The world is looking for a different kind of designer.
Welcome to my newsletter for designers and design lovers, only it aims to deliver the news you may not expect.
I studied industrial design, and then started working in the industry as a design editor over ten years ago. It was an exciting time, full of possibilities. But it’s shocking to think about how much the industry has changed. Back in 2016, we focused on the star designers, the art of form, we saw design as plinth in which to save the world.
Looking back on what’s gone down, the latter was a quaint sentiment.
In the moment we find ourselves, we’ve gained a lot of lessons within the first quarter of 21st century design. The iPhone’s debut in 2007 offered us infinitely new possibilities we blissfully accepted, only to find it would completely change our world in ways we couldn’t have predicted. The birth of social media gave us radically new ways to connect, but also sneaky ways to erode our self-esteem, isolate us, and even change the way many of us look. For the past few years, we’ve slowly begun to see how our pie-in-the-sky perceptions of what design had to offer might be a little more complicated than we originally thought.
At the same time the internet was changing how we view the world, the role of the designer was subtly shifting. Designers getting out of school who dreamt of building life-changing products started to see less jobs available as software and UX took a dominant hold on what investors were putting their money into. A pandemic upended the supply chain.
What began as a quiet undercurrent turned into The Great Wave. Just a few years ago, AI crept up to our doorstep, and just about surprised every person with how quickly it evolved and affected our lives. Even the person who practically invented it didn’t see it coming.
And now we find ourselves here.
Long gone is the reign of the star designer resting easy on the years of expertise under their belt, and unfortunately, a more steady pipeline for design work for just about any generation (or as I’ll likely reiterate in future issues, at least not the design work you’re used to seeing).
It’s a precarious time for the designer, but also, quite literally, an Aquarian age. The year of the Fire Horse (Side note: I don’t fully understand astrology. But I think whether you believe it or not, it feels reductive to dismiss its influence on collective psychology, culture, and business. In one way or another, it has a hold on us). A moment where everything is set to change, and the energy you bring to it has everything to do with what your future wields.
This is what motivates me to start writing in this particular moment about design. Designers need to stay up to date on the industry, but it’s a far more complicated world than when I entered it years ago. To navigate the waters deftly, our industry needs to be informed beyond perfecting form.
We saw with the pandemic the ways health, politics, and economics deeply affect our livelihoods down the road. AI shows us the world is moving forward with or without us, and we have to learn to embrace a hard stance on it not only to survive, but thrive. And we find ourselves at the head of social media turmoil, showing us, for one, that design that doesn’t thoughtfully consider psychology either becomes irrelevant, negligent, or possibly malevolent. Social media also shows us that without a story, meaning, and finding a way to stand out, an individual’s work as designer has no chance of sustaining.
Design used to be somewhat of a “heads down” profession. The world is asking for something different from us.
Creatives who are even more informed. More curious. More multidisciplinary. Designers who are not afraid to have a stance.
I want to dedicate this newsletter to that type of designer. Someone who is interested in learning more about the edges of the profession that bleed into the work and reading the tea leaves to see what’s next. The designers who are interested in bravely crossing this new frontier. It’s for the people who embrace the idea that the job is something more complicated. And that maybe that’s something promising and exciting.
Designers who better understand the world around them can not just have a seat at the table: they can move the market and lead companies. Maybe they can save the world, but it isn’t by being the hero. They are a facilitator of the collective mission to get there. The designer today has immensely helpful skills problem solving skills they can pass on to others to build better systems that make it possible to scale a more optimistic future, together.
I’ve been in design circles for a long time, but I don’t claim to be an expert on the subject. I am, however, a curious participant. I’ll use this platform to explore the news and ask real experts within the space what they think is next. All in pursuit of helping people wielding their creative powers to affect the world in a more thorough, thoughtful, and artful way.
If you’re one of those people, I hope you join me on the journey here to explore more.
More to come soon.
-Allison
Deeply Designed is a bi-weekly-to-monthly newsletter (for now) exploring the culture of design by Allison Fonder. Share it with a friend if you feel so inclined.
Something emerging in design you think deserves a highlight? Send me an email allison@deepstudies.studio
I'm ready for this conversation.