Design Research and its Challenges

Abstract

In the Editorial that accompanied the premier issue of Design Studies in June 1979, Sidney Gregory stated: ‘For the first time a forum exists for the written exchange of ideas and knowledge about design which lets us work across national boundaries and what are perhaps more difficult to traverse, the boundaries of prior disciplines (Gregory, 1979: the establishment of the journal was itself the outgrowth of a research initiative that had begun more than 15 years earlier with the first design methods conferences).

While there were books and conference proceedings where research on design appeared before the arrival of Design Studies, the journals presence was an important step forward in the emergence of design research as a field. As its contribution to the field's development, Design Studies has, for more than 20 years, published numerous articles that have addressed important questions related particularly to the methodology, epistemology, and philosophy of design.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Victor Margolin

BIOGRAPHY

Victor Margolin is Professor of Design History at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He was a founding editor of the journal Design Issues and is now one of three co-editors. His interests range from design history to sustainability and the sociology of design. Professor Margolin is the author of The Struggle for Utopia: Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy, 1917–1946 and The American Poster Renaissance, and is editor of Design Discourse and co-editor of Discovering Design and The Idea of Design. His forthcoming book is entitled The Politics of the Artificial: Essays on Design and Design Studies.