Today, the English word "design" is used almost all over the world, its basic meaning being "arrangement, drawing, plan, model, pattern, or intention." Nowadays, the word covers not only "design" in its traditional meaning but the whole Iife cycie of products and human beings as well as societies, from planning, development, and manufacturing to logistics, marketing and purchasing or consuming. However, while "design" has become international and very wide in its meaning, the nuances that once existed within each culture's equivalent of "design" are disappearing, as the indigenous terms are improperly reinterpreted as translations of "design."
It is perhaps appropriate to think about basic meanings of "design" again at this conference first held in Asia where different ideas of art and design from those of Europe existed and some of them still exist. It is related not only toTheme 1"Etymology and Terminology of Design," but to all the other themes, from Theme 2 "Design Museum and Museum Design" to Theme 7 "Communication Design." Every culture has its own way of making, showing, seeing, touching, using, and understanding things and affairs.
To raise this kind of basic question is not to deny "design" or universality of the world, but to share the diversity and significance of design. Every culture has its own history and ideas of design. People have always thought about the meaning of making and creating. We hope that this conference will prompt a renewed and further growing interest in the idea of design and its related activities across time and space.