Design & Philosophy

The Design of Future Things

In The Design of Future Things, best-selling author Donald A. Norman, IDSA, presents a revealing examination of smart technology, from smooth-talking GPS units to cantankerous refrigerators. Exploring the links between design and human psychology, he offers a consumer-oriented theory of natural human-machine interaction that can be put into practice by the engineers and industrial designers of tomorrow’s thinking machines.

The Ice Palace that Melted Away: Restoring Civility and Other Lost Virtues of Everyday Life

With The Ice Palace That Melted Away, Bill Stumpf, the designer of the first ergonomic chair, addresses the symbiotic relationship between design and the way we live, the often deadening effect of technology, and his hopes for a more humane future. As a designer associated with Herman Miller, Inc., for more than twenty years, Stumpf has been thinking about the profoundly positive or negative effect design can have on our culture. He is both an idealist and a pragmatist, and his wry, anecdotal style gently reveals his shrewd observations about American customs and values.

White

White is not a book about colors. It is, rather, Kenya Hara's attempt to explore the essence of white, which he sees as being closely related to the origin of Japanese aesthetics—symbolizing simplicity and subtlety. The central concepts discussed by Kenya Hara in this publication are emptiness and the absolute void.

Designing Media

Mainstream media, often known simply as MSM, have not yet disappeared in a digital takeover of the media landscape. But the long-dominant MSM--television, radio, newspapers, magazines and books--have had to respond to emergent digital media. Newspapers have interactive websites; television broadcasts over the Internet; books are published in both electronic and print editions.

Designing Design

Representing a new generation of designers in Japan, Kenya Hara (born 1958) pays tribute to his mentors, using long overlooked Japanese icons and images in much of his work. In “Designing Design”, he impresses upon the reader the importance of “emptiness” in both the visual and philosophical traditions of Japan, and its application to design, made visible by means of numerous examples from his own work: Hara for instance designed the opening and closing ceremony programs for the Nagano Winter Olympic Games 1998.

Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean

Until now, the literature on innovation has focused either on radical innovation pushed by technology or incremental innovation pulled by the market. In Design-Driven Innovation: How to Compete by Radically Innovating the Meaning of Products, Roberto Verganti introduces a third strategy, a radical shift in perspective that introduces a bold new way of competing. Design-driven innovations do not come from the market; they create new markets. They don't push new technologies; they push new meanings.

Blobjects & Beyond: The New Fluidity in Design

Published in conjunction with a major exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Art, Blobjects and Beyond is the first comprehensive survey of the new fluidity in contemporary design. Whether hard or soft, cheerful or sinister, practical or conceptual, blobjects represent a decisive turn away from the hard edges and angles of conventional modernism. From the iconic iMac to Karim Rashid's evocative plastics to the ergonomic computer mouse, blobjects are the defining objects of our time, molding our visual vocabulary for years to come.

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

A succinct, engaging, and practical guide for succeeding in any creative sphere, The War of Art is nothing less than Sun-Tzu for the soul. hat keeps so many of us from doing what we long to do? Why is there a naysayer within? How can we avoid the roadblocks of any creative endeavor—be it starting up a dream business venture, writing a novel, or painting a masterpiece? Bestselling novelist Steven Pressfield identif ies the enemy that every one of us must face, outlines a battle plan to conquer this internal foe, then pinpoints just how to achieve the greatest success.

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