About

When you define design as broadly as I do, there ends up being a lot out there you could read to learn more. I see design as a liberal art, a framing through which to view the world that emphasizes human agency, responsibility, and experience. The work of design should be to both help us make good things and judge what is good to make.

So what do you read to help build such a practice? Well, everything, I guess. Philosophy, technology, social science, architecture, urbanism, art, storytelling, biology, business, and more. Which is kind of crazy, really. But why let that stop me?

I want you to benefit from my work. This site is about recording my thoughts as I read through different sources and break down the author's ideas into notes. The selection of readings is based on my own interests and the notes are written through my own lens.

The spirit of the site is to keep things short. But, of course, I usually don't.

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I'm Norman Lau, a designer currently working in Edmonton, AB.