How we judge the meaning of cultural objects begins innocently enough: merely on one’s own taste. But upon further examination we are in fact delving into a mess of culture, sociology, economic status, and linguistic meaning. Rather than pretending I can contribute originally to this long studied topic, instead, I will examine the history and leading theories on what it is we mean when we discuss the thing we’re referring to when we use words like “taste” and “preference”.

One of the most important distinguishing factors of defining design as a practice distinct from others is the human use of judgment. Judgment takes a holistic view of all a human being’s experiences and culminates in decisions which can precede or overrule rational stepwise decision making. This is a mysterious and difficult to examine faculty that is also so critical to understanding how designers work. In this article I attempt to define judgment as it relates to design and review the best research and writing on this topic.

Perhaps the most uncomfortable fact of modern human beings is inhabiting a body. Here we critically encounter this fact as designers and examine what our modern cultural relationship to being embodied beings is.

In artistic and musical traditions, space is a critical unifying factor that separates content from the background. Here, we examine the history and use of space in creative professions.