My Personal Design Theory Revisited

Having been asked to outline my personal design theory, I know that it can be an intensely personal journey to delve into our subconscious to pull out whatever it is we tap into. I have found that I have entirely too much to say on the topic so it has been difficult to narrow my focus to just one answer to the question: What is Design?

I personally feel that design(good design anyways) is visual rhetoric; a type of coercion which we are all receptive to on a subconscious level. We cannot help but respond to visual rhetoric because of the powerful way which our minds can automatically interpret visual information.

Think of a rhetorical question, it's intention is to present an idea, but rather than telling the listener what to think or do, it merely begs a question it has already answered.

For design to truly be a rhetorical question, we need to change the way we present the design, -if only slightly- so that the viewer is asked rather than told where to go next, even though we are leading them along a path of our own design.

In the end, if the goal of design is to entice the viewer into some form of action, the designs that are more effective are the ones that people have to think about. I think people will walk away from a rhetorical design feeling as though they can own the ideas they have taken from it, simply because they were asked -not told- what to think.