10 Ways To Become A Designer

We need designers now more than ever. And, the world is being designed now more than ever. Take a simple example: When you drink a bottle of water, you are supporting a design practice of water extraction, bottling, business model design, product design, marketing, and even environment design by virtue of putting more demand on the production of plastic products. Take our ingestion of graphic images, also products of design, and our production of graphic images–how many photos do you upload to a social network? This act of blogging is contributing to the world of design.

What this does is makes designers of all of us. To ‘design’ means to ‘mark out’–to put a stamp on the world. But this way of designing based on the innumerable actions you take on a daily basis is a more tacit form of design.

So how do you become a designer? Here are a few tips:

1. Think Solution: Designers love to solve problems. We love to look at the world as it should be not how it is. And when we find problems, or things that just don’t look or function well, we think about ways to solve them. Designers are concerned about how designed things are being used, and whether or not they can be designed better to be used better. A designer wants to make the world a more beautiful, well functioning place. This also relates to organizational change. We see organizations stuck in ruts or approaching obsolescence and we want to provide solutions.
2. Think Iteration: A solution doesn’t just happen first step out of the gates. Design is an iterative process, meaning that it takes multiple tries (and fails) over time. So many people are afraid of failing that they won’t even try to make the first sketch–or first line. However, when you think iteratively, the pressure’s off: if the first try doesn’t work, you just keep trying. Thomas Edison’s famous statement is apropos: “I did not fail,” said Edison about the lightbulb, “I just found 10,000 ways that did not work.”
3. Think Systems: Designers often see parts in wholes and wholes in parts. We often try to understand the system we’re in, and how it all works (or doesn’t work), as part of the design process. If we see a problem, we wonder what system constraints are causing it. And when we design solutions, we look for ways the surrounding system will be impacted by it. Being a systems thinker is important for being a good designer.
4. Think Vision: Designers do not work from here to there, as manufacturers do. Instead, we work from there to here: we begin not with the current state of things, but with a better future that we envision. Then, our design process is a way of pulling the future into the here and now one iteration at a time. Great designers are great visionaries.
5. Think Different: Designers love to live outside the conventions and norms of a system or society. They are often misfits who love to play in the world of ideas. To be a designer means you’re constantly pushing your ideas outside of convention. You’re always stretching your ideas to see a better solution.
6. Think Simple: Yes, we talk about systems and complexity, but design should be simple. Some people claim you need more complexity when designing for a complex system, but I disagree: the best design is simple and intuitive. Think Helvetica as a typeface–so lucid, so simple, like air. Or consider Massimo Vignelli’s famous design of the map of the New York Subway. Good design is simple design–it is as little design as possible.
7. Think Learning: Designers are constantly learning new things. Obviously, most people are learning; but to a designer, as one who loves to play in the world of ideas and unlimited possibilities, learning is critical. If you simply look up all the numerous design processes and principles alone, you could spent many years learning how to apply them. You have to always be learning new things that will give you a better vantage point on a particular problem or give you better tools for a solution.
8. Think Risk: If you’re afraid of risking, but want to become a designer, then you need to build up your courage. Designers have to take risks. Imagine this: you are going to pitch a major company a new idea, something they’ve never thought of before. You are putting your neck on the line–what if the client rejects it? But that is the discipline. You have to be prepared to push the boundaries of convention and create things that people perhaps have never seen before or thought of before. But that’s the beauty of good design.
9. Think Documentation: A good designer documents–through photos, video, note taking and journaling. Documentation is how you keep track of ideas. Some swear by Evernote or other tools. Some don’t leave home without their pocket Moleskine and Lamy Safari. Regardless of your style, you have to document your ideas. One simple way is to carry a pocket notebook around in which you jot your ideas down as they strike your mind.
10. Think Research: Designers are always researching new trends and ideas. Apart from learning, research is important for observing the world of the future, the world of tomorrow, not just today. A good designer has one foot in the future and another in the present. And thus research is a critical activity for the designer. It is also important to research broadly and across disciplines–you never know how two or more ideas will converge.

These are some of the basics for becoming a designer. The good thing about our world today is there are many designers, they’re in high demand, and the world needs more of them.