Week 1: What is a designer?

Lecture and reading reflection: George Thalassoudis

What is a designer?

This first lecture sought to define designer, as if to chisel the shape of a designer out of a slab of marble. Considering all the characteristics of designers and professions often associated with design Thornton delivered a refined and wholesome understanding of what a designer is and their role in broader professional/social context.

The point that resonated with me from both the lecture and Cross' The nature and nurture of design ability was the notion of the designer as a professional problem solver. Cross describes the design ability as 

"the particular ways of thinking and behaving that designers, and all of us, adopt in tackling certain kinds of problems in certain kinds of ways"

I had not previously considered the role of the designer in this way, almost as a handyman whose job is to evaluate and solve problems with a vast amount of varying experiences, techniques and tools. While I am an illustrator and came to this degree through my fascination with visual art, I do not think a visual arts degree would have suited me. I feel I am a designer because of my urge to creatively solve problems. It is always the case that the brief presented to the designer has rules and constraints - the demands of the client. What the designer has to do is to wield an enormous amount of creative energy to successfully navigate these problems - this is the challenge of the problem solver! This is what is exciting about being a designer!