FACING THE QUESTION ON DESIGN AESTHETICS:
THOUGHTS ON ITS FORMULATION NOWADAYS

Many time ago, Alain Findeli explained the need of developing seriously the aesthetic side of Design Philosophy (Design Issues, 1994). Then, as far as it has been approved a law in many countries of the UE to protect design components and practice in products, the aesthetic side of the whole matter is now at stake because it is also something considered objective enough to be able to protected legally. For the rest, recent innovation policies are considering design as an innovative tool not only depending on the play of appearances. It is also broadly accepted, and even it is become a boring topic, that design and a beautiful look are nowadays an important tool to give value to products, brands and services; moreover, design and its knowledge on costumer’s behaviour within everyday life should also be a tool to lead and orient a marketing centred on users. So, for many reasons, it is time that design discourse considers and to take seriously the aesthetic side and try to explain the difficulty of approaching theoretically what an Aesthetic of Design must be.