Designing: A Journey Through Time

Designing: A Journey Through Time is a sequel to Design FAQs, the author's first book. Like Design FAQs, this book is an introduction to the artificial world of design and designing. It is a perfect primer for students beginning their studies in Design, Architecture, and the Humanities as well as anyone interested in exploring how design occurs and how it impacts our lives.

Designing: A Journey Through Time walks readers through the evolution of the designing process by examining The Designing Triad, which is a simple, diagrammatic way of demystifying the designing process by focusing on its three principal players: the User, the Designer, and the Maker. It begins in the earliest days of designing—some 2.5 million years ago—when the User, the Designer, and the Maker were not separate entities but were one and the same person. We learn how the Triad evolved, moving to the User as someone separate to the Designer/Maker and then ending with the situation that we have today: the User, Designer, and Maker as three independent players.

Designing: A Journey Through Time has a clear, readable, and concise style that provides an accessible and instructive introduction to the history, development, and fundamental principles of the designing process. It engages the reader by describing the evolution of designing as a journey through time—from the earliest stone artifacts to today's complex world of buildings, planes, and high technology.

Designing: A Journey Through Time is underpinned by a basic principle: designing is a universal and human activity that has permitted mankind to co-exist with the Natural World by changing what exists into what is desired. Diagrams and photographs appear throughout the book.