Are you looking to hire designers for your company? Interested in
pursuing a career in product design? Do you have a passion for design
and want to know more?
This Lens is here to give you a head start in whatever facet of design interests you.
What is Design?
- Steve Jobs
Start Here
The top 5 design focused websites/blogs
- Metacool
- A blog run Diego Rodriguez, A guy in the trenches at product design powerhouse IDEO, who can also step back and put complex issues in perspective
- Core 77, Industrial Design Supersite
- a site that offers breaking news, feature length articles, and whiny discussion boards
- Dynamist Blog
- Virginia Postrel is able to weave design, economics, and politics together in a compelling fashion using everyday examples.
- Nussbaum on Design
- Bruce Nussbaum is a senior editor for BusinessWeek and one of the most vocal champions for design in the businessworld. The blog always has compelling entries, and is updated 16x a day.
- Design Observer
- this blog is graphics heavy, but most of the lessons carry over to all facets of design. The editors are real heavyweights including:
- Michael Beirut - Partner, Pentagram
- Rick Poynor - Founder, Eye Magazine
- Jessica Helfand - Department Chair, Yale Graphic Design
Start Here
The 5 best overall design books
The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm
Ideo is a Silicon Valley based design consultancy which literally wrote the book on systemitizing innovation.
Amazon Price: $19.77 (as of 12/05/2008) 
The Design of Everyday Things
The Design of Everyday Things gives a solid theoretical basis for human factors in product design.
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 12/05/2008)
Geometry of Design: Studies in Proportion and Composition
This book is a well designed example that gives clear, actionable insights into how proportioning systems effect designs. Utilizing many well known examples the illustrations reveal the hidden structure in famous designs.
Amazon Price: $19.95 (as of 12/05/2008)
The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness (P.S.)
Virginia Postrel has written a book that explains the economic and social forces that shape the aesthetic world.
Amazon Price: $11.86 (as of 12/05/2008)
Design Secrets: Products (Design Secrets)
This series edited by the IDSA offers glimpses into the design processes of famous designers and companies. See the napkin sketches and foamboard models that let to the products you know and love.
Amazon Price: $22.80 (as of 12/05/2008)
Designer Bios
The stories behind compelling designs
Against the Odds: An Autobiography
Is anything more boring than a vacuum cleaner? Still James Dyson has managed to turn this staid product category into a billion dollar innovation factory. This book charts Dyson's growth from quirky art student, brillaint inventor to world famous industri
Amazon Price: (as of 12/05/2008)
An Eames Primer
Amazon Price: $22.76 (as of 12/05/2008)
The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization
Most people think of inventors as lone geniuses, pursuing perfection on their own. This book demonstrates IDEO's approach where innovation is a team sport with several distinct personalities contributing to succesful products.
Amazon Price: $19.77 (as of 12/05/2008)
The Second Coming of Steve Jobs
Apple has had a profound effect on product design over the course of its history. Even though he does little
Amazon Price: $17.10 (as of 12/05/2008)
High and Mighty: The Dangerous Rise of the SUV
Love them or hate them SUV's have been one of the most influential designs of the past 25 years. Few products have had the environmental, social, and societal effects. This book gives insights into the economic forces, industrial processes and egos that l
Amazon Price: $11.90 (as of 12/05/2008)
World Class Design - Under $10
MOMA quality without the snootyness
Zyliss Pizza Wheel
Amazon Price: (as of 12/05/2008)
Oxo Good Grips 1-Cup Angled Measuring Cup
Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 12/05/2008)
Method Dish Soap - Small
Amazon Price: (as of 12/05/2008)
Stikfas Classic Alpha Male Military - Green
Amazon Price: $17.67 (as of 12/05/2008)
Great Design Under $100
Sustainable Product Design
"Making great products without killing baby seals"
Sustainable Design Books
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Amazon Price: $18.15 (as of 12/05/2008)
Green Plastics: An Introduction to the New Science of Biodegradable Plastics.
Amazon Price: $36.00 (as of 12/05/2008)
Materials and Design: The Art and Science of Material Selection in Product Design
Amazon Price: $56.79 (as of 12/05/2008)
Green Urbanism: Learning From European Cities
Amazon Price: $40.50 (as of 12/05/2008)
Sustainable Links
- Treehugger
- Think Gizmodo for the birkenstock crew.
- McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry
- MBDC are the thought leaders in the sustainable product design world. They wrote the book on green design and push for sustainable systems thinking.
Mass Customization
Have it Your Way
- NIKE ID
- NIKE has been offering customized sneakers since the late ninties and have recently started producing bags and watches that can be customized by the user. So far most of the changes are purely cosmetic (e.g. you can change colors, but not fit or style). Your best bet if you want pumpkin and pink sneakers.
- Timbuk2 - Custom Messanger Bags
- Timbuk2 is a San Fransisco based company that produces messanger bags that can be customized with your choice of colors, sizes and accesories.
- Freitag - Custom bags
- Like Timbuk2, Freitag makes messanger bags and other softgoods. Their products are truly customized, made from tarps that are hung on the side of trucks. The website shows what tarps are available and allows you to choose what section of the tarp you want your bag made from.
Design Quotes
+ Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something. - Thomas Edison
+ You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledge hammer on the construction site. - Frank Lloyd Wright
+ Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design. - Charles Eames
+ Design works if it's authentic, inspired, and has a clear point of view. It can't be a collection of input. - Ron Johnson
+ Design adds value faster than it adds cost. = Joel Spolsky
