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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.)
While I interviewed hundreds of academics, pundits, and businesspeople for Glimmer, the Glimmerati became my guides through the often insular and fragmented world of design. Articulate, creative, driven, and brilliant, the people on my Glimmerati list are there for a reason: they believe, as I now do, that design can change the world. They are applying their problem-solving skills and proven design techniques to business, social, and personal challenges, improving innumerable little corners of our world along the way. They helped me construct the 10 universal design principles that can be used by all of us, not just designers, to improve our lives.
One of my favorite phrases in Glimmer is "Progress happens by design." And the 50 or so men and women who make up my Glimmerati list are leading the way. I can't name them all here, but you can absorb their wisdom and quotes throughout Glimmer, and their short bios are listed in a separate section at the end of the book, and on my website.
Warren Berger, Glimmer, Design Week, Penguin Press, problem solving
