The Search for Good Solutions—What Skills are Required of the Designer?

Abstract

The ‘economic imperative’ for good design is outlined and some of the issues involved in improving design performance are discussed. Positive proposals are made to this end and the question is raised immediately: is genius essential? If so, are we wasting our time in educating and training designers? Clearly such genius would be welcomed but is unlikely to be available in large measure. Thus we have to achieve an improved performance with what is available and so the emphasis is on the individual designer; the development of his creative skills and sensibilities; his ‘fitness’ for the task. The development and nurturing of such fitness can be facilitated by imaginative collaboration between industry and education but its sustenance has to be maintained by continual intellectual and creative challenge. Industry must provide the stimulus and the creative environment for this new potential to grow and be given the constant challenge necessary if it is to be fully exploited. Industry's role in this undertaking has to be taken much more seriously than hitherto.