The design process is gaining in importance within the context of rapidly complex technical and economical developments such as online trade, social media, and new production technologies. This is has inevitably been accompanied by highly charged social issues such as socially just manufacturing conditions, sustainable development, or the upholding of personality rights, which designers are challenged with. While the social relevance of design is indisputable, it has not been researched much. The research project Intrinsic Logic of Design looks at eight sample areas to determine the specific rationalities of the applied design methods and processes in each, based on the hypotheses that the different design areas are each based on their own logic of design production. These constitute an intrinsic logic that cannot be reduced to standardized sets of methods within the discipline, nor to established processes outside it. The decoding of the complexity of individual design processes simultaneously contributes to the further development of the formulation of design theories.