Undergraduate education

Design is a decision-making activity. It involves the development of proposals to meet a need and the selection of one proposal that produces a balance between sometimes conflicting requirements, which might include aesthetic factors, structural stability, financial considerations, functional requirements, durability and environmental impact. To balance these factors elegantly requires elegance in thought. But how do designers think?

Designers perceive and conceive. They require both artistic freedom and intellectual discipline. Theirs must be a controlled creativity. Such creativity is a natural human talent—we constantly seek to bring things into meaningful relationships with one another and with ourselves. Can we articulate and confirm this ability, or do we inhibit and confine it with unnecessary rules and regulations?