(Ruta writes...) Designers: Born or Made – that's the question...

I am always intrigued by the very thought if designers are “born” or if are they “made”. When I say designers – I don't just mean the people who do traditional “art”. By designers, I mean people who are creative, people who innovate. These people could be designing businesses, brands, strategies and of course graphics, spaces and products. 

At times it just feels as if they “happen” ... when you see a 'perfect' design – be it a product, a space, a print, a business, a strategy or any other form of art – when its perfect – it brings with it the feeling of being natural and then they say – he is a “born” success or he is a “born” designer...

Just imagine this situation – You are in the business market and about to start your career as a designer/ branding consultant – you give out your business card or other materials to a 1000 businesses. But, you know that it is impossible to get business from each of them. You know that only about a 100 out of those will come to you. – WHICH 100?? Thats fate. 

Just look at the picture on your right – A designer approaches 6 companies/ brands to work with – big or small, near or far. The business only happens when one of the companies in return wants to hire the designer. This is fate – to get a project to work on. Be it (project) small or big, that is an opportunity. Fate has played its part and its your turn now. What happens later is the MAJOR part that decides whether or not the designer will be acclaimed as being a “born” designer. This part is the actual work. The arrow from the company to the designer is just a matter of choice, something that the designer cannot control. But, he can control the part after that – to give his best shot to the work he has got – of course he should have some talent, he must work with PASSION, put in hard-work and persistence. As Edison once said “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” – so is the case with design.

Good projects do not make great designers. But, hardworking, PASSIONATE, persistent and talented designers make any project they work on – great and end up being perceived as “born” with talent. That is why I like to say - no one is a “born” success or a “born” designer – they are outcomes of hard-work, passion, talent and persistence. 

(Ruta Writes...) Defining - Designer

At times, it is really hard to define what design is. We design (verb), we look at a great design (noun). I tend to get caught in the very notion of finding a definite and exhaustive meaning for the word DESIGN. 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines design (verb) as : ‘to create something’, ‘to devise’, prepare a design’ and design (noun) as ‘a deliberate undercover project or scheme’, the arrangement of elements or details in a product or work of art’. Nothing describes perfectly what we, designers do.  And hence it becomes even more difficult to define a ‘DESIGNER’.

I have put together some thoughts about who a designer is – though not exhaustive, it pretty much sums up who a designer is and what he does.  I feel, a designer is a person who creates. Ideally, he/she is a person who is adept at going into others shoes and be the other person – be it an engineer, a doctor, a chemist, a businessman, a consumer or just any person walking on the street and understand them – including their feelings, needs and desires, their problems, their issues about the world around them and devise methodologies and get solutions in order to make lives comfortable and interesting.  This solution could be in the form of a product, a space or an experience – it could be an improvement on the existing scenario, or be an entirely new solution. This solution would ideally be one that would solve the existing problem without creating a new one, be aesthetically pleasing and at the least, sustainable.

(Ruta Writes...) ... to tread a new path

... to tread a new path

They say that “Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.” It’s something that many of us believe! I feel that this is a saying those fatalist people who believe that all events in life are governed by fate and they are led by their destinies. Few are those gems who stride the path that no one has, seek the light in darkness that no one has ever dared to. I feel... it is not about the destination but more about the journey and the way you live it. Sometimes, it is as simple as - decide to walk and the paths start following. Imagine… one lost in an expanse of grassland of thousands of acres where no one has ever been. There is nothing but the vast spread grassland and somewhere at the horizon, the grassland meets the sky. One decides to walk to seek a human settlement. After walking for a substantial amount of time, if one turns back and sees, for once will he realize that he has marked a way of his own that people might follow. The challenge to seek new roads will be more fun than reaching the destination. One may be known only by what one has achieved and people will look just at the

outcomes. But, only one as a person will know the best parts of his journey. As a designer, I have seen that people and clients get awed by the final and finished products… but at times, I feel that the final product is not as beautiful as the inchoate idea. When designing spaces, the part of the design process where a designer can really reward himself is the creation of an incredible idea… the creation of a path, creation of the set of solutions to an issue, to a space that no one has thought of. The evolving of such an idea sets adrenaline running in a designer’s bloodstream and gives him the spirit to create more… But when such people are constrained and made to abide by some parameters, it is then that the level of the invention starts degrading.

It is very hard to find such a person who doesn’t succumb to any such impediment and prospers. As a student of design, I have listened to many people talk about hows, whats, whens and wheres of design. Most of them talk about design as a subject and a profession to which, I believe no listeners pay any heed. It is always inspiring to hear from people/ designers who not only design as a profession or as a hobby but imbibe it in themselves and make good design, a habit. 

As designers, we have to face practical constraints and come out of them. A classic and a convenient approach to address an issue would be to give out an optimum solution that well fits into the requirements and follows the constraints. But, how will it be to gaze at the solution which would be a mere factitious beauty that we have created? Thinking from a different point of view, and the changing perception of design from mere decoration to a strategic step, where a designer becomes a path director, a manager, a strategist, a economist and other endless positions, could we say that we could just not give out solutions to people but, advise them what to do and then surprise ourselves with the varied outcomes? Could this kind of a vision be translated into reality? Can we just raise people’s aspirations and leave them on their own to make them realize what they really want? Can we as designers believe in ourselves so much that we boost people’s understanding about what they really want and be sure that people accomplish their solutions? Can we just go one step ahead of optimists and be leaders who direct the masses? Can we be content just to point the way and not actually walk the path but still be able look back only to find that we have actually come a long way over the lonely grassland?