Design is a roadmap or a strategic approach for someone to achieve a unique expectation. It defines the specifications, plans, parameters, costs, activities, processes and how and what to do within legal, political, social, environmental, safety and economic constraints in achieving that objective. (Design Maual Vol 1 by Don Kumaragamage)
Another, rather simpler definition from dictonary.com:
DE·SIGN [dih-zahyn]
- to prepare the preliminary sketch or the plans for (a work to be executed), especially to plan the form and structure of: to design a new bridge.
- to plan and fashion artistically or skillfully.
- to intend for a definite purpose: a scholarship designed for foreign students.
- to form or conceive in the mind; contrive; plan: The prisoner designed an intricate escape.
- to assign in thought or intention; purpose: He designed to be a doctor.
- Obsolete . to mark out, as by a sign; indicate.
And since we live in a visual world the British Design Council has put together a video that sums up what DESIGN is:
As we learned from the video, there are many Types of DESIGN (Applied arts, Architecture, Communication design, Engineering design, Fashion design, Game design, Graphic design, Information Architecture, Industrial design, Instructional design, Interaction design, Interior design, Landscape architecture, Lighting design, Military Design Methodology, Product design, Process design, Service design, Software design, Web design, Urban design and Visual design) but since AM PhotoDesign offers WEB and GRAPHIC DESIGN services we will focus on the before mentioned two disciplines with dedicated blog posts for each.
Many people may think that design is a simple process that can be done very quick, but fail to account all the phases needed to develop successful DESIGN. Initial planning stage, execution and corrections are necessary to produce a design that will stand out in the masses and communicate well its intend. Therefore we will explore the Phases of DESIGN PROCESS:
1. Pre-production design
- Design brief – a statement of design goals
- Analysis – analysis of current design goals
- Research – investigating similar design solutions in the field or related topics
- Specification – specifying requirements of a design solution for a product or service.
- Problem solving – conceptualizing and documenting design solutions
- Presentation – presenting design solutions
2. Design during production
- Development – continuation and improvement of a designed solution
- Testing – in situ testing a designed solution
3. Post-production design feedback
- Implementation – introducing the designed solution into the environment
- Evaluation and conclusion – summary of process and results
- Redesign – any or all stages in the design process repeated (with corrections made) at any time before, during, or after production.
We have covered the BASICS OF DESIGN, next up we will look into the History of Design in our next blog post, followed by a detailed exploration of Graphic Design and Graphic Design Tools and Resources.