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Designers as leaders

By Niti Bhan - February 21, 2007

in Design Business

This is an essay written quite some time ago by Dr Richard Farson. The timelessness of Dr. Farson's message struck me as I was rereading it today so here's an introductory snippet to encourage you to go read it in full: Design is one of the few professions dominated by its clientele. Compared to physicians, attorneys, and academics, designers are inclined to do what they're told. That posture is so widely accepted among designers it sometimes seems that the only ones who can occasionally insist on having things their way are the superstars of design. [...] That is such an old story among designers that perhaps it is small wonder that designers tend not see themselves as leaders. If they have learned not to expect their professional judgements to sway clients or employers, how can they imagine leading corporations or communities, to say nothing of exercising leadership in the developing global arena? It is simply impossible for most designers to think of themselves as having a place in high councils of decision making. But that is where designers are most needed - at the top. It is a travesty that the only professionals close to the CEO's are lawyers and accountants. Designers have more to offer, because increasingly our organizations need to be design driven, not just market driven. To truly prosper, our global society must have its needs met, not just its wants. Here's the full article "Designers as Leaders" - Also worth reading is "Management by Design" where we get these few lines, But if design is everything, how can it be something special, focused, and usable for leaders? To clarify this we need one more definition: Design is the creation of form. [...] But why is form so important? The short answer: In human affairs, form rules. For example, form always wins over content. How you say something dominates what you say. A written message carries more weight than a spoken one, a printed one weightier than one that is typed, which is weightier than one handwritten, even though all the words may be identical. These are metamessages, sent by the form of the message, and they are powerful.

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Rodrigo

17 years ago

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THANK YOU FOR SHARING THE ARTICLES!
I just took the PAA to study design at CEDIM (I found the link to this page on the CEDIM main page). Hopefully I'll make it in (fingers crossed). In the mean time, I'm working in Publicity Agency at Mexico City, called "Synapsis". " Compared to physicians, attorneys, and academics, designers are inclined to do what they're told." TRUE. THAT'S the feeling I have after 2 months at Synapsis... The feeling of no freedom at all. I'm to do whatever and however the client wants me to do, no matter how stupid this is... And that has been really dissapointing. I mean, I'm not a graphic designer yet, It may be undertstandable in my case, but all of my collegues are in the same situation. Made me think "Is this all there is to it?"... But the articles made me think a lot. Maybe we're stucked (In Mexico, or Synapsis at least) with the idea that this is what a designer does. He follows orders. We ignore the GREAT impact that design has, not only on people's behavior, but also on people's ideas, moral principles, desires and feelings. Design was made for leadership. I want to be this kind of designer.

Thank you again for such inspiring articles!

Greetings!
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trendoffice

17 years ago

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Thank you! Very interesting and quite logical, but even if written long time ago, it is now that design and its role in society gets the real recognition - or may be - the necessary wide recognition.
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