The Flight Mode

“designers should focus on being good teammates rather than leaders. Worrying too much about whether design has enough influence over a product or a company distracts from the real vision: making great products that solve people’s problems” (John Maeda)

https://www.fastcompany.com/90320120/john-maeda-in-reality-design-is-not-that-important

Undoubtedly designers have seen how the discipline has evolved along these years and in parallel to how society has been ‘evolving’.  As it's natural, when evolution occurs, we end up with -at least- 3 roles:  The old, the transition, and the new.

-  The old has been well described by Maeda, “Beautiful industrial design means nothing when paired with poor engineering”

-  The transition involves designers who are investigating what else is out there, what other tools and skills can be adopted.  Design that understands its humanized function, the so hipped term ‘Human-Centered Design’

-  The new resides in the academies, in all new creatives who are facing new challenges and experimenting with new environments to understand ways to generate a positive change.

But neither an old, transition or new design should be detached from social value.  And to be social implies a) Face a community in the search for solutions, and b) Bring a multidisciplinary team who, understanding the root problem, produce these solutions without any particular discipline ego.

Who is in your team nowadays?

What role are you playing in your team?