design

a term denoting a new kind of activity concerned with planning the world of objects.

Design came into being in the early 20th century as a reaction to the elemental, random formation of visual and functional properties of the material world. Design creates models for the rational construction of the world of objects; these models answer the needs of a complexly functioning contemporary society. Sometimes the word “design” is interpreted to describe only one area of design, namely, the planning of the aesthetic properties of industrial products. However, design can be used to solve a much wider range of sociotechnical problems, including industrial operations, consumer requirements, and the accommodation of human beings in a world of objects. Design is uniquely related to all traditional planning activities, since it solves difficulties that arise when novel object systems are introduced into the life of an individual or society as a whole, thereby often creating an imbalance in the world of objects.

The word “design” is also used to denote the results of a planning activity (for instance, in the expressions “design of an article” or “design of an automobile”). Moreover, this meaning is used not only in reference to contemporary practice; sometimes the word “design” is used to describe the morphology of the world of objects created by man at various stages of societal development. In this sense, one can speak of primitive design, of 18th-century design, and so on.

In various languages, besides the word “design” there are other terms describing the activities comprising design in its different aspects and manifestations—for instance, khudozhestvennoe konstruirovanie (artistic shaping) in Russian, Formgebung and Formgestaltung (fashioning, forming) in German, and wzornictwo przemystowe (industrial design) in Polish. However, in 1959 the first general assembly of ICSID (International Council of Societies for Industrial Design), of which the USSR is a member, adopted the term “industrial design” (abbreviated by professionals to “design”) as a basic international term because its meaning was held to be more inclusive than that of other terms.

In the USSR design activities are conducted within an organizational system, consisting of special offices for artistic design. The All-Union Research Institute for Technical Aesthetics (including its branches) and an experimental studio affiliated with the Artists’ Union of the USSR are centers of scientific research and experimental design. They provide systematic guidance, develop promising models and forecasting methods, establish quality criteria for industrial products, and study the history and theory of design. Design problems are systematically discussed in the journal Dekorativnoe iskusstvo SSSR (Decorative Art in the USSR) and in the bulletin Tekhnicheskaia estetika (Technical Aesthetics).