A Reminder from Henry Petroski

In the early '90s, I attended a design conference that had Chip Kidd as a speaker. At the time, he was a rising star, creating book covers for Alfred A. Knopf. He described his experience designing the cover for Henry Petroski's book The Pencil, which was new at the time and on the bestseller list.

As he told it, it was the classic graphic designer's nightmare -- when shown the design, Petroski said, "I used to do some typesetting and I have some suggestions..." I remember the audience groaning in empathy at these words, which was Kidd's intention. All designers have had clients who think they're the designer, sometimes giving instructions down to partial points of type size or placement.

But I thought, Geez, this is Henry Petroski! He's built his reputation on understanding how things work. He really might have something useful to say.

I thought of that moment when reading Petroski's op-ed in Friday's Pioneer Press, reprinted from the Washington Post, titled "Science Is Never Enough. Bring on the Engineers." In it, Petroski reminds us of the difference between science and engineering, and that while science is necessary in many ways, it's engineering that will make the dream of an economy based on green jobs a reality.

As Petroski wrote, "Science seeks to understand the world as it is; only engineering can change it." Thanks for the reminder, Henry.