Design Research Pioneer Josef Albers: a case for design research

Abstract

A lot of design has happened since Josef Albers produced his massive work Interaction of Color in 1963 (Albers, 1963). Communication design has grown from a toddling discipline full of confidence to an adolescent exploring new territory. Albers' color teaching in design school, articulated 52 years ago just as Graphic Design was emerging as a professional discipline, had a formative influence that has been as widespread as it continues to be lasting. Today, as design research is becoming normative in practice, this article revisits Albers not for his teaching, which is well understood, nor for his art, which is famous, but for his research. Josef Albers can be viewed as a pioneering design researcher of the first order and Interaction of Color can be read as the one of the earliest published records of a body of design research and principles derived from it. In this light, Albers' work might be worthy of emulation in its focus on a key topic explored through sustained, systematic, empirical study that produced generalizable knowledge and kept practice before theory. The article observes that design, far from building on Albers' research legacy, has largely failed to produce works of similar quality or influence to his groundbreaking work 50 years ago.