How Design Makes Us Think

“…thought provoking, beautiful, and superbly created.” —Paula Scher, Partner, Pentagram

“Insightful and accessible, Sean Adams tackles design from every angle and every medium.”—Jennifer Morla, President and Creative Director, Morla Design

AIGA medalist and former AIGA National President Sean Adams visually explores design principles and theory that affect the way we think and how we behave.

Design is everywhere. It’s visceral. It’s intellectual. It’s emotional. While we often discuss the aesthetics of design, we don't always dig deeper into the ways design can overtly, or covertly, influence how we feel and act. 

In How Design Makes Us Think, AIGA award-winning graphic designer Sean Adams walks us through the power of design to attract attention and convey meaning. Through hundreds of examples across design principles, from graphic design to industrial design to architecture, Adams illustrates how design can inspire, provoke, amuse, anger, or reassure us, or subtly or consciously influence our thoughts and behavior.

The book also delves into the sociological, psychological, and historical reasons for our responses to design, offering practitioners and clients alike a new appreciation of their responsibility to create design with the best intentions. How Design Makes Us Think is an essential read for designers, educators, advertisers, psychology enthusiasts, marketing professionals, and anyone who wants to understand how the design around us makes us think, feel, and do things.

Sean Adams is the chair of graduate and undergraduate graphic design at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. An AIGA Medalist and former AIGA National President, he is coauthor of Graphic Design Rules and the author of The Designer's Dictionary of Type and The Designer's Dictionary of Color.