This post is for beginners who have newly entered the world of design. I hope it helps give you insight about the life ahead of you.

Nowadays wherever we turn our eyes we see expressions like “Design of the year”, “Designer furniture”, “Designer’s handbook”, “Design of this…”, Designer’s that…”, etc.

What is Design?

This question is one of those questions that when you get a glimpse of an answer it can change your life forever.

Actually I have no recollection of any question as powerful as this one, except for the mighty question “is there God?”, which as a question can keep your mind puzzled all your life. You may never get an answer at all. you may give up asking and just go on with your life.

However, if you are in a profession related to design, you need to know the answer of this question. How can you produce something that you don’t have an explanation for? how can you earn your living off design if you don’t know what it means? It is one of those things that you can’t hold on to with your bare hands but you get an insight of. So I ask again:

What is Design?…

I asked this question over and over again in my university freshman year. The instructors of Basic Design 101 told us many things to explain this phenominal question, such as;

“Design is like a recipe you must have a specific amount of the right ingredients to make a pot of soup”; or,

“A good design is a sum of the components, but the whole of the design is much more than the sum of the individual components. The components are arranged so as to create the quality of the whole.” The arrangement of the components gain significance in this explanation.

How are the components to be arranged? With a specific order! This is when we learn about order… Then oops… before I understand what design is, I must  learn what order is.

So I asked what is order?…

I mean I know what it is in general terms, but how does it take place in a design? If I am going to produce a design, how do I use order?

The instructors said you have to put together a set of rules to define and implement your design. Then, for which reason I did not know, I started to make up some rules to get to a design I had in my mind. Somehow I thought it was stupid, the process of making up rules to get to a final design, a design I already had a picture of in mind.

The process wasn’t complete for me. I had to complete a task, a task expected of me that should be a good design, but how? How to get there? I had to create a set of rules to complete the design. But then came another question beginning with how… How was I to set the rules of my order that put the components together to achieve a whole that was of a greater quality than the sum of its components?

This line of questions grew longer and longer, then after many exercises and tasks, I had begun to look at everything with a critical eye. Whatever came upon my way I was always thinking about whether it served its purpose as a design. Then one day…

Since I was continuously observing everything around me. I realised that everything had a purpose. The tv was there in that particular shape for me to watch it, the table was such a table for a reason, my car was in that shape to serve more efficiently, even the painting on the wall was there to remind me of something. Every object was a necessity, and seeing these in that way changed my approach to every step I took. It occurred to me that designing was a lifestyle, a way of looking at things, an attitude towards life.

“Design” (as a noun) had to have a purpose. And “designing” (as a verb) was a method of solving a specific problem within a given environment to serve a purpose.

So I was enlightened. Design seemed more like a mathematical formula than an abstract entity.

It is clear now. Design is a process where you start from scratch and you end up with a product, which serves a purpose or set of purposes:

1. Define the problem: What is the task at hand?

2. Case study: Analysis of any given data.

3. Research:  Investigation of alternative solutions. Develop your set of rules.

4. Decision Making: Deciding on which solution is best. Decide on an order for your design.

5. Development: Producing principal design solution. You get your preliminary design approved.

6. Implementation: Constructing the design.

7. Evaluation: Completion of project and user criticism.

Maybe it seems very technical but with a touch of aesthetical value, when you apply such a process to the design task at hand you will find that your design is much more practical, efficient, appreciated and successful.

And when you do get it, you will find that you apply it to every part of your life, even to your personal problems.

Design is nothing but a solution to a problem. When you feel that the process is a part of you then you know that you are a Designer.