Do/Design

With this book designer Alan Moore invites us to rethink not only what we create — a website, a handmade chair, a business — but also how and why we create it. Drawing on examples like Pixar, Apple, Yeo Valley and Blitz Motorcycles he encourages us to ask: how thoughtful and useful is this design? Is it something genuinely well made?

Consumed by work, constant multitasking and relentless speed, we tend to mechanize the creative process, stripping it of its aesthetic and ethical dimensions. In part, this comes from the temptation to rationalize and simplify, since noticing beauty and giving it sustained attention requires extra time and energy — resources we rarely seem to have anymore. Yet it is only by pausing, stepping back from the chaos of work and looking again at what we’ve made with a mind open to depth and discovery that we can truly feel inspired and renew our sense of purpose.

The aim of this text is to inspire readers toward growth, a more conscious creative process and a shift in focus from product to experience. At its core are the principles of sincerity, usefulness and simplicity — values through which people, creators by nature, are capable of making things that are meaningful, ambitious and lasting.