I wanted to reveal the world of "everyday brilliance".

I was the Editor of the magazine I.D. (Industrial Design) at a time when people were becoming more aware of how design was affecting their lives, and so I was fortunate to have a platform to help define the field itself. I view design as embracive. Everything we interact with, including products, tools, signage, the way we interface with machines and the whole digital technological realm, requires a designer to be the translator between ‘it’ and ‘you’.

Once we did a cover story on the making of coffee cup lids, which turned out to be extremely complex. We realized that even simple things, worth far less than a cent, can have a whole design legacy to them. I believe in recognizing anonymous designs, things that are designed by seemingly nobody and yet that we live with everyday.

The world of design is around us everywhere, and designers are aware that their decisions can have a huge impact, including on the environment. While I would never stand on a platform and say there’s no function for pure beauty, I do see more and more designers searching for opportunities to give back.

(Chee Pearlman was a participant at the Aspen Design Summit. This interview was conducted at her office in New York.)