Summer School

Barely polemical.

By listening to the concerns and insecurities of those around me, I would conclude the profession of design is in a state of peril. Consistently, over the past few weeks and by various individuals, worry has been expressed that our ability to survive and create is severely impeded since the rise of designers is increasing at an extremely rapid pace. Within the US, some 40,000 students are currently enrolled in a 4 year design program, and 1,000,000 more are said to be enrolled in China alone. It seems that the market for designers will become ever-more saturated and the ability to find proper clients and projects increasingly difficult. Naturally, this is one possible outcome, though I welcome these thousands of new designers into the market since it will make life that much easier for quite a few working professionals today. I say this because it is clear to myself that design is not a practice of the masses, but of a specialized few.

The design industry is in a major state of flux, and while new industries shift to accomodate new roles and projects, the quality of design is not altering much. Sure, there is more small studios doing great work, though they are hardly impacting the positions of existing studios and established designers. One could look at the new blogs, studios, and portfolios of these small shops and notice that the majority of the discussion is cyclical (talking of only a few ‘hot’ studios and not at any depth) and the work is self-referential (the portfolios of these studios are all concept pieces and school projects). Clearly, these young start-ups are not dominating the professional world and stealing clients.

Observing the quality of design at a macro level (like it has been for years), and taking in the hundreds of thousands of designers working today, shows that only a very small selection is actually good design. Before I step into a world of ‘hating’, I would like to establish that there are definitely parameters of design and what constitutes good vs. bad. We all know this and must simply state that much of the design out there is definitely not cutting it (see Gap Logo re-design). I add to this with the thought that in all creative industries, fashion/architecture/interior/product/et. al, creative is lead by a select few that are able to rise above the common and execute on a progressive level.

The good news to all this is, if you are a intelligent, qualified and great designer and thinker, you will be fine. The bad news; if you are none of those things, you should be very worried since you will be competing with hundreds of thousands of other designers for the un-desired projects and clients. This profession is one of meritocracy (for the most part) and that has a way of sorting things out nicely. There is a large grey area to this ‘good’ vs. ‘not good’ application of designer, though as time increases I am confident the distinction will become more clear. As the technology and role of design in new mediums, and the influence and importance of design in business is spread, we will see this sorting occur. Those who are competent will succeed.