Design As

By drawing metaphors between design and other fields, this zine* invites readers to explore the many ways design shapes the world, how it works, and what it means to be a designer. Let’s fill in the blank together.

*Zine, short for “magazine” or “fanzine”, is a small-circulation, self-published booklet.

Made by Diane Hu
Course Design Minds 24 Fall
Advisor Jonathon Chapman
Tools
Figma
WebGL
three.js
Hole punch
Scissors
Cardstock

The Question

I’m often asked by my friends:

“What do you actually do in design?”

Typically, they would expect answers to be more concrete, such as architecture, furniture, or applications.

“So you make apps then?”

Well, yes, and no.

A waving reaction — yes and no

Yes, sometimes I design for apps. No, I believe design is more than its deliverables.

This led me to create a zine that helps non-designers understand the design process, showing similarities between design thinking and practices in other areas.

Finding Metaphors

Metaphors were used to connect design to other fields, visualizing and embodying an otherwise abstract concept.

The first metaphor that came to my mind was “design as languages.”

With my background in linguistics, I see language as a tool that connects people across geographical and cultural boundaries. Similarly, design acts as a bridge between humans and machines. Since machines don’t perceive and process information the way humans do, it’s essential for designers to make interactions intuitive and accessible.

Person
Language
Person
Human
Design
Machine

Take the desktop interface as an example. Early computers could only be operated through typed commands. Designers translated those abstract operations into a familiar visual language: files, folders, and a trash can—objects borrowed from the physical world. This shared vocabulary let ordinary people communicate with a machine without learning its native tongue, opening up its power to anyone.

terminal

$ mkdir Projects

$ touch notes.txt

$ rm old.txt

Projects
notes.txt
Trash

In essence, designers are crafting channels of communication between people and technology, making these interactions more natural.

And the list goes on. It’s surprising to see how much in common design shares with other disciplines. There is nothing that can go without design, and anyone could be a designer.

Shaping the Form

The zine format is special because of its intimacy. Its small print run and physical, handmade quality let it resonate with people. Inspired by collage, I took each discipline and extracted its imagery, then deconstructed those pieces and reassembled them into something new.

Inspiration — printed matchbox illustrations Inspiration — die-cut shaped greeting cards

Photos @Pinterest.

Collage of imagery extracted from each discipline — gardening, archaeology, cooking and more

Decomposition of imageries

Each metaphor unfolds across a two-page spread. The front page shows a single image alongside the name of the discipline; it opens up space for the reader to pause and form their own associations. Turning the page reveals the concept itself, including two short passages on what this discipline and design have in common, followed by the concepts or frameworks the two share.

Zine spread — Politics, illustration page Zine spread — Politics, concept page

Design As Politics