INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS: The system is broken, and we're pretending it isn't

I’m tired of seeing the green banner on designers profile pics.

Not because I think they need to stop advertising it. Hell, they need to scream it from the rooftops. ​ ​ I’m tired of why they have to.

Designers all over the world are getting tossed aside because someone else didn’t account for anything changing…ever apparently. Or the more likely reality, they did, and we are the insurance policy.​ ​ Every week I talk to designers who are frustrated, burnt out, or questioning their place in the industry entirely. They're not lazy, or under-skilled, and they are definitely not the problem.

They're trying to do meaningful work inside a system that treats design like a disposable item. Companies want brilliance on a budget, and then to be able to kick it to the curb at the first sign of trouble.

Meanwhile, design schools keep churning out more and more grads to stay profitable. The market’s already saturated, and they’re flooding it more.​ ​ It’s been a rough patch for a while now, and I’m sick of us pretending it’s just temporary. As if we don’t talk about it, things will magically get better. They haven’t, they won’t.

So how do we start having this dialog? How can we start to address some of these issues as a profession? Or, at the very least, how do we help the next generation understand the struggle that they are about to take on.

We owe them that.

And we owe it to ourselves to try to fix what’s broken.

———​ To bold ideas and well-crafted things,​ —Blair

​ IDI LinkedIn group → Industrial Designers International