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Used and abused today, the term "design" covers a wide sphere of meanings that often end up misrepresenting its essence. So let's start from the root, the etymology of this noun, which tells us a lot about what design represents and how we should read it today. The term derives from the Latin word "signum" which corresponds to the Italian "segno" (sign) and therefore "disegno" (drawing).
Since ancient times, drawing has been the language of choice for communicating an idea, or even better, a plan. In fact, what lies at the heart of the word "design" is precisely the intuition of a plan aimed at solving a certain problem of material life. In the name, therefore, lies the will to architect, conceive and organize a project.
This planning approach to the object is also what Renaissance artists dedicated to the realization of an artwork. Often through a sketch or a draft, they were able to convey to their client their original idea and plan. But, in this case, it was more a matter of communicating their art rather than a reference to their technique. For several centuries, from the 15th to the early 17th century, the artist's inspiration, represented in his drawing, tended to detach itself from its process of realization, material reality, and the real problems of life.
The Enlightenment and the advent of scientific research began to alleviate this rupture by, for example, beginning to investigate what could perhaps be considered the best design project ever made: the human body. In fact, another word that appears in the same context and that has possibly more to do with the contemporary idea of design, is "technique" which comes from the Greek téchne. The meaning of this term in Greek is "art" and is related to the word tékton, ("carpenter"). This simple linguistic link encapsulates the importance of the formless material to which the artist, the technician, and the craftsman give form.
Yet the contemporary designer is more than a simple artisan and, at the same time, he is not an artist because his work starts from formal problems and ends up in concrete solutions. He is precisely the figure who acts as a bridge between art and technique: the one who has the idea and at the same time has the knowledge to identify the best technique to achieve it, always keeping functionality and efficiency in mind.
These few etymological considerations should be a fairly comprehensive explanation of the position that the word "design" occupies in contemporary life, where this discipline has acquired the most varied declinations: experience design, brand design, visual design, holistic design, and many others. There is no good design without the aim to create a beautiful and up-to-date solution to a material problem. Let us then conclude this brief history of the word design with Bruno Munari's words, who, when asked who was the contemporary designer, answered: "He is a planner with a strong aesthetic sense".
