Design thinking has emerged as a critical skill of the 21st century. Psycho-Aesthetics is a critical design-thinking tool developed by RKS. This design handbook will show you the power of Psycho-Aesthetics (P/A) and how you can use it to conceive and bring to life new innovative technologies, brands, digital experiences, environments, and businesses; to create design solutions that remain fresh, inspired, and relative. For over forty years, I’ve been designing and innovating for start-ups, from KOR Water to some of the largest, well-known brands including Pepsi, Sharp, and Unilever. In every case, this repeatable, scalable, and universal tool has guided the RKS team to connect with the audiences it serves. Design is no longer just about winning awards and creating great portfolios—it’s much more. So often we help improve the quality of people’s lives and provide levels of self-esteem that can only be created through insights into the “self.” P/A helps us as designers connect and relate to our global audiences and their environments in ways that may be impossible by other means. Throughout this handbook, Predictable Magic, and the other reference sources, you’ll see how and why we call P/A “Advanced Design-Thinking Methodology.” It stands on some very tall shoulders: those of the psychologist Abraham Maslow and the scholar Joseph Campbell. And in taking their work to a new level, we found that we could predict the future, foster brands and markets that never existed, and create decades of success. You’ll find—as we do—that P/A will serve you as a cornerstone, as a collaborative tool to create a shared vision, and as a litmus test for design and innovation. You’ll also see how P/A provides you with a new language, with objectivity and pragmatism that non-designers can visualize, understand, and connect with. As Industrial Designers, we are no longer the unsung heroes of innovation. Design matters now more than ever as it rapidly climbs to the top of the executive priorities in business, with its ability to add competitive advantage across all industries. We’re trained to see through the smoke and mirrors, the traditions and superstitions, through all the noise, right to people’s needs and aspirations, and into their heads and hearts. We fuse technology with user experience to create new worlds and foster deep emotional connections to brands that we choose to bring into our lives. Congratulations on opening your mind to the powerful possibilities of Psycho-Aesthetics.