•  What is Design?

The Wikipedia defines design as below:

Design is the creation of a plan or convention for the construction of an object, system or measurable human interaction (as in architectural blueprints, engineering drawings, business processes, circuit diagrams, and sewing patterns). Design has different connotations in different fields (see design disciplines below). In some cases, the direct construction of an object (as in pottery, engineering, management, coding, and graphic design) is also considered to use design thinking.

In my mind, Creation of something new, or improving something existing, in order to solve specific real-life problems, is a very short definition of Design.

The Sanskrit word for Design is अभिकल्प. The word is formed by two elements, अभि + कल्प here अभि means New, and कल्प is a verb that means imagination.

 

• History of Design and Designer mindset

Historically, Many famous artists, literary genius scholars, had great power to visualize something that does not exist. 

leonardo da Vinci was one visionary, artist, product designer, and thinker. quite a few of his sketches like the one on the left was his design for a flying machine. The ability to think using the known objects, and their properties, and visualizing a solution for a real life problem is the basic character of any designer.

Construction industry matured a lot, simply because of the grandeur of the structures and gigantic investments involved in building them. Historical monuments thousands of years ago were made possible by these visionary designers or ‘Architects’ of the ancient world.

 

 

Architecture:

Architecture has been a noble profession of creating spaces for humans. A key role played by the designer (Architect) will ensure the building is planned and designed well.

HIstorically products were made by artists, craftsmen, who created furniture, utensils, and many other products humans needed. Most of the cases, the creator and the designer used to be the same person, or family.

Industrial Design:

With Industrialization, specialized skills were needed, because industries wanted the workers to specialize in one skill, so as to improve the efficiency of production. A special profession evolved, which will support the Industry with the creative problem-solving skill.  INdustrial designers had to have the knowledge of manufacturing technologies and materials, along with their understanding of users and their problems

Many more specializations in Design emerged:

Today we have many more specializations of design, namely, Graphics design, Advertising, Media & Communication, Fashion Design, Graphics design, Social Media communication design, Branding, and many more. The basic core skillset needed in all of the above is creative problem-solving.

 

• Era of Experience
• Role of Design in Business
• The design is a behavior, not a department