1. "Aesthetics: the designers' term

The aesthetic taste of the individual has, since the dawn of time, been a subject of discussion and polemic among men. Philosophers and art critics have always debated the nature of beauty and concepts of aesthetics. For designers, aesthetics remains a primordial question of fact, but one that, for most of them, remains implicit. Acknowledged as a key issue in product design, taste and aesthetic judgment (what pleases and what doesn't) are still difficult elements to master, which points to the need for knowledge and support tools dedicated to industrial design.

Let's be clear from the outset, then, that it is not our intention to take art criticism in this direction, for a number of reasons. Firstly, because design refers to products, not works of art, and therefore differs from the "fine arts". Secondly, because our orientation is as much analytical as conceptual,...