The Logic of Design Process

What is the logic of the design process? Departing from this question and focusing on processes of invention and discovery, Tiago da Costa e Silva investigates the characteristic feature of every projective activity, for instance, in architecture, design, engineering design, and in the arts. In opposition to predominant views that understand design processes as mechanical, this study with the help of the semiotics of Charles S. Peirce characterizes design activities as a continuous and serendipitous interplay of processes of aesthetic experience, of defining rules, and of manifesting forms. Da Costa e Silva concludes that invention and discovery are intrinsic to every development in any given design context.

Tiago da Costa e Silva, born in 1978, researches design processes, semiotics, and aesthetics, with special focus on form-giving processes, as well as on processes involving invention and discovery. A specialist in the field of the semiotics of Charles S. Peirce, he has been awarded the 'Charles S. Peirce Young Scholar Award' for his publication on aesthetic processes related to inventive occurrences. He is specialized in the fields of industrial design, visual communication, theory of communication, and semiotics as well as in theory and history of design. He is part of the research staff of the interdisciplinary laboratory 'Image Knowledge Gestaltung' and of the Institute for Cultural Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany.