The document discusses various definitions and perspectives on design from notable thinkers between 1965-2003. It highlights design as a goal-directed problem-solving activity, a systematic method for imagining future possibilities, a plan for arranging elements to accomplish a purpose, changing situations into preferred ones, shaping our environment without precedent in nature to serve our needs and give meaning, a category beyond categories, and that the real difficulty is the designer themselves.

1. A goal-directed
problem-solving activity
Bruce Archer
Systematic Method
for Designers 1965

2. The imaginative jump
from present facts
to future possibilities
J.K. Page
Contribution to
Building for People 1966

3. A plan for arranging
elements in such a way
as to best accomplish
a particular purpose
Charles Eames
Design Q&A 1972

4. Changing
existing situations
into preferred ones
Herbert Simon
Sciences of the Artificial
1972

5. To shape and make our
environment in ways without
precedent in nature,
to serve our needs and
give meaning to our lives
J. Heskett
Toothpicks and logos 2002

6. Today, design is a category
beyond categories
Peter Lunenfeld
The Design Cluster 2003

7. The real difficulty in design
is the designer!
(I remember Charles Eames
saying that in a lecture)
J.C. Jones
Softopia 2003