Design: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #136

by John Heskett

John Heskett wants to transform the way we think about design by showing how integral it is to our daily lives, from the spoon we use to eat our breakfast cereal, and the car we drive to work in, to the medical equipment used to save lives. Design combines "need" and "desire" in the form of a practical object that can also reflect the user's identity and aspirations through its form and decoration. This concise guide to contemporary design goes beyond style and taste to look at how different cultures and individuals personalize objects. Heskett also reveals how simple objects, such as a toothpick, can have their design modified to suit the specific cultural behavior in different countries. There are also fascinating insights into how major companies such as Nokia, Ford, and Sony approach design. Finally, Heskett gives us an exciting vision of what design can offer us in the future, showing in particular how it can humanize new technology.

Genres: Design, Art, Nonfiction, History, Science, Audiobook, Reference

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Heeren Darji · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've haven't read tons of design literature, this book is for you, I'm looking at you, confused high school student, college undergrad, and who sort of want to explore design as a career.

It's a short and accessible read to have an eagles' eye view of the design field. Historical evolution of design is interestingly and concisely written. I especially like how the book is divided into different aspects of design, Objects, Communications, Environments, Identities, Contexts, and systems. Mr. Heskett also shares ample examples in each section for the point he tries to make. If not the complete book every experienced designer should read the first few chapters.

The book helps you understand Design and it impacts, on Society and the problems it could create, how it's connected to humanity and it's aspirations at its core.

[Salomé Esteves · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is, indeed, a very short introduction to Design. And it seemed a little to broad. I'm PhD candidate in Design and a communication designer, so I read a lot about themes surrounding Communication, Interaction and Information Design, in particularly, and Design in general. So I'm acquainted with the themes in the book. Maybe it would be better suited for undergraduate students that are beginning to get in touch with literature of this kind, or for any person interested in the matter but hasn't read much about it. If you are a experienced Designer or read a lot about Design, you will already know most of what John Heskett writes about. This is very easy to read, though, and it won't definitely be a waste of time.

[Lilly Irani · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty glossy breeze through design history telling only the successful parts in Heskett's eyes. There's not much about the failures of modernism, though postmodernism (which he clearly isn't into) gets just a paragraph brush off. The book has a lot of bad humanism in it -- design is part of what it is to be essentially human and civilized, but lesser (feminized) creative fields like hair design are pretenders to the design throne. In other words, everyone CAN design but only a few greats do.

For a more historically engaging, careful, and not-too-much-longer introduction, I'd recommend Penny Sparke's "An Introduction to Design and Culture in the 20th Century" (1986).

[Müslim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Para kazanma korkusu ile beraber müşteri beğenisinin tek geçerli kriter olarak görülüp yapılan bir üretimin tasarım adı altında gösterilmek istenmesini destekleyebilecek insanların beğenebileceği bir kitap olabilir fakat ne yazık ki ben onların arasında yer alamıyorum ve sanki bir kaç markanın reklamını yapmak ve onların başarılarını yüceltmekten başka bir amacı olmamak üzere yazılmış bu kitabı kesinlikle bir daha okunmayacaklar listeme ekliyorum . Dost kitabevi'nin geniş ve kapsamlı konuları özet şeklinde toparladığı küçük cep kitapları sürekli ilgimi çekiyordu. Bu kitabı okuduktan sonra artık diğer isimli cep kitaplarına da muhtemelen mesafeli yaklaşırım.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately too outdated to be relevant to modern definitions of Design. This introduction largely describes the political and economic impacts of Design rather than the social/behavioural side I was looking for.

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 stars; excellent primer on the phenomenon of design, it starts off strong with a discussion of the nature and function of design but gradually devolves into a one-thing-after-another narrrative; was inspired to pick up some design how-to books, including; Building Science Graphics: An Illustrated Guide to Communicating Science through Diagrams and Visualizations, Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information, Book of Circles: Visualizing Spheres of Knowledge and Oliver Byrne's Elements of Euclid: The First Six Books with Coloured Diagrams and Symbols.

[Alexander Van Leadam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a fan of the VSI series. I like the concise character of these introductions, their attempt at overview and their frequently less conventional perspectives. This book, almost 20 years after publication, doesn't disappoint at some levels and fails to convince at some others. The author manages to avoid disciplinary silos and look at fundamental, common aspects of design in different areas. Unfortunately, it's also evident that his background in industrial design restricts his viewpoint. The cognitive aspects are absent, the metaphorical use of design is neglected and the production process that accompany design and vary across disciplines are not fully appreciated. The end result is that this readable introduction feels sadly dated.

[Terme]

کتابی خوب با نثر خاص. یکی از نکات عالی این کتاب مثال های دقیق و مفید نویسنده از مسائلی که به واسطه ی دیزاین حل شده اند و نمونه محصولات یا راهکارهایی که در جوامع مختلف با استفاده از دیزاین حل کرده اند و حتی آسیب شناسی بعضی معضلات که به واسطه ی دیزاین بد(دیزاین نشدن) دچار شکست و ضرر شدند.
این کتاب با توضیحات دقیق و مثال های درست به خوبی دیزاین در طیف وسیعی رو معرفی میکنه و دقیقا به ماهیت دیزاین میپردازه.
این کتاب برای علاقه مندان به دیزاین، طراحان، مهندسان، متخصصان حوزه ی فناوری و دیجیتال و به نوعی برای همه ی قشر های جامعه مفید هست.
ترجمه ی وفادار به متن وشیوای استاد محمدی هم بسیار به ارزش کار اضافه کرده.
ابعاد کوچک و سبک (جیبی) این کتاب در نشر مشکی باعث شده که قابل حمل و مناسب برای همه جا باشه.
ممنونم ازتوجه شما

[Eve · Rating 1 out of 5]

My least favourite Very Short Introduction book thus far. I was expecting an art historical approach to design and less economic and marketing, and was therefore not what I was looking for. My edition was from 2002 and the examples and stance feels incredibly outdated, the book also seems to suffer from the naivety of the early 2000s millennium goals, and novelty of recent historical new found globalization. I would recommend a lot of other books on design before this one.

[R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not a great book. A little better than the last in this series. My goal was to try to branch out, learn new things, etc. I mean, I did do that, but holy crap was this boring to me. Do not particularly recommend. The history of the concept of design through time is . . . boring. Like a fence post is boring.

[Steven Yenzer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not good. The author spends a lot of time sharing his musings, which are not only mostly uninteresting but also very outdated. In a Very Short Introduction I would hope for more information about design fundamentals and fewer flights of fancy. He didn’t even mention skeuomorphs!

[Strick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really decent synopsis of a complex idea.""

[Kevin]

Not what I expected when I picked this up, but still got a lot out of this book. Very through in a short amount of space and gives you enough of the theory and philosophy to think about how design plays a key role in the built environment.

[David Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book I read to research this post was Design A Very Short Introduction by John Heskett which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. This book is an introduction to design and why it's something uniquely human and also what makes good design. Design is uniquely human in that no animal values it and anything an animal makes or does is purely functional. Functionality does come into design and in the case of things like medical equipment is the most important thing along with ease of use. Of course there is a thing in design called aestheticism but it has to be appropriate to what is being built. Often if something is aesthetic you can charge a premium. It's interesting in West Greenland each major eskimo settlement has made aesthetic changes of a unique nature to the sea kayaks built at that settlement. This makes no difference to the functionality of the kayak and the changes are fairly minor but it's an interesting example of people expressing their individuality albet as settlements. Some very well designed articles achieve a kind of cult status like the Volkwagon Beetle which was developed in the 1930's as the people's car in Germany and was introduced to the American market in the 1950's where it went on to achieve cult status. The updated Beetle introduced in 1997 although there was controversy about its price also went on to achieve cult status. Another vehicle which led the way was the Volkswagon Golf which started the hatchback craze. Some companies have a corporate identity that designers must adhere but some promote individuality although they too may have a corporate policy with things like logos and letterheadings. This kind of thing just looks professional.

[D2c · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book must have been amazing when it was first published. Back then, design wasn’t as broadly understood as it is today, particularly in its significance for society at large.

More than twenty years later, “Design” is still a decent primer but hopelessly outdated.

Reading this today, you will get a well-phrased overview over the field of design and its sub-disciplines in the late 1990s and early Y2K period. You will get a text sprinkled with examples of which some are still intriguing today and others appear quaint in the light of recent technological development.

Rest assured this Very Short Introduction has been written from a spectator’s point of view, not a practitioner’s. This means you will not get any insight whatsoever into how to design things. It will help you learn and talk about design, not designing.

I am not entirely sure who could be the target audience for this book today, since knowledge about design is much more commonplace across all age groups and since it has become evident in recent years that “creative” disciplines will be better understood if practice is involved to a certain degree, which this brief book can not and does not afford (nor does it want to).

If you are completely clueless about design, this book might be for you. It probably should not be the only book you read about the topic, but it might well be the first one.

[Shaan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book very adequately builds a wall around the world of design and it's various disciplines, leaving sufficient doors and windows open for future penetration of varied functions and fields. There are some very good takeaways from the book, which I have meticulously noted down for future reference. If you are new to world of design, this book may seem esoteric and superfluous as the concepts are not as clearly stated as one would hope to see for a book so rudimentary. The reading "experience" was not up to par. The sentences were too complicated, sometimes twisted beyond comprehension. ( I'm guessing this was done for the sake of brevity. But I also suspect it was used as a gimmick to sound more sophisticated and informed). The two stars are for the well summed up (but difficult to grasp) summary of design as a field and for the select useful epiphanies that I was able to derive from the book respectively.

[Daniel Wright · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book (at least in my edition) is littered all over the cover with fawning reviews by some of the author's colleagues in his subject. It would appear that they - like the author himself - are trying to defend the very existence of their subject as an academic discipline, and unfortunately failing. The book is dull and mostly uninformative. Design has the potential to be a fascinating subject, but Heskett makes it nebulous and dry.

[Ryō Nagafuji · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book only really covers the very, very basics, which I guess should be expected from "A Very Short Introduction", but this really feels more like common sense than anything else. Unless you've never taken any lessons in any art or design, don't bother with this book: there are plenty more books with more specificity and more information in general. For some reason, this was on my university reading list, but it just wasn't necessary.

[Cameron Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 'very short introduction' is one of the best primers on design as an idea, a field of practice, and an aesthetic you will find. Heskett was one of the most clear-written scholars and practitioners in the world of design and I can't think of a book I'd recommend before this one for anyone interested in getting a concise, but well-grounded introduction to design.

[Vincent · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first couple chapters were a bit pedantic. However, I found the last couple chapters of this very short book enjoyable.

For someone who has always been interested in design, the book is a great introduction to the philosophy, history, application, and future of deign.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good review of a large topic. I believe it discussed an adequate amount of theories on design. There were some names I didn't even hear of before and broadened a few areas of interest. A good brush up since graduating from Art School.

[Fee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author dealt with this wide-ranging subject very well.

As with other books in this VSI series, it gets too wordy and boring; I switched off frequently and skimmed to get to the next interesting part.

The "further reading" section is an excellent resource.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd recommend it as a basic introduction to design and it's many meanings, but as an art student I had very little use of it... although I liked how straightforward and easily understandable it was unlike most other academic writings !

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

While an excellent overview of the history of design problems in artistic and corporate fields, Heskett seems to tackle to much material, and so this feels rather thin as a whole.

[Rupert Comrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read. Difficult to put such a broad subject into 'A Very Short Introduction' of course.