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Statement of Editorial Policy
Beginning with the current volume, Design Issues expands to be-
come a quarterly publication. This represents a milestone for the
journal, reflecting the growing community of writers and readers
who want to learn more about the field of design and contribute to
its thoughtful development. The editors would like to take advan-
tage of this opportunity to look backward as well as forward in
explaining our editorial policy and the vision and direction of the
journal.
Developments in design practice, research and scholarly in-
quiry over the past decade have done little to change our belief that
a common forum is needed for serious discussion of the nature of
design and its place in contemporary culture. With the proliferation
of special interest groups and the growing number of specialized
professional and scholarly conferences and journals around the
world, we believe there is an even greater urgency to provide a
forum for discussions that contribute to the formation of a design
community.
Special interest groups are an important part of the field of
design, and many have formed over the years. They usually take
shape around a particular problem or around a particular approach
or philosophy. The special interest serves as the bond and creates
the association. But associations come and go as interests are served
and as interests move on in new directions. The idea of a commu-
nity is something different. It embraces the diversity of associations
and special interests that are its constituent parts, but it is more than
the sum of such differences. It is the shared commitment to a collec-
tive enterprise and to long-term goals of greater understanding and
accomplishment. As the philosopher John Dewey argues, a commu-
nity forms around common problems; it encourages individuals to
explore those problems in many ways; and it prizes communication
among its diverse members so that the constituent elements of the
community may be clarified and enhanced.
Building a design community from such diversity of associ-
ations is a great challenge. We hope that everyone who participates
in associations and special interest groups will remain mindful of
the long-term value of building and exploring connections among
all of our diverse groups. To this end, Design Issues will continue to
offer a forum where diverse interests may come together in an ex-
change ideas and of the results of inquiry. We believe this will prop-
erly support the development of the design community as a whole.
Building bridges among diverse kinds of design thinking is our
goal.
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This goal is expressed in the two features that have become
the signature of Design Issues. First is a mixture of history, criticism,
and theory among our articles. From the beginning, the editors rea-
soned that all three forms of reflection are needed to advance de-
sign, because any one kind, if it existed in isolation from the others,
could not provide an adequate understanding of a subject so com-
plex and important. The formations of a strong design community
depends on historical reflection on where design has been, critical re-
flection on where design is at present, and theoretical reflection on
the assumptions and possibilities for what design may become in
the future. This will remain one of the signatures of the journal.
Second is a belief in the importance of pluralism for our
field. From the beginning, the editors believed that the collective
understanding of design is best advanced through the challenging
interplay of contrasting perspectives, approaches, and assumptions.
Developments over the past decade have only strengthened our
conviction that the field of design will grow best by recognizing and
actively cultivating the diversity of perspectives that is one of its
central characteristics. This, too will remain one of the signature of
the journal.
To understand our editorial policy, consider the kind of wri-
ter and reader we hope will participate in Design Issues. We seek
writers who are curious about design and see their work as a re-
sponsible exploration of the subject. They may be designers, design
educators, scholars of design, or individuals from any discipline or
professional background who want to explore a facet of design.
They will be individuals who value not only the concrete experience
of design as feature of human culture, but who also value the chal-
lenge of expressing the assumptions that lie behind the work of
designers, the objects created by designers, and the efforts of those
who study design. In short, they will be men and women who pose
exciting and challenging questions about design and seek reason-
able answers, drawing on whatever evidence, disciplinary knowl-
edge, or inspiration they regard as appropriate.
In turn, we will invite these writers to imagine their readers
as people who are passionately interested in design and want to
read clear, reasonable discussions of the subject that may shed new
and unexpected light on one of the most perplexing and influential
features of the contemporary world. These readers may be profes-
sional designers, design educators, scholars of design, or experts in
some other discipline related to design. They may be museum cura-
tors, students, or general readers. Their original interest may be
graphic and communication design, industrial and new product
development, engineering design, or any of the new areas in which
design has been systematically applied in recent years, such as in-
formation design, exhibition design, human-computer interaction,
experience design, retail and other interior environmental design,
robotics, virtual spaces, interface, software, or interactive media. But
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most of all, they will be readers who seek an alternative to the short,
thin, and sometimes self-promoting articles that have become too
common in many commercial design publications in the United
States and abroad. Clearly, we recognize that Design Issues is not in-
tended for everyone. Our readers are those who seek relevant con-
nections to their own work in any discussion of design and who do
not mind wrestling with unfamiliar subjects or ideas.
As editors, our primary test in selecting manuscripts is
simply this: “Why should anyone interested in design read this arti-
cle?” The answer, for us, must be that it contributes to the under-
standing of the conception, planning, and making of the cultural
environment—an environment of graphic images and symbols, in-
dustrial products, services and activities, and systems shaped by
designers to support the activities of men and women in all walks
of life. The understanding may be historical, critical, or theoretic. It
may be derived from the experience of designing or the fruit of
scholarly research. It may focus on the classic expressions of graphic
or industrial design or on one of the many new areas of design
application and technology. It may probe issues of design education
or the display of design in museums. It may address problems of
design policy and management in corporations or the difficulties of
integrating marketing, engineering, and design in product develop-
ment. It may seek to clarify the subtle problems of information
design and the new blending of words and images found in many
areas of design. It may examine the career of products in everyday
life. It may even address aspects of architectural design or urban
planning—provided that ideas about design emerge in a form that
is potentially useful to all designers and those who seek to under-
stand design.
The identity of Design Issues does not lie in the limits of one
branch of designing. Nor does it lie in an area of professional or
academic specialization illustrated by any one of our contributors.
Nor does it lie in a signature style of writing and reasoning that
excludes contributions from individuals of different backgrounds.
Instead, the unity of the journal lies in the judgment of the editors
that these articles contribute to the advance of design in practice or
in study.
But who shall judge our judgment? The first judge will be
our readers. Please tell us what you like and do not like about the
journal. And also tell us where you think the journal should be head-
ed if it is to successfully pursue the changing character of design in
the contemporary world. The second judge will be our Editorial and
Advisory Boards, comprised of distinguished individuals who rep-
resent alternative perspectives and excellence along the wider path
that Design Issues seeks to explore. And the third judge will be time.
Time will tell what work has really made a difference in the under-
standing of design.
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As at the founding of Design Issues, we continue to believe
that a forum is urgently needed for serious discussion of the role of
design in the contemporary world, and we want this journal to be
the best forum available today for thoughtful reflection.
Richard Buchanan
Dennis Doordan
Victor Margolin
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