Job Description

original art by Anthony ‘Bones’ Harrison

If you could create the ultimate job description for yourself in the design field, how would it read? If I asked this question 100 times I’d probably get 100 different answers. But the one thing I’d bet they would all have in common would be actually functioning as a designer. It sounds simplistic and like one of those things you shouldn’t have to say, right? But am I bugging out, or has this become a legitimate concern?

After working in this industry for the last 20+ years I wouldn’t call my current state confusion or dismay exactly. The feeling is more like I’m walking my path, but definitely in unknown territory. But my vertigo doesn’t come from where one might assume. It’s not that I’m scared of AI, because I’m actually pretty excited by it. It’s not that the industry has changed and I don’t know what to do, because I’m as excited about this chapter as any that I’ve experienced. So I’d like to put the ‘older dude who doesn’t get it’ nonsense to one side. I think it’s more that I find myself in such a fundamentally basic place where I’m asking questions that I never thought I’d have to. Questions like “What is the function of art / design?” The function, as I’ve understood it, has been one of visual communication. Built into that, was the idea that there was something to communicate. Slowly but surely over the last 15 years or so the function of commercial design has been vastly reduced to one that creates aesthetic executions that look slick, and could very well be called ‘good design,’ but communicate nothing. In the Orwellian words of Parsons from 1984, “Looks like meat. Tastes like meat. Isn’t meat at all”. 

I think we all feel it. I hear a constant chorus of designers lamenting about how unhappy they are and the soul-sapping nature of their jobs. The younger designers see no place for themselves in the industry at all. And while you’d assume that most of the darkness would be coming from the older designers, I cannot tell you how many teams that I have inherited where it is the younger designers who are the most jaded. Shocking! It feels like we are all just going through the motions - a pantomime of culture where nothing is communicated, nothing is received so nothing is actually felt. This complete numbing of experience and it’s effect on wider society is something I think we should take seriously. 

My last 10 years of professional work have ended up being a series of case studies about this corporate design experiment - and I think I’ve finally come to some sort of understanding. Traditionally, business understood that design held a place and a purpose in the selling of products. Even more so for the companies that actually sold Design. They needed designers because they were rooted in design. Design had a cemented role in the process. The products they created needed to be dynamic and compelling; exciting the customer enough to choose theirs over their competitors. Design played a big part in the overall function of these businesses. Departments were headed by seasoned design professionals and supported by a tiered staff whom would learn and grown into the roles above them. Each tier brought its own value. For example, the young people brought in fresh ideas that were closer to the street and older designers taught them about the nuances of composition and restraint. They all came together to create the best offering that they were capable of; one they felt captured the zeitgeist, and at the same time took steps into the future. All of this took place behind a closed door marked DESIGN or STUDIO under a time-tested and protected process that demanded strict adherence to achieve the desired outcome.

While that outcome was never a sure thing, and riding the ups-and-downs of culture was difficult, the best companies did amazing work! Much of that work is why we know them today and why they are still endlessly referenced. (Sigh). They did the things that pushed our minds forward. They made us comfortable with new technologies. They offered us new, stylish ways to live. They brought us together in ways that actually affected society. Business relied on design to keep the momentum and to create the things that they could sell year after year, strengthening and growing the company. With this as a foundation, companies have been able to grow and sell Billions of dollars of products with global reach. 

We may think it’s normal to order something today and get it the next day but this is all very new. Not even 10 years ago would we have imagined this. And it’s not just new for us, it’s new for the companies as well. It begs us to examine how the traditional design function I have just described lives in this new reality. We may get a clue as to why we our meat isn’t meat anymore and uncover some practical solutions for design as an entity going into the future. 

To the best of my recollection, somewhere around 2007 at the start of a new design season product managers (or project managers), on behalf of marketing, would approach design with what was called a ‘Design Brief’. This was a two-to-four page document initially presented as an aid. It contained consumer insights, cultural flashpoints, sales figures and sometimes, product examples. It is important to point out that having these understandings and insights was already a natural and innate part of the process for these designers and was usually what led them to the field in the first place. It was a prerequisite that you understood cultural, political and societal shifts and how they affected the work you were producing. For many, these design briefs were seen as an interference and set off alarm bells across the industry. There was a lot of discussion about how things were changing but as this was the new process we went along with it. Design was expected to work with business, but on the business’ terms. I don’t remember design having a voice or a say in how this process evolved.

As the business grew, product managers gained more prominence. Now their information was not just available to design, but was to inform design decisions. Here is where we began designing based on what’s working today, rather than creating something new for tomorrow.

Soon after that, the production department began working through marketing and would approach design with repeat ‘bodies’ to fill. This meant that instead of designing a whole collection, half of the items were dedicated to repeated silhouettes that now served as ‘blanks’. Design was asked to add new colors, graphic art and packaging to them. With that, the design job was immediately cut in half. As I joined different teams over time, graphic design was gradually separated from the other design functions, and eventually even color became its own function. Once this process took hold, business and marketing directed design. There was little room for spirited pushback or healthy discussion. Fundamental steps like experimentation and exploration were sidelined. Trend and financial targets were to be hit and any designer that didn’t abide by this system was either pushed out or became so miserable that they resigned. In design, across industries, this has become the norm. The design process is completely broken, segmented and driven by business leadership, and it looks like it. We don’t have to look too far to find the companies that we grew up with; the design leaders of our age, failing right before our eyes. 

At a time when they should be reevaluating and examining what’s gone wrong, they’ve doubled-down on their current method. As the old adage goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing while expecting different results. So I am left with one question: Why would a right-thinking person in business keep doing something that they can see is failing? At it’s core, I believe that it is a reaction to the insecurity that comes with risk. Fear. And in response to that fear, the need for more control, which is in opposition to reality. As we all know, culture cannot be controlled. According to the design process of the past, companies would insist on the best designers because they were conduits who with honed intuition, could ride the waves of culture and deliver as close to a bullseye as humanly possible. Today, why would a company need the best designers when their aim is to control culture itself? There are no cultural waves to ride, if culture is flat.

As some of you will know, I recently launched a small brand and I’m having the kind of fun with design that I haven’t had for 10 years. In the midst of this process and since launching I’ve been bombarded by ads offering AI services for marketing and sales campaigns. They include taglines like “Don’t pay high creative costs!” “Don’t pay for a designer!” “Let AI do your marketing and ads for you!” and “AI is the future of marketing!” Many of these services promise to scour the internet for successful trends and design approaches so that cold, hard numbers can inform my design. Now that sounds like a sure thing!

From here I imagine myself standing on a floating steel platform suspended in space. I am staring into an expansive black void. In the distance I see the remnants of a gutted design room filled with servers spitting out hundreds of slight variations of a sneaker silhouette that worked last season. This sneaker is itself a slight variation of a sneaker silhouette that worked the season before. I see hundreds of combinations of color and material options all piled high on the desk of a product manager who is hurriedly riffling through and picking their favorites. My blood runs cold.     

To a designer, the unsure thing is an open door to endless possibilities. It’s where the imagination begins! For business, the unsure thing is an anomaly that they want to rid themselves of. So while they mouth the words INNOVATION, and DISRUPTION, nothing lands because they are doing the exact opposite. The gathering of data has given them the false security of ‘a sure thing’. Even thought the results have proven this method faulty, the illusion of control is more seductive than facing the reality of their situation. As we all know from experience, this isn’t going anywhere good. 

There are many competent designers sitting in jobs which are at this point, better suited for AI. AI provides systematic design that move shapes, colors and typography around until it finds an aesthetically acceptable version for the company’s needs. The human touch is superfluous if success is not measured by the communication of a message to their target audience, but the creation of something that is merely visually pleasing to their target audience.

Many designers are drawn to these positions with the expectation of doing high-level, impactful work that contributes to culture; something like what they read in the job description. In time they discover that their actual job is to function as a pair of hands. This can be quite disorienting and take time to realize because many companies are not only lying to their customers, but are lying to themselves about what they actually do. While designers are held to a standard of excellence, the highly matrixed and controlled environments that they work within can only produce mediocrity. It’s a sort of on-the-job schizophrenia that has you saying one thing but doing another. This is why many of us find ourselves so miserable doing the thing that we love. 

In this scenario it is easy to feel powerless, but the truth is that design holds significant power in this equation. As we all learned through our studies, many of our art and design heroes created and came out of collectives and movements. They worked in groups to implement ideas that created big changes across the social and political landscape. They worked in groups for a reason - there is power in numbers. So whether they worked independently or for established companies, there was a bigger message imbedded in their work. But this hasn’t been the truth for us. We have all been individuals in an industry battling it out for jobs and projects, and all too willing to contort ourselves into whatever shape is demanded. And while it is true that our western culture generally champions individualism, we as designers have played an active role in where we find ourselves. We have let go of the reigns. In many companies design leadership cowers and bends when it should stand. We stay in and contribute to environments that not only damage individual designers, but the value of our entire profession. For example, many of us have agreed to work under ‘creative directors’ who aren’t even designers at all - but music producers, singers and athletes. This goes to show just how debased the practice of design has become. While this has probably been an inevitable consequence of the design industry growing along with business, I think it’s time to take a look at what’s happened to our field and our general purpose along with that growth. For those who care to, perhaps it’s time to take back some of that power and reevaluate how and where we invest our energy.

With all of this in mind, I have made a pact with myself. Either I am doing the job of a designer, or I’m not doing the job at all. To end this essay, but continue the discussion, here are some thoughts and some of the actions I have implemented for myself:

• We have based all of our understanding, processes and presentations of design on the work of the greats from decades past. But it is no exaggeration to say that we have entered a new paradigm. To that end, we have to define what a designer is today. We all need to answer this question for ourselves - What is a designer? Intentions and function included.

• Because business and people will opt for it, AI will continue to impact our industry. But AI is a tool, and like any other tool, needs a master’s hand. Use it to bend reality in your direction.

• Going smaller has its benefits. While the big boys are steering massive ocean liners, be the speed boat - nimble, efficient, fast. Use their limitations to your advantage. 

• Work with the people to the left and right of you. Join forces with like minds and use your collective weight and momentum to forge new paths. There are many examples of how this has been done in the past. Use the new tools to do the same in a way that’s fitting to this age.

• Write a manifesto. Make your intentions known!

• Ask yourself one question and don’t stop until you can answer it. How can you use your skills to benefit yourself? Technology has empowered the independent designer like never before. How might you use it?

• For those inspired to, build the companies and brands of the future today. Build a foundation while the established spaces continue to crumble under their own weight. Use all of your knowledge and experience to do it right. 

• If you see yourself more in a supporting role, lend your brilliance to the companies and organisations that you believe in. If they can’t pay a lot, string two or three together. They may not be able to pay you your full worth, but there is a unique sense of fulfillment that comes with doing a good job.