.

Lorusso refers to the word design and the entire discipline. This creates a difficult situation: many designers feel responsible for improving the world, while they have to do so with resources arising from the status quo. These inevitably lead to the strengthening of the status quo. This contradiction receives far too little attention; Lurosso wants to say with ‘What Design Can’t Do’ – a title that seems to reference the design conference What Design Can Do, which advocates great importance to design improving the world.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.5 stars. Review here: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews...)

[alex ✨]

this was deeply compelling and mildly depressing. i enjoyed reading it RTC

[Boom · Rating 5 out of 5]

love all the memes and the depth in this books

[maria &#x1f325;️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written but I’m so sad now

[Ronnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoyed chapters 5, 7, and the epilogue

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very much appreciate that this book was written the way it was. People can call it pretentious, but in the current modern field of design writing it’s a breath of fresh air.

[Emgarcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

this really is a petit-bourgeois profession, wish it wasn't so siloed off. i think designers think too much of themselves. lorusso's explanations and diagrams were really fun tho