§ 0. Foreword

First off, a couple of words about the meaning of “Mandership.”

The opening sections were composed as chapters of a web design book in 1997. As early as the following year the author’s suspicion evolved into a firm belief that his inborn laziness will likely be a hurdle in completing his work by publishing it on paper. At that point this website was launched.

The project’s name changed from year to year; the website featured a subscription option, a forum and comments on sections. The original plan was writing internet articles only, but as the author’s interests were far broader than that, the “Mandership” was slowly transmuted into notes on design, the history of major inventions, interfaces, semiotics etc. In 2002 the project was rebuilt from scratch with a reshaped and amplified version opened in summer 2003. Irrelevant and old-fashioned paragraphs account for gaps in numbering, which is not to be a cause for surprise.

There is a number attached to each paragraph of each section. It is supposed to serve, on the one hand, to add narrative cohesion to the discourse, on the other—to help refer to the exact part of the text (you’ve just read the fourth paragraph of the zeroth section).

As a mirror of the author’s creed and personal standpoint, the “Mandership” is devoted to design as a way of living and thinking: in contrast to the perverse popular belief, designer does more than just roll the mouse over the mat. The designer’s craft of bringing order into chaos is meat and drink to him. Designer rules over minds and starts trends. A good designer sways people with the carrot of his art, while a bad one needs a stick to assert himself.

The “Mandership” lacks how-tos of design success. It gives food for thought, though. The ways of making use of this food are up to the reader of all this, ranging from relishing a gourmet meal with fine wine to gulping up junk snacks from a greasy bag.