WHY DESIGN?

Iowa State University's College of Design is distinctive, one of only three comprehensive design colleges in the U.S. with the same range of design disciplines "under one roof." The exceptional breadth and depth of expertise resident in the college provides unparalleled opportunities for students to engage in all scales of design inquiry and making, from that of a piece of jewelry to a multi-state regional transportation plan.

"Design" is both noun and verb, product and process. The products of design form the interface between humans and the environment. They are beautiful, useful and sustainable places, objects and futures, through which we live, work and play. Look around. Designed products are all around us, under us, over us, on us. The quality of design is a major contributor to the quality of our lives.

Do you want to make a difference in the world? Become a designer.

The products of design are brought into being through an integrative, synthetic process of thinking and making through the process of design. The design process engages all of the senses, and all of our ways of knowing. It requires independent visioning concurrent with collaborative action. Design uses all of the materials and technologies available and appropriate to the task, from hand modeling of organic materials, to the sophisticated manipulation of the latest digital technologies. Designers communicate ideas through images and physical forms as well as words. They engage in big-picture, right-brain thinking while using left-brain logic to evaluate and assess. They see things others don't, ask questions, make stuff, transform cultures and change environments.

Why design? Because the world needs design.

The world needs places, objects and futures not yet imagined or made, which only designers can bring into being.