This book is about design. It is addressed to those who don’t care about design: design plays a much more significant role in your life than you usually think. This book is also for those who imagine that design is everything. Friends, design will not save the world, but it can make it worth saving. In my opinion, that’s enough.

A writer I know used to say that “a topic worthy of a big book should first be tested on a small one.” He liked this rule so much that from then on he did nothing but write small books devoted to important topics, and shrewdly ceded big books to other authors.

Before you is also a small book on a subject that deserves a large and exhaustive study. This is not a history of design, although it contains references to historical events. This is not a critique of design, although I try to examine the subject critically. This is not an apology for designers, although I sympathize with their troubles. This is not a discussion or polemic, although examples of thoughtless and cheap crafts are described with condemnation.

The main idea of ​​this book is that design, which is now aimed mainly at solving superficial problems, is in great demand and can be successfully applied in many extremely important areas of human activity. Moreover, one of these areas is design itself. It took me a long time to come to these conclusions.