Non-designers Not Welcome

Should the design profession be closed to those who do not go to design school?

I occasionally get the chance to sit down and discuss a variety of topics with a group of designers, artists, architects, writers and business people based in Tokyo. During one such recent meeting, one member (a designer) suggested that people who have not studied design ‘should not be allowed to become designers’, a comment which raised a few eyebrows in the group. When questioned as to whether or not that would include artists and architects, he was emphatic, saying ‘of course’. In fact, he went on to claim, the basic premise should extend to every job and profession - especially creative ones.

As I was one of only two people in the group to come from a non-design background (I studied law, another member studied business), I was asked how I would feel if ‘a person who studied design suddenly decided to practice as a lawyer.’ Despite this being a practical impossibility, I pointed out that many people from different disciplines do in fact become lawyers and I was perfectly fine with it. Another member interjected to suggest that people are not born with an ability to recite legal rules, but that such knowledge comes only through many hours of study, while on the other hand, many people are indeed born with a certain talent or flair for being creative. Formal study may polish this talent, but it was not a prerequisite for being creative.

The designer - a young Japanese man who graduated from a prestigious design university in the United States - seemed to view designers (and artists, etc.) with no formal training or education in the field as impostors or ‘fraudsters’ as they were, in many cases, ‘charging people for services that they were not qualified to perform.’ This, naturally, would include the likes of Tadao Ando, along with many artists, photographers, illustrators, designers and writers - not to mention the majority of popular music artists. Taken to extremes, his theory would mean that all athletes would be required to study sports science, musicians would have to graduate from music universities and all writers would have to study literature. My own feeling is that this would deny us access to some great talent and would make the creative professions even more elitist than they already are. It would, of course, mean that professional sports would look very, very different.

I can see how he may be annoyed about the fact that he has studied design for many years and yet finds himself competing with people who have not been to design schools, but others argued - and I concurred - that his training and ability should mean his work would stand out as superior, therefore he has no need to worry.

This raises questions about what design represents; is it merely a matter of aesthetics or is it something much deeper? I’m sure it means many things to many people, but should we exclude people with creative ability if they lack formal training?Should we allow designers to dictate who gets to make nice things? Are some designers, as the title of one book suggests, simply wankers? Should it matter what your background is if people like the work you produce? I like to think not. Let talent and creativity shine, regardless of background. +

- RK.

Comments

[Darin]

That's an interesting idea he presents there.

I go to design school in Japan as an American, and a lot of the students around me seem to think that because they are at this school, they can design, and those who are not, can not. So I don't think this guy is alone.

However I wish he would have gone to school here in Japan because he would have been very quickly slapped upside the head by his 80 year old Japanese professor who would say, "You absolutely can not design at all -- that's why you are here. If you could design, you'd already have a job and we'd be learning from you, instead, you're learning from those of us who can."

If it was still okay to beat students in America, I would assume his teachers would have done the same.

[Richard K]

It certainly is interesting and I'd like to look into it further. I wish you could have been there, Darin, it would be good to have heard from an American studying here in Japan.

[D.D. Kleefstra]

So according to this member even, let's say, Mies van der Rohe didn't earn the right to be a designer/architect?

Isn't he just envious that he had to spent many years of study and thousands of dollars on education and perhaps still not be half the designer some of us, having been born with a talent, are from the start?

How can somebody who is so narrow minded be creative anyway?

[Richard K]

My sentiments exactly.