What is a designer

What is a Designer, published for the first time in French in 2011, is a book aimed at students and professionals in the fields of architecture and design. Far from being satisfied with a well-formulated question (or answer), it sets out the conditions in which design activity constitutes in itself an open question, and in which design decisions – and the artefacts that they produce – are required to admit a response on the social level. Designers will find in this work a vivid portrait of their profession, as well as an exposition of the traditions essential to the modern movement. Students and teachers, for their part, will find a very rich discussion, directly from the author's personal experience. Translated from the fourth revised edition, What is a Designer is today an essential testimony in its field. Although this text was written in 1969, the singularity of the author's point of view as well as his political positioning are still as relevant and make it a reference work for many professionals. This reissue includes the preface written by Tony Côme for the previous reissue (2018), which looks back on the career of Norman Potter, carpenter, teacher, designer, poet and anarchist activist.