Hi Ken and all

Thank you and thank you all for taking up this endeavor. But I have an
innocent request:

I don't know if this problem is only mine, every time when I begin to read
anything in a 'foreign' subject or topic, I always have problems with
terminology that are definitionally conceptual and that often impedes
understanding. I often find that introductory 'textbooks' help in this
respect, at least for myself.

Do you think you can add to your recommendation some introductory texts as
well?
Thank you in advance.

Best Regards
Rosan

Ken Friedman wrote:

> The issue of a design "canon" is worth considering. For my part, I am going
> to rummage through my library and put up some suggestions in the next few
> weeks.
>
> One important place to start is Victor Margolin's (1989) useful essay,
> "Postwar Design Literature: A Preliminary Mapping."
>
> In this important bibliographic essay, Margolin's (1989: 265) purpose is
> "to present the many strands of design writing as they have developed since
> the end of World War II."
>
> This is a review of the literature in the best sense, and this gives rise
> to an important warning. In developing a list of required readings, it is
> vital to recognize that time is limited - even for a doctoral candidate who
> knows that he or she must read, read and read more. One must be selective.
> An excellent review of the literature on the different streams of design
> writing must necessarily include a large number of books that do not
> qualify as required reading today.
>
> Some of the books that occupied much time and attention in the development
> of design literature did not always command attention because they were
> good. Some took up shelf space because they were the only titles in the
> niche they occupied. In other cases, they were lavishly subvened and
> promoted to help generate business for the firms that employed their
> authors.
>
> Wally Olins's books are a case in point. Mr. Olins had a great deal to say
> from his post at the helm of Wolff Olins. Much of what he said was the kind
> of thing one expects in an after-dinner speech delivered by the head of a
> once-thriving design practice whose job is to drum up new business from
> among the assembled CEO diners. Another example would be the books of
> AnChris publishing in Oslo. AnChris was the wholly owned publishing arm of
> the design firm Anisdahl Christensen, once Norway's largest design
> practice. AnChris published only books of its two founder-partners and
> these books focused on the work of the firm. These books were an
> explanation of a thriving design practice. They focus on and feature the
> work of Norway's first successful major design firm. In that sense, these
> works are an important contribution to the history of design in Norway. As
> a general contribution to the literature of design, these books have no
> place on a required reading list - at least not unless one is writing the
> history of design in Norway or a history of graphic design in Scandinavia.
>
> Victor Margolin's book Design Discourse is definitely on my list of
> required titles, and his bibliographic essay is required reading. Greater
> caution is required in deciding which of the books discussed ought to make
> a final list.
>
> A second point must be kept in mind in developing a required reading list
> for doctoral candidates in design. The mixed and variable state of
> undergraduate design education means that many books that should have been
> read by design students at the bachelor's and master's level will not yet
> have been read.
>
> In developing a list of required readings, therefore, one must ask a
> fundamental question: "What books must an educated scholar read to
> understand contemporary society and to play an appropriate role in a
> contemporary postindustrial democracy?"
>
> This list might possibly be considered a preliminary list to the list of
> required readings in the specific field of design. It must be considered.
>
> Here, one must attend to the classics. This list would include vital books
> on political economics as Smith's Wealth of Nations, Drucker's The New
> Realities, or De Tocqueville's Democracy in America. It would include
> important books in intellectual history such as Boorstin's The Discoverers,
> Manchester's A World Lit Only by Fire, or Waldrop's Complexity. The role
> that information and communication play in contemporary industry - that is,
> to offer an oxymoron, post-industrial industry - one must also read some of
> the founding documents of thinking on this world. Innis's Bias of
> Communication, McLuhan's Understanding Media, and Castells's trilogy on the
> network society belong in this group.
>
> The role that we play as human beings in this world is particularly
> important when we design for others, and it is vital, therefore, to reflect
> on what it means to be human. A short course in philosophy is vital here:
> we have enough professional philosophers among us that I don't dare to
> suggest which works of Plato or Aristotle ought to be considered. Among the
> Greeks, I will suggest the importance of Sophocles's Theban plays and
> Aeschylus's Oresteia, and I'd add that charming book The World of Herodotus
> by Aubrey de Selincourt. In modern times, I would suggest Kierkegaard's
> Fear and Trembling, and The Sickness Unto Death.
>
> Who we are and how are form the themes of sociology and psychology, and
> there are a number of key readings that demand attention. I will offer a
> few suggestions in the final list. These books begin to touch on issues
> that will crop up in design research, so the choices here are important
> because they serve two purposes. The first is a sense of the self for any
> serious scholar and researcher. The second is a glimpse into usable methods
> and issues for outward-focused research.
>
> This is a quick note rather than my complete view of a serious list of the
> reading one must have accomplished to earn a Ph.D. in design. What is vital
> here is an understanding of the nature - and volume - of reading expected
> for a good Ph.D. This may be different if we're talking about the tracked
> and focused kind of work expected for a professional doctorate (f.ex.,
> D.Eng., D.Des.). For the philosophical doctorate, one must expect to have
> read several hundred books deeply and skimmed or browsed many more. Some
> one hundred fifty or two hundred of these should have been read during a
> four-year undergraduate degree, and another hundred or so during a two-year
> master's program. It is possible in far too many places to graduate with a
> master's degree in design having read no more than twenty or thirty books
> during a six-year education. This means a lot of catching up for a decent
> doctoral foundation.
>
> -- Ken Friedman
>
> Reference
>
> Margolin, Victor. 1989. "Postwar Design Literature: A Preliminary Mapping."
> In Design Discourse. Victor Margolin, ed. Chicago: University of Chicago
> Press.
>
> Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
> Department of Knowledge Management
> Norwegian School of Management
>
> +47 22.98.51.07 Direct line
> +47 22.98.51.11 Telefax
>
> Home office:
>
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>
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