The article describes the problem of attention increase to descriptive analysis of world design products in educational and industrial, in creative and design practice. The study revealed the rules according to which the products of designer's creative activity are formed. To address the issues of studying design and tectonics using the example of compositional analysis of design art heritage samples, which have become classic examples of international design, they provide the rationale for the terminological apparatus for its subsequent inclusion in the training system for future designers. The compositional design of architectural structures, which were the objects of imitation and inspiration for modern masters, demonstrates the visual plasticity of the wall framework movement, pronounced in the system of arcbutans and buttresses of Gothic temples, in courvatures and entasis of the ancient Greek architecture, and the tectonics of the entire structure in general. The article deals with the tectonics of furniture designs made of natural materials in the creative work of the Finnish designer Alvar Aalto. The master's works show the combination of democracy with elegance, naturalness and rationalism. The maximum prevalence of form over content is fully observed in international architecture and design, but A. Aalto's projects demonstrate the harmony between the traditions of folk architecture and the novelty of avantgarde techniques, the national traditions of architecture with flexibility and freedom of volumetric and spatial compositions.