The prelude explains the handbook’s origins, purpose, and approach. It argues that “design” deserves to be reexamined by the discipline, in the ways that its theories, methods, and understanding of fieldwork have. It situates “multidimensioning” in relation to other anthropological practices for bringing social scientific elements (such as people, places, processes, and things) and literatures together to create ethnographic projects. It concludes with advice to instructors planning to teach the handbook in various contexts.