Milan Design Week

Salone del Mobile and Fuorisalone 2025

What is design, explained by 10 prominent designers of our time

We asked a select group of designers of all ages, from up-and-comers to established names and grandmasters, to define the discipline in a few words. Here is what they told us.

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Jasper Morrison

Photo by Antonia Adomako

“It goes without saying that Design should be useful, although that definition is often overlooked by representations of Design as a sideshow of Art. If we stay with the traditional understanding of Design as a practical occupation, then beyond its purely functional aspects are other, more mysterious ones, the most important of which are to shape and build things to give them long life both physically and visually, and to empower them to make good atmosphere wherever they may be, as a backdrop to daily life.”

Sabine Marcelis

“What is design for me? For me personally, it’s a way of expressing myself. And it’s about creating thoughtful products. And thoughtful in the broader sense of how does it work and what does it add aesthetically to a scenario. Design is making the best use of the material and production process, and it has to tick all those boxes as well.”

Gaetano Pesce

Photo by Olga Antipina

“I would define Design as an entity with an organic body. Design does not identify itself with known representations. If anything, it unfolds in different languages and expressions. Its nature is more than ever rich and multilingual. If I think of the place that holds it, it should be declined into fragments scattered in different urban places, each built with inconsistent languages.”

Gereon Wahle

“To me, design is: a thousand yard stare when I think about creating something new. An all encompassing tiredness that feels earned. Striking a balance between thought and action. The realisation that small problems matter too. A sense of independence that comes from the act of making. Knowing I’ll never stop learning. Finding joy in simple things. An unfounded belief that I can create anything, with time.”

Philippe Nigro

Photo by Vincent Lappartient

“What is design?
It is a pragmatic and sensitive response to a personal perspective research or question posed by an entrepreneur, craftsman, institution, or user through a work/object/space.
The response, nourished by one’s own era, requires an understanding of the interlocutor, their story, and technical and technological know-how in order to create works whose quality can convey well-being, emotional bonding, harmony, ingenuity, innovation, durability, and desire to convey.”

Tom Dixon

“'Design' has become an almost meaningless word which covers a vast array of possible processes and activities in multiple and confusing range of sectors – it encompasses engineering and decoration and organisation of systems – but in principle it should be a means of improvement.”

Konstantin Grcic

Courtesy Hugo Boss

“Design is a vital aspect of progressive society. It is shaping the products and systems we engage with on a daily basis. Design is an attitude of mind, that cares for people and any other species on this planet and universe. It requires a willingness to take risks to meet the ever-changing contexts. Design is a changing.”

Elena Salmistraro

“Design today has found the strength to overcome the limitations and preconceptions of the past, breaking free from stereotypes and manifestos, and striving to find itself in the authorial individuality of the sign. It is no longer a defined face, a fixed direction, or a single functional/technological specificity, but a polyhedric fluidity of expression.
Design today is dedicated to transforming the many “things” that surround us, into Objects with a soul, a story, a coherence, a dream.”

Stefano Giovannoni

“Design is the language that allows us to transfer our cultural identity into the object: the identity of the author, the historical period in which they operate, the imagery that sets them apart.”

Emilio Ambasz

Photo by Wade Zimmerman

“The human capabilities Nature did not bestow on us, Design must provide”

What is design? To go along with Silvana Annichiarico's feature article that we are running on Domus on the occasion of Milan Design Week 2023, we have collected the opinion on the subject of a very select group of very different people with one precise trait in common: they do design and they do it very well.Age, geographic origin, experience and different paths distinguish them. What they have in common is design. There are those who have made history, those who are making history now, and those who will make history. With one constant: design is very much alive, more alive than ever. And it never stops transforming.

Explore all the definitions by browsing the gallery.

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