Designer of 2015 competencies
In order to fulfill the expectations placed upon designers in the future, they will need to employ a set of skills that include some beyond today’s typical scope. No single designer is likely to have all the skills required, yet this research revealed the range of competencies that a studio or design department, among its full complement of staff, will need in order to meet the demands of the future.
These competencies uncover the challenges for educational institutions, in developing curricula, and for studios, in recruiting their teams. The competencies are listed below in order of their ranked importance in the online survey:
Ability to create and develop visual response to communication problems, including understanding of hierarchy, typography, aesthetics, composition and construction of meaningful images
Ability to solve communication problems including identifying the problem, researching, analysis, solution generating, prototyping, user testing and outcome evaluation
Broad understanding of issues related to the cognitive, social, cultural, technological and economic contexts for design
Ability to respond to audience contexts recognizing physical, cognitive, cultural and social human factors that shape design decisions
Understanding of and ability to utilize tools and technology
Ability to be flexible, nimble and dynamic in practice
Management and communication skills necessary to function productively in large interdisciplinary teams and “flat” organizational structures
Understanding of how systems behave and aspects that contribute to sustainable products, strategies and practices
Ability to construct verbal arguments for solutions that address diverse users/audiences; lifespan issues; and business/organizational operations
Ability to work in a global environment with understanding of cultural preservation
Ability to collaborate productively in large interdisciplinary teams
Understanding of ethics in practice
Understanding of nested items including cause and effect; ability to develop project evaluation criteria that account for audience and context
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These competencies are required now. The overview above doesn't seem to shed any new light on the direction we are headed. This analysis seems a bit trite to me considering the starker reality, that in the real world, graphic design is becoming (if it isn't already) a marginalized commodity service to business. Most designers are implementers and makers of things. Only a handful of designers have any significant impact on their client's strategic business imperatives.
Seemingly, at the ubiquitous levels of people entering our profession at $35,000 per year, it will be hard to make a decent living practicing design in 2015. -
Couldn't agree more with Thomas Dawson's comment.
Thanks for providing for all to understand. -
The simple fact is that designers need to become more savvy in the strategy/business side of the field in order to remain relevant.
Clearly, being a 'maker' isn't going to cut it in 2009, much less 2015. -
I agree with monk. It's not just our industry that is faced with the shift from being the "maker" or the "craftsman" to becoming the "strategist" and the "innovator".
Regardless of whatever thing we've been paid to make up to this point, what we designers truly get paid for is our creativity and our ability to generate ideas.
In a flat, globalized world, there will always be someone who is able to "make a thing" cheaper and faster than someone else. But who decides what that thing should be? What it should look like? How it should function? How the intended audience experiences this "thing"?
In a word... designers.
Monk is right, thing "makers" are having a tough enough time in 2008 and will be less relevant in 2009. 2015 looks very, very grim for them by comparision.
When I first started my career in the late 80's, the "things" I created were print brochures. By the mid 90's, the "things" I created were web-based solutions. Today, the "things" I produce have a very wide range, from social networks to transactional websites to mobile applications to animated product demos.
The one consistent thread throughout that entire evolution was the understanding that my value to whomever was benefiting from my efforts had nothing to do with the type of "thing" I was creating. To be sure, it had much more to do with how well I was able to harness the skills listed above in order to produce creative solutions.
This will only accelerate in the coming years.
.chris{} -
I'm sorry but the list above is just a rehashing of everything I was told was important when I began Design School in 1998. Not surprising since I'm sure the majority of people poled for this (or those who bothered to respond to the pole), were much older than myself.
It is my opinion that the skills a good designer possesses, when harnessed and directed properly, can change the world. To me, a true 'Designer' with a capital D is quite simply, a director of change, since that is what we do. We /alter/clarify/define things. If we were utilized correctly in, say, national government and it's various offices, think of the good we could do in the fields of medical research, agriculture, education, city planning etc.
It's more about HOW we think rather than what we think ABOUT. And I completely agree with Chris on this point – in that we 'produce creative solutions.' Thus, I'm actually considering re-writing this entire thing to make a new one focussed on this outcome. I do think the world needs us to be in a different role in the coming years. -
Maybe it's because I come from a design oriented family, but as an audio professional with a background in music and sound design production, I'm rather intrigued with how these 'essential competencies' apply to my own industry. Well, of course they certainly do. Any creative marketing professional whose work or hobby includes both Adobe's design products and any given Digital Audio Workstation understands this immediately. Commercial music production and Design have always shared similarities, but perhaps now more so than ever.
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So, sounds like the consensus is we will be needing marketing degrees along with BFAs (if not MFAs) in order to stay ahead of (or rather stay in) the game??
I think the above list may not be that new, but they seem well thought out and not to be underestimated. We should only be so lucky to be able to provide all these "essential competencies", and I believe they hold more in them than at first glance. But the question is not so much the competencies of a good designer, but, as Dawson said, the "marginalization" of our industry in general. And I don't think this list is intended to really address that unfortunately, even though it is talking about the future.
I truly believe we're entering a time of more specialization, not broadening of skills.
A good designer in the 80's will be a good designer in the 15's if they are providing creative, unique, insightful and appropriate design solutions. Let's not forget, we are here to solve and communicate the clients problems, not further our own agendas and "change the world". Not every client wants to reinvent the wheel, nor needs to. Can you remember the last client you had that wanted something really NEW?...Only to turn right around and want to follow the heard. :\
I like idealists, but if we are to be more practical about this, I believe a good designer is hard enough to come by, then to also expect them to be marketing strategists as well. This is where a team comes in, and we can't all be a team. So what then? We can not be all things to all people. So stick with what you do best, network and improve your skills and keep questioning and learning, that's how you stay relevent. But is the industry changing so much that this no longer matters?
Bottom line... We sell ideas and solutions, and that's getting harder to do.
It's getting very difficult to convince potential clients of the value of our services, especially with the advent of the internet and cheap design to be had everywhere. I'd like to hear more about the impact of the "$200 logo sites" on our industry. -
As an educator at the Art Institute I found the blog here of comments in regards to a designers competencies not with our current times. The one that stands out the most is the idea that a designer most know the world and very knowledgeable of the many cultures. Being able to understand the globalization of the broad range of audiences and how the internet has made it possible for the consumer to develop niche groups.
The industry needs change in the direction of creating the design practice valued by business and consumers because we that are in the industry that have developed design talent must be recognized as people before us like Saul Bass that created relevant work. However he even points out in an interview that he certainly didn’t get rich by being in the business and it is a matter of work. Like Milton Glaser states on his studio door that “Art is work.”
As an educator, I worry about the times ahead and the students futures in this economy. Graduating with a $68, 000 dollar loan to payback upon graduation is not in line with the pay scale. I think AIGA needs to start talking and supporters in the industry need to start diplomatically foring the industry to change. I for one take the passion for being in the business for over a decade to educate my students of how to charge for the creative services by utilizing the Graphic Artists Guild handbook that publishes the fees for the industry every year.
The digital age has made it very easy for business to employ there project managers, assistants an or marketing sales executive to prepare artwork for marketing programs internally when this person has absolutely no training or education. Apple computer company has created templates that are designed by designers to create brochures, calendars and sell sheets in iworks. This is degrading our industry along with all of the royalty free websites. The websites that offer free vector art which my students utilize on a continual basis. The one thing that I say is a must is for students to understand the creative process and to engage the students to develop ideas to problem solve. So I will agree with Valerie in that we keep learning and be worthy of an industry that can be very rewarding even in today’s modern world. We are faced with many challenges today for work, however I do see myself as I am studying towards my masters and working on my thesis that I must bring in my mix of knowledge to create telling a story that is produced in video or flash. The advertising world has moved to online world that is in motion—literally.
The strategic thinker that can talk strategy and be passionate about the clients needs will be a designer that is sought after more over those that graduate with a book that is not tight with typographic cleverness with strong message.
The number of jobs in Los Angeles today is 68 for every 1000! Astonishing number and we have to understand that not just our industry is part of the urban change that we must start to pull back and say YES i will provide three ideas for $$$. Yes ideas with tight design that speaks a product or service. Hope my students read this, because I want them to succeed in this market.
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