Using words is a form of design. Writing and reading have a huge role to play in making life better.

Packaging is ubiquitous. For something so short-lived it nonetheless has an important job and consumes a lot of resources. In this episode, Kevin Drayton looks at the design and lifecycle of packaging, particularly relevant with the surge in internet shopping and concern with recycling and plastics.

What is your relationship with packaging? Have you a considered attitude to the stuff or is it just an inevitable part of consumer culture?

Design often asks us to reconcile what initially may seem to be antithetical requirements. Architecture in particular needs to blend art and science, intuition and analysis, emotion and logic. But the proposition holds true in all design to varying degrees.

In this episode Kevin Drayton references E M Forster's much-quoted line: "Only connect the prose and the passion" as shorthand for this aspect of design

What criteria are used now, and have been used in the past, to judge design? Do these vary from one sector of design to another, or are they universally applicable?

Design can mean different things to different people. Here Kevin Drayton sets out what he means by design and sets the agenda for future episodes.

Whether we realise it or not, we are all designers of one kind or another!