Gunnar,
Thanks for the detailed reply.
I'd have to go back over the progenitor thread to this one to refresh my
memory.  And I'll do that.  But I was in Texas last week for a conference
and I'm still... recovering. :)

/fas

On 14 June 2012 12:16, Gunnar Swanson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Fil,
>
> On Jun 14, 2012, at 10:19 AM, Filippo A. Salustri wrote:
> > How does one assess the impact/significance of that 5%?
> > (I'm honestly asking out of ignorance about it.)
>
> That was part of my question. The other is what the 5% is 5% of. Does this
> mean that there are 100x design fields and that 5x of them are "art and
> design" fields? That there are 1000y designers and 50y of them are in "art
> and design" fields or . . . ? The "we've found fifty gazillion design
> specialties (or whatever the number was)" seems like a worthwhile fact to
> contemplate. If the first interpretation of the 5% is correct (and I've
> been assuming that is what they meant) then does it just mean that "art and
> design" fields are less segmented than non "art and design" fields?
>
> If all this just boils down to "There a a lot of different sorts of people
> who call themselves designers" then, Duh! If the takeaway from that is that
> say, a book jacket designer should not lecture an engineering designer on
> the nature of design assuming that the book jacket designer's experience is
> universal then, yeah, but the conversation started with those roles
> reversed, if I'm remembering correctly. And saying "But I'm part of the 95%
> and you're part of the 5%" would seem to require delving into the
> impact/significance question plus some others to escape being merely inane
> rhetoric.
>
> Jaques' mention that this conversation is a bit of an echo is something
> that probably occurred to most of us who have been here for a while.
> Partially in response to a similar conversation several years ago, I put
> together my response in the form of a Flash movie/mini lecture. It's still
> at http://www.gunnarswanson.com/definedesign/ .  A couple of warnings: 1)
> it's monster big so don't download it on an analog modem hooked to a
> satellite phone or something and 2) I ramble on at length and then start
> talking about related themes in terms of some of my work so someone
> interested in the whole "what is design" thing may want to quit watching
> after the Venn diagrams get replaced by graphic design samples.
> [...]



-- 
\V/_
Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Ryerson University
350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON
M5B 2K3, Canada
Tel: 416/979-5000 ext 7749
Fax: 416/979-5265
Email: [log in to unmask]
http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/