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Article: Theoretically speaking: designers are expected to take an intuitive rather than intellectual approach to design, argues David Bernstein, but logic can often make more sense.(Private View)
- Article from:
- Design Week
- Article date:
- November 27, 2003
- Author:
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THE best definition I've heard of an academic came from a lecturer at Strathclyde University: 'An academic is someone who sees something working in practice and wonders if it will work in theory.'Beneath the dismissive one-liner lay a fundamental truth: unless we learn what is at the heart of a new development, we are unlikely to build upon it. The new theory questions the old and will, in turn, be interrogated. Thus we progress. Without an academic analysis of what we are about, can advance be other than haphazard?
But a career in commerce makes me cautious when broaching this subject. Critics doubt how my trade can connect with academia or its disciplines. When ...