Foundation Design Education is a basic or introductory course in modern design education that introduces the fundamentals of design to students. It comprises the first year of a four-year, all-exclusive design educational programme after a high-school education. It includes an introduction to basic skills, theories, design-thinking processes, human needs, and much more. The downside, however, is the focus on skills, which outweighs all else in the current Foundation Design Education courses. This study proposes that an emphasis on understanding the self for the designer and the self-other relationship in foundation design education could highly enrich design education. Central to the study is the humanistic concern that needs to be woven into the fabric of foundation design education. The study begins by attempting to examine the explicit acknowledgement of the self and the self-other in disciplines other than design and attempts to draw parallels in design education. The study also seeks to comprehend Foundation Design Education as it has been developed and practised in some of the world's leading institutions for modern design education, including the Staatliches Bauhaus Design School (Bauhaus) and the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) School of Design, Ulm. The study of the Bauhaus Foundation Program revealed that there was undoubtedly a concern for the New Man in a new technological society, a humanistic concern. A series of interviews was subsequently conducted to discern the humanistic abilities that students needed to develop for a foundational design education. Some of the abilities that emerged from this investigation were: the ability to engage in holistic thinking; the ability to make a positive change; the ability to respond to real problems; the ability to research and imagine the future; the ability to engage in the processes of introspection of the self and extrospection with others. Introspection is one of the most obvious components of our unique human consciousness and sentience. The key concerns expressed by design educators in the interviews underlined the importance of a set of abilities that are critical for these students. These abilities are intended to be developed through assignments. The thesis proposes that an understanding of the notion of self for the designer and the self-other relationship can possibly lead to problem-solving methods that are more humanistic in their response to contemporary issues. A notion of the self sensitises the designer in a holistic manner, reinforcing the ability to observe, empathize, and facilitate preferred changes that pervade preconceived existing perspectives through the exploration of sustainable solutions in ecosystems. The thesis proposes that a suitably modulated foundation design education can enrich the programme. In conclusion, the study suggests that a better understanding of the notion of the self and the self-other relationship in foundational design education can possibly lead to design processes and methods that are responsive to the problems, issues, and needs of present times.