Design. Is it the doughnut or the hole?

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While contemplating the etymology of design and all the implications that come with it, I found myself taking what I took to be the main point or even the "moral" of Michael Bierut's essay: "Warning, May Contain Non-Design Content," and applying it to a more familiar scenario I think we all can relate with. Bierut explains that not everything is design but Rather design is about everything. Furthermore, he says that we as designers do our best work when it is related to something we are at least  interested if not passionate about. So I took this concept and applied it to something as American as Homer Simpson. The doughnut. And so I ask you, my fellow creative/critical thinkers. Is design the doughnut or the hole? One might argue it is the doughnut with it's shiny glaze or colorful sprinkles that appeals to several of our senses and invokes desire. Is that not the essence of design? We want our designs to appeal to people so we can get their attention and send our message weather its buy me, read me, or eat me.  One may also argue that design is better translated through the unique design of the doughnut's form. It is the hole in a round piece of bread that defines the doughnut, and sets it apart from other rolls and pastries.  The images at the top are the same black circle only one has a hole in the middle. The one on the left could translate to many as a variety of things. The one on the right however, would get recognized by many as a doughnut.  As designers we want our designs to define the product so people get familiar and comfortable with them. Band-Aids and Q-tips are just sticky bandages and cotton swabs but design has made these terms synonymous with their labels.
I'd  say there is enough evidence to prove that design is both the doughnut AND the hole. Just as a words typeface can have as much of an impact on our emotions through the way they rest on our eyes as the words themselves emotionally move us by the way they rest in our minds, so does the doughnut accomplish our desire through it's decoration and it's iconic shape. Design is meant to impact the masses in appealing to the senses with the goal of some improvement on life. This can be achieved through endless mediums, be it metal or plastic, doughnut or Twinky.