Perception and experience

Perception and experience are long-standing associates of design. Through time the discipline has developed deep knowledge of them as independent and inter-related subjects. Yet, in this period of flux where design is journeying within a third paradigm these familiar words and concepts are finding themselves under fresh inspection. In this issue of The Design Journal, in one way or another, the papers have coalesced around these two themes: how they influence design – its education and business and its social relevance. Meanwhile, the two books reviewed in this issue focus upon aspects of visual cultural in product and textile design. The papers also illustrate how design and its research is concerned with igniting and choreographing a transformation, making new meaning and reviewing the role of designer and the processes of designing. Mendozal et al address the focus on experience within the context of gaming for product design and offers conjecture for future design education. Baumers and Heylighen discuss the cultivation of experience using the uncommon lens of autism. Shelley focuses on Apple and, how makers and the market perceive aesthetic tensions and how necessary tensions enable a design to achieve simplicity. Bagli’s discussion on the materiality of culture resides in the uncommon context of religion and Islamic objects. McMahon considers how to progress social sustainability education by balancing economics and environment with more human concerns. Salazar and Baxter bring an ethical dimension and propose a change in how we perceive the living system of relationships, framing design as a human manner of conversing - to design is to converse. Lee argues for design - students and educational provision – to further consider the art of ‘thoughtful reduction’ and offers a locus for changing what it means to be enterprising and entrepreneurial through design. Two books reviewed are Symbol, Pattern & Symmetry: The Cultural Significance of Structure by Michael Hann, while Deyan Sudjic reviews Iconic Designs: 50 Stories about 50 Things, edited by Grace Lees-Maffei.