Good comments Terry.
Responses one-by-one:
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(First)
One is that it distinguishes the fields and activities of Design from Art
and from Craft production. Designers are the intermediaries that tell
manufacturers what to produce. For example…
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Point taken, these were/are the specifications of communication design. BUT I argue most of the items in your list are trivial to the design activity (all except "specify the image (also create the image) which you say is incidental but I would say is the most significant part). Graphic designers don't just 'specify an image' (pick a stock photo), they MAKE images: take photos, make illustrations, design symbols and icons. No one hires a communication designer primarily to work out the production specifications you list above, in fact production specifications may be handled by a production manager not a designer! The designers' work is to create a model of a concept that achieves an intended end, and that model may include original 'artwork.' The specifications are trivial having to do with manufacture, as you note, but manufacture is about reproduction: reproducing the prototype! Design is the process of making the first of the type, not the processor writing the specifications that guide the reproduction of the type.
The past 20 years provide support for this perspective in that until the 1990's communication designed spent significant time preparing 'art boards' that were used solely as specifications for print production. Today that production work has largely disappeared, yet as many communication designers are employed as ever. I see this as evidence that the production of specifications was not the essence of design.
So, I am unconvinced by your argument and stand by prototype as a better word than specification.
Second
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Second, models and prototypes are only part of the design output…
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True, but specifications are only part of design output as well! I assert that specifications are a trivial part that simply guides manufacture, not the essential part. The essence of design activity is the prototype. Of course I/we are quibbling about words, but a prototype by definition embodies essentials - "proto-type" - that is the first that guides others. Surely 'the first that guides' is more essential than the others that follow. Specifications flow from the prototype, not the other way around. They are derivative, not source except from point of view of reproduction. Re-production is the essence of manufacture, not
design. Design makes one to test. Manufacture makes many to implement.
Third
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Third, I suggest the inclusion of 'preferred state' is a serious problem
in any definition of design…
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Point taken. Preferred is problem. The best that can be said about 'preferred' is that it is very broad. But value laden is a good thing to me, I'm not neutral, leading to your fourth point.
Fourth
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Fourth, why should any definition of design only refer to the ethically
positive?…
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Design (I was/am speaking of discipline/profession here, which I said in my earlier post) should be limited ethically because we live and work in society, thus any profession/discipline functioning in society should be ethically positive.
In summary, on further reflection thanks to your response, I feel more strongly that "model" or "prototype" is a better word than "specification," and while I like having something about outcome in the definition of design AS A PROFESSION/DISCIPLINE, I admit design prototypes themselves are amoral - they just are. While I support having outcomes as part of the definition of design as Simon does, design like all other creative human activity is free to be good or bad. It's defining design as profession/discipline where I wish to include outcomes and ethics, ESPECIALLY since design is now overtly engaging in social change.
Best…
Mike Zender
University of Cincinnati
Editor, Visible Language
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