TITLE: A Definition of Design from Charles Eames AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford DATE: November 30, 2011 7:07 PM DESC: ----- BODY: Paul Rand's logo for NeXT Our council of department heads meets in the dean's conference room, in the same building that houses the Departments of Theater and Art, among others. Before this morning's meeting, I noticed an Edward Tufte poster on the wall and went out to take a look. It turns out that the graphic design students were exhibiting posters they had made in one of their classes, while studying accomplished designers such as Tufte and Paul Rand, the creator of the NeXT logo for Steve Jobs. As I browsed the gallery, I came across a couple of posters on the work of Charles and Ray Eames. One of them prominently featured this quote from Charles:
Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.
This definition works just as well for software design as it does for graphic design. It is good to be reminded occasionally how universal the idea of design is to the human condition. -----