Students urged to avoid design

Over on Design Week's website, Ian Cochrane of Ticegroup an “industry heavyweight” is telling design students that the sector “does not need you”.

But don’t fear students and graduates because Mr. Cochrane has some sound advice for you ‘Look for jobs in industries that have vacancies – I mean, if you want to design restaurants, it is good to have worked in one or two’. He goes on to say ‘there are still too many people coming out of design courses, and there simply aren’t the jobs for them.’

The narrowness of this view is disappointing. It also belies a much more complex issue than pure supply and demand – a smallness of vision about design and design education.

Put another way; if every student studying English doesn’t make it into publishing, does this mean students should be urged to avoid studying English? Charles Handy (author and management guru) started out as an economist, although he left university with a classics degree, he came to see his degree has a license to learn not a license to practice. Adrian Shaughnessy writes in How to be a Designer Without Losing Your Soul that a design degree is really about “learning how to learn”. But Ian Cochrane seems firmly of the school that a design education has one function only; to deliver designers to the industry.

The design industry needs to recognise the true value of a design degree. Laura Woodroffe commented on the design week blog that the “design industry struggles to maintain its credibility when pitted against other professions. Designers often express frustration that their problem-solving abilities are not taken more seriously outside of their own profession or that the full potential of the design process is rarely appreciated by non-designers. This in turn impacts on the sector’s ability to attract a broad range of the brightest people”. The design industry and design education are two sides of the same coin and that’s what makes Ian Cochrane’s comments so disappointing. If he wants to close the doors of the design industry to the next generation – now times are getting difficult – perhaps he should bare this in mind: who is better equipped to deal with 21st century design than those steeped in the language and technologies of the 21st century?

James Corazzo, graphic design tutor, Stockport College.

Comments

[Neil Martin]

I don't believe that a design degree on its own makes you a qualified to design. I don't believe that even if you get a 1.0 at Uni that it makes you an excellent designer. It only gives you an indication of how good your opportunities can be in the future if you choose to continue with your passion - which is what it should be if you're in a third year position. I don't believe that Ian would be right in thinking that a design education only serves to deliver designers to the industry because a design education, in my opinion is not about equipping someone with the tools to design, but rather the tools to learn.

I'd also like to think that I'm not being too naive by thinking that if someone is good enough and passionate enough about whatever they're doing then they'll get a job doing that passion. There might be x amount of designers coming out of Uni all of the time, but if you're more into it than the rest of your coursemates, you've got a hell of a better chance of getting that job that according to Ian simply isn't there. I would beg to differ, however.

[James Corazzo]

Yes its interesting you use the word passion. I'd been talking to Chris from Thoughtful and he had this lovely analogy for the ideal graduate: the fire triangle, it has flames in the middle and at each point is air, heat and fuel. He places creative thinking, craft and enthusiasm at each of these points (I like the idea of the fire staying in the middle). He felt that enthusiasm was the most important (the other two being easier to teach/develop on job). We can interchange enthusiasm for passion, in this analogy, but to be honest I think niether passion nor enthusiasm quite captures it all here. But whatever you call it this will see you through the transition from graduate to designer.