Foreword

The word "design" yields undeniable power. It can mean so many things—it's both a noun, "the design," and a verb, "we're designing." It can mean to decorate, to devise, to demarcate. It implies intention, deliberateness, and sometimes duplicity. It describes the creation of anything from physical objects to printed matter to the architecture of intangible systems, and more.

While powerful, this vast pliability can have its downsides—the practice of design as a craft can feel like a slippery slope where the boundaries of scope, responsibility, execution, and iteration are indistinct, even blurry.

And the implication here goes beyond just semantics. The lack of dialogue using concrete terms and the inability to identify discreet edges of a given design problem, can cause the derailment or undoing of countless work hours for practitioners. When a design process neglects the integration of categorical terms, then passion, effort, opportunity, and money will surely be lost.

Luckily, Elizabeth McGuane gives form to the ambiguity by showing us the power of specificity—in words, in numbers, and in images. Design by Definition is an invaluable collection of strategies for teasing apart design problems that are otherwise confusing, muddled, or inconstant, and translating them into clear, operable, material opportunities for designers to apply the best of their ingenuity. This book is an ode to the power of language—written, spoken, visual, and numeric language—and its ability to reveal the best of design.

—Khoi Vinh