“The essential function of our profession [design] in our society is to enhance and cultivate communications toward an easier understanding of ideas and complex problems, in the shortest possible time for higher visual and auditory retention of data.”
“To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse. To design is to transform prose into poetry.”
“To design is to plan and to organize, to order, to relate and to control. In short it embraces all means of opposing disorder and accident. Therefore it signifies a human need and qualifies man’s thinking and doing.”
“For design is about the making of things: things that are memorable and have presence in the world of the mind. It makes demands upon our ability both to consolidate information as knowledge and to deploy it imaginatively to creative purpose in the pursuit of fresh information.”
About
DIA’s purpose is to identify, archive and make freely available resources for the study and practice of design and design research in multiple disciplines and formats to enhance the practical, aesthetic and socially responsible goals of design in society to advance design awareness.
Announcements
Johan and Susan Severtson embarked this past year on a cross-country "Find Design" roadtrip. Their 19 foot Airstream provided both home and office. They visited over 50 different source locations, including Colleges and Universities, Museums, Manufacturers, and design documentation projects undertaken by private individuals and organizations. See a timeline description of their visits and links to discoveries.
Design Information Alliance
Featured Supporters
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
Participate
In order to accomplish our long-term goals, DIA will create an alliance which includes the cooperative participation of many organizations and repositories. Organizations may be productive partners in resource identification and many of them have already agreed to participate and/or to support our efforts.
Visits & Discoveries
From Rhode Island to Michigan, to Colorado - then Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington. And back again through Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, and New York. Read a description of the 2011 Find Design Roadtrip.