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Let’s talk about design

Here is a preview of the first issue of Matteo Zaccagnino’s editorial, Top Yacht Design. Available in print and tablet format from the 8th of June 2015 . 

Design. Let’s go back to the origins of a word that has become such a part of our everyday vocabulary that it encompasses everything from cars to boats, food, fashion, consumer electronics, influencing our choices and lifestyles. Sometimes it comes to our aid when we don’t know how to describe a style, so we mutter something about design or designer. Other times, it is used out of context to bridge some a lack in a product that really is all style and no substance. The word “design” is so widely used and abused today, its original meaning might leave us a little nonplussed. Such musings set me on a path that ultimately resulted in a quarterly magazine that really does provide the kind of answers we still struggle to find about the worlds of design and yacht design because of an excess, rather than a lack, of information. Our rather ambitious aim is to strip the term back to its very origins, gently pruning away everything but its true meaning. I personally discovered that true meaning in Design, a book by Francesco Trabucco, Professor of Industrial Design at the Politecnico di Milano, who writes: “(design)… is derived from the Latin verb ‘designare’, meaning to delimit, trace and draw; hence the Italian verb ‘designare’ meaning to trace the outline of, draw, designate, indicate with precision. If used in the context of our contemporary notion of design, these two verbs open up very interesting scenarios, defining aesthetic values and meanings. So design also means taking on responsibility for the construction, the making, pieces of real life.”

Matteo Zaccagnino

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