Changing role of Designer with the Evolving role of Design

Design is a way of thinking that can be applied to almost any issue, but most importantly, to
the major societal issues faced by the world such as healthcare, poverty, climate change,
clean water and sanitation etc. Much recently, global pandemic has become a top priority
challenge for the whole world, which has paved a new way of thinking of how we should live
in this world.

Design started with designing things, objects, and then expanded to the graphics, packaging
and advertising. The field required domain knowledge and expertise in materials, softwares,
manufacturing process, tool handling and most importantly drawing, visualization and
creative thinking, storytelling, presentation skills. As the field is progressing, designers help
design spaces, experiences, policies, innovations and business models. Designers continually
expand the boundaries of the design discipline, adding new dimensions and adapting to the
changing political, economic, social and environmental circumstances. In order to respond to
the needs of the rapid changing dynamics of such factors, businesses constantly need
designers to help craft meaning, purpose and inspiration in their organizations. Design
thinking is integrated at every level of the business and not just at the product design phase.
This paradigm shift for the field of design marks a significant transformation of the roles,
skill sets and scope of the practice of design.

Some of the roles that designers are handling are:

Designer as co-creator
Designer as researcher
Designer as policy maker
Designer as social entrepreneur
Designer as facilitator
Designer as capacity builder
Designer as strategist

Both industry practise-led and academic-led initiatives should address a broad range of social
issues and explore contributions of designers in these different contexts. This involves
designers in creating products of design from the physical (building, product design etc) to
the conceptual (services, systems, but also policy and discourse on the topic). In order to
tackle societal level problems, there is a need for a diverse set of skills and knowledge of
other disciplines apart from the training in the core craft. It is the time to reflect how
designers can be trained to work with practitioners of other disciplines and acquire
knowledge and expertise of their domains. In this regard, possibilities of symbiotic
relationship between design academia and the industry should be explored and strengthened
at both the frontiers.

This symposium will inform both design education and practise about the ‘Changing role of
the Designers with the Evolving role of Design’.