What’s the definition of design? Some more responses…

I read with great interest ’So what is it that you do?’ – your feature on key industry figures attempting to define design (News Analysis, DW 2 September) – and although I realise some people don’t want sound bites, some of the explanations were, frankly, too long-winded.

For what it’s worth, I think context is what makes sense of everything.

So if the context of golf is ’the swing’, and making a presentation is ’unwrapping a present’, then the context for design, in my opinion, is ’the imagination to provide some form of cut-through to hold someone’s attention’.
Rod Petrie, by e-mail

What is design (News Analysis, DW 2 September)? For me design is the mid-point between aesthetic art and engineric [sic] function.

It has structure and real purpose and follows a morphology to an outright, but short-lived solution. It is the path between being creative and having created. It is an attitude to pursue betterment for the betterment of others.
Tim Harris, by e-mail

Long before I’d reached the end of your leading lights’ contributions towards a definition of ’design’ (News Analysis, DW 2 September), that old joke sprang to mind.
’How many designers does it take to change a lightbulb?’

’Well, does it have to be a lightbulb?’

Little wonder some clients are confused…
Loz Farmer, by e-mail

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