When it comes to Design, everyone has their two cents to contribute.

People from other disciplines associate closely with design more than other fields may have some evolutionary traits in them.

Having spent time in the passenger seat will not help anyone truly understand what it means to be a driver as much as the ones who have sat behind the wheel. At the same time, not everyone can be a Formula1 driver just by the virtue of knowing driving, you gotta be truly driven to be in that league. It takes an insane amount of effort to be great at anything for that matter.

When it comes to design, everyone claims they get it, and the funny part is that most people claim that they understand it a little more than others around them.

Jokes apart,

‘To create' & 'to appreciate beauty' are true fundamental human natures. All of us are creative by birth. To a large extent, our schools kill our creative instincts over time. By and large, everyone still in some way or the other pursues their innate urge to create something(be it fixing things, adding value, or making something new) or chase beauty/ aesthetics. It gives us a sense of fulfilment.

But, in the modern world economics comes in between as a villain to make things complex, and that comes down to ‘careers’ as we understand them today. Some find the right harmony, some don’t

My point is that ‘Design’ as a career in these modern times has come a long way and has numerous specialisations and gazillion more nuances within. People put years of their time and effort into it to make it more than a natural urge that everyone has. It is true for every other career too. So appreciation for other careers is an important thing, but do give the respect they deserve for they may have actually done more than you may have.

Designers often face this a lot because everyone thinks they get it(for the two reasons I mentioned above). But the more you try to understand any field, the more you understand how much you do not understand. So most likely, the stronger the claim, the lesser the maturity.

One can try understanding/imagine what goes behind other jobs/careers, but you do not understand how they understand until you have travelled the same road they have travelled and the time they have spent. Be it a caretaker, an office boy, a salesperson or a founder of a business.

Fortunately, today(2022) there is an increased appreciation for different design disciplines than in the past, it has come a long way…

But still, miles to go.

Cheers,
Dhaneesh Jameson | LinkedIn | Twitter
(Product Design Leader, Filmmaker)