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I previously blogged about the Glimmerati, the list of talented and driven design thinkers who helped guide me through the thickets of design to write Glimmer. Well, there was a whole other group I encountered along my Glimmer journey, which was in many ways as inspiring and fascinating as the Glimmerati. These were the people I ended up calling "Basement Buckys," after that glorious futurist and designer R. Buckminster Fuller.

As the name suggests, these are people toiling away in their basements or garages designing solutions to problems that are plaguing them or someone they know. Most of the ones I profile in Glimmer may not be famous by name, but they created some wonderful products or solutions, often starting with a "glimmer moment." For instance, the Java Jacket, that now ubiquitous recycled-paper sleeve that goes around paper coffee cups? That came about because Jay Sorensen burned his fingers and dropped a cup of hot coffee in his lap one day while driving his daughter to school. It took a lot of iterations and experiments but he eventually came up with that paper holder, and now, a billion sleeves later, the rest is history. And if you see plastic pill bottles in different colors and sizes, thank Deborah Adler who caught her grandparents mistakenly taking each others' medication. She realized that all those identical brown pill bottles in the medicine cabinet made for dangerous mix-ups, and went to work redesigning them.

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They create all those brilliant devices and gadgets that change our lives. They tackle complex social challenges, from making our cities function better to reinventing our schools. They figure out what we need, often before we even know we need it. They are the "Glimmerati"--the mega-creative, world-changing designers featured in my new book Glimmer.

I didn't know all that much about design when I started researching Glimmer two years ago (for instance I had no real idea about what a sprawling, interdisciplinary topic it was). In my writing about advertising, marketing, and pop culture for places like the New York Times and Wired, though, I'd begun to realize that every time someone used the term "design" it seemed to have a different meaning. So I became obsessed with answering, for myself at least, the fundamental question, "What is design?" It's a big question and one that gets asked a lot, by designers and non-designers alike. (I eventually compiled a Top 20 list of what I thought were the best definitions, which you can read here.)

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The answer to the above question is "a lot." We can learn how to solve problems better. How to look at the world around us with a fresh eye. How to think more creatively, and ultimately, how to open up new possibilities in our lives.

These are the things that great designers do every day. But the premise in my new book Glimmer is: "You don't have to be a designer to think like one." There's a whole way of thinking used by designers, and a step-by-step process they follow, that really can be embraced by anyone-whether you're in business, out there trying to contribute to the world in some way, or if you're just looking to improve your own life.

What I found, in studying some of the world's most innovative designers, is that--in addition to being immensely talented and bright people, of course--they tend to have two big things they rely on. First, they have a certain mindset that enables them to be fearless and optimistic and open to all kinds of new possibilities. And second, they have a framework they use--a proven methodology that helps them to bring their ideas and plans to life, to get things done, and to be successful. I sort of dejargonize this methodology and give lots of examples of how it works in Glimmer.

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This week is National Design Week and Warren Berger is our guest blogger. If you have any questions for Warren Berger, add a comment to any of his posts.

Here is more information on Glimmer:

The first book to reveal how thinking like a designer can help solve the greatest challenges we face in business, society, and our daily lives.

What can we learn from the ways great designers think-and how can it improve our world? In this highly original book by journalist Warren Berger, in collaboration with celebrated designer Bruce Mau, ten groundbreaking principles of design are shown in action-addressing business, social, and personal challenges and improving the way we think, work, and live.

Glimmer takes readers on a journey through today's fascinating world of design, where the formerly distinct disciplines of graphic, product, and social design are undergoing "smart recombinations." In the cutting-edge studios of Mau and other visionaries, everything is ripe for reinvention-including the ways businesses function, children learn, and communities thrive. Designers are solving problems at an unprecedented pace today by using improved technology and the highly practical design principles described in this book, such as "Ask stupid questions," "Make hope visible," "Work the metaphor," "Embrace constraints," and "Begin anywhere." Glimmer inspires readers to apply these same principles to their own life challenges.