I hear this sound all the time, it’s the sound of design gasping for breath in the midst of our very own heyday. We designers do a lot of complaining, mostly about bad design that “other” people do, and how woefully misunderstood our profession is. Here, then, are three reasons why you hear us sucking, only one of which matters. The first has to do with the proliferation of hacks who misrepresent design as an accomplished profession, the second with clients and the third with so-called professional designers.
First, we live and work in a market economy. Good or bad, talented or not, everyone has a right to make a buck. There are builders that suck and lawyers that suck and politicians that suck and teachers that suck. In each example there are also professionals who have a passionate attraction to their field of practice. For “designers” who are simply in it to make a buck, it sucks that they now have their own category on eBay, but its fact of life that’s hard to fault.
Second, so many of our clients are ignorant when it comes to design. Now, ignorance seems like a strong word, but I mean it literally and without obloquy. Clients, by and large, are simply unfamiliar with design as a discipline. They don’t know how to buy it, how to recognize good from bad, how to participate effectively in the process, etc. Some professions are revered enough that clients put total faith in their practitioner - these are the doctors, lawyers and educators of this world. We know that they have skills that we do not, and we rely upon their judgment where we lack the credentials to judge for ourselves. In design the stakes are less empirical. We substitute the values of taste or style for those of knowledge or judgment. Beyond simple common sense, there is little way for many clients to make meaningful distinctions among prospective designers, and so they are often left to the one criterion they do know something about, and that is price. We all know how much that sucks.
However, that non-designers often lack the skills to critically evaluate design is not an indictment of them, but rather of us, which leads me to my third and mercifully final point:
Designers are the problem. In our profession there are simply no standards. Pricing, process, standards of professional practice and ethics, educational curricula and even our professional lexicon are all wildly variable. It is no wonder that those outside the profession are confounded by what it is we do, we have failed in our most basic task - to communicate effectively even the nature of our business. And we have failed at all levels.
Are MBA candidates being educated in the role and value of design? Do design conferences reach out to include the business community? Do competitions include CEOs or marketing professionals on their judging panels? The answer in most cases is a resounding no. As a group, designers insulate themselves from the working world, an act that removes us further from a position of influence and understanding. So that sound you hear sucking is us. It’s the sound of air rushing in to fill the void left by our own negligence while we complain loudly, but amongst ourselves.
Christopher C.H. Simmons
President, AIGA San Francisco
First of all, I agree with everything you said, and how you've characterized the general malaise.
But, my impression is that in general, lots of designers are happy with being insular and negligent.
And many don't see the need to formalize the communication of the nature of our business. Conceding to business practice alone would mean resigning the artisté designer.
Not to mention the fact that AIGA represents all that is expensive and unholy to the disenchanted mass.
So.
How do you first establish a unified voice among a group that is so prone towards anti-establishment? How do you cut through the petty attitudes and insecurities surrounding legitimizing (ie. defining, accrediting, representing) what we do as a profession?
I think that's where the roadblock lies first.
On Jul.19.2004 at 06:05 PM