Frank Chimero

The Shape of Design

Fabian

The first step of any process should be to define the objectives of the work with Why-based questions. The second step, however, should be to put those objectives in a drawer. Objectives guide the process toward an effective end, but they don't do much to help one get going.

Design can speak the tongue of art with the force of commerce.

The designer acts as a proxy for the audience's needs while arguing for her own creative concerns. This makes the whole arrangement precarious, because it means that the designer is being paid by the client, but is obligated to the audience, for it is the audience's presence that imbues the work with its value. It is a double-allegiance, a necessary duplicity. Design's two-faced behavior is a product of its middle position between the elements it connects. Bridging two things means a bond with both of them.

Design doesn't need to be delightful for it to work, but that's like saying food doesn't need to be tasty to keep us alive. There is a tendency to think that to delight someone with design is to make them happy. Indeed, the work may do that, but more appropriately, the objective is to produce a memorable experience because of its superior fit.

Michael Knepprath

You know what? I enjoyed it. Self-indulgent, YES, but there are lots of fun anecdotes, and the points being made are good.

Ajit Panigrahi

A must-read for absolutely anyone, doing anything.

> "Our questioning, and the imagination it inspires, allows us to perform the most important magic: to make the world grow by revealing what was right before our eyes."

Jayme Cochrane

A lot of meandering for such a short book. The goods are very good, but there's a lot of fluff in between.

Nat Welch

I wanted this to go deeper and be more put together than it was.

Michael Bowman

Jeremy Cote

I found this little book to be quite enjoyable. The message was great, and Chimero sucks you in with his writing. I'm not a designer by trade so I can't attest to how this resonates with others, but I found the book to be a great read.

The Shape of Design

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