Abstract
The session centers on Krippendorff’s engagement with design and design analysis. After briefly revisiting Krippendorff’s experiences at Ulm, the session turns to his revival of interest in design issues in the early to mid-1980s. Particular attention is paid to Krippendorff’s collaboration with Reinhardt Butter on product semantics, including the backstory behind early publications and the idea’s reception among designers and others. His Annenberg School teaching on semantics and the social construction of reality is discussed. He recounts his 1986–1987 sabbatical at the Ohio State University, where he also worked with a design consulting firm, beginning his engagement with Phillips Eindhoven. He recounts how his interest in design led to his first serious engagement with discourse, in particular his 1998 keynote at the Society for Science of Design Studies. He discusses the overlap, and resonances, between his cybernetics work from the period and the product semantics idea. The background to the 2006 book The Semantic Turn is also discussed, including the influence of the later thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein.