Design Education: The New Deal

Christian Guellerin Tans. by Chen Xin

Two pillars in a shattered context: globalized world and faltering capitalism

The world has become “global,” enhanced means of communication and transportation have made it accessible to all as a whole, in its“global” dimension. A language – a type of English-based gibberish,a pidgin – has made it intelligible. If this trend paves the way to more freedom, then we should see it as fruitful. If this trend helps people reach a better understanding of the Others, accept their dif f erences and learn from their culture, then we should rejoice over it.

Economically speaking, in Western countries globalization marked the end of the industrial era that began in the mid-nineteenth century. Means of production are now being redistributed according to new patterns. Today workforce-based industries are being relocated in China and in India; tomorrow they may even start settling in lower-production-cost countries of f ering better prof i t margins. Benef i ts and prof i t margins are capitalism’s mainspring.The ongoing worldwide wealth redistribution is bound to happen /unavoidable. Entire sectors of the traditional industry are currently collapsing in Western countries. GM and Ford, worldwide symbols of the jubilant industrialization and Welfare society are undergoing great upheavals.

The well-known “assembly line” that engineers have strived to“rationalize” over time may soon reach the end of the line. “Total quality” policies have only sped up their decline process. These policies contributed to the advent of cost management, to gradually making it impossible to veer – however slightly – from the process agreed upon, to annihilating all creative potential and ultimately to place the industry in the hands of low-cost labor developing countries. For 150 years the sole concern of the most industrialized countries has been to keep becoming better and better at what they already knew how to do. But in a globalized world where competition fails to be ruled by fair practices, there is no point in improving one’s know-how ad nauseam. There is no reason why the Chinese shouldn’t do as good as we do with lesser means.

Some countries – such as the United Kingdom – anticipated the late-century industrial chaos by turning their back on their factories to favor the tertiary and f i nancial sectors. Finance-based logics according to which money only serves f i nancial interests without any wealth-sharing, has led the world to a terribly harmful crisis whose yet unknown aftermaths will probably be disastrous. The pound –a deeply ingrained symbol of the City – is now walking on shaky ground.

We are now coming to the bitter awareness that capitalism, this great wealth-generating economic system is, in fact and by essence totally devoid of ethical values. Because States failed to keep a strong hold on it and in the name of a liberalism too often mistaken for liberty,capitalism has solely enabled a bunch of happy few to get richer,leaving a vast majority of consumers out in the cold, frowning in frustration at not being invited to join the bountiful feast.

Capitalism must be rethought anew. State governments must reclaim their role in taming it and share the generated wealth so as to gradually f i ll in the gap between nations based on dif f erent societal models. Economies must strive in the service of Humankind and cease to promote the sole f i nancial interests.

Two economic opportunities to seize: green economy and social networks

Our planet is in jeopardy. Therefore we must lay new foundations for new production and consumption patterns to spread out. But will Humankind and science manage to do so? Looks doubtful… Never has the world population been so concerned with climate change and environmental hazards, yet never have marketers sold as many fourwheel-drive cars to meet consumer needs. Faced with such a paradox we must admit that ethical values and virtuousness def i nitely do not belong to the marketing jargon.

Though by essence capitalism is far from being ethical though we must not buy into ethical marketing, we must nonetheless endeavor to make green economy into a major tool to shape the new industrial and commercial patterns to come. If it proves hard to believe in the moral nature of human beings in the face of environmental issues, to compensate for non-existing ethics, taking an environment-friendly stance could be extremely benef i cial to economies all over the world.The re-industrialization of the world will not happen without our coming to awareness of the benef i ts inherent in green economy in the name of ethics, of course, but f i rst and foremost in the name of interest.

Green economy is a tremendous source of prof i t and thereby it could heal the planet.

Besides – as freedom-threatening as it may seem in the long run –a newly emerged sociological trend is gradually shaking our way of perceiving vital space and doting it with new meaning. Becoming part of a network is a means to tighten and create bonds at a time when globalization jeopardizes close relationships with our neighbors. On the economical level, networks lie at the core of a new approach to marketing in which the market and related needs would no longer be needs per se but would be willingly generated,conceived and shaped just like industrial products. Then the market would not be taken into consideration after production but generated prior to production. This kind of marketing stemming from a technical and scientif i c approach to information could be totally overlooked by market-engrossed marketers. However the ref l ection upon social networks – how they are conceived and used – will never be disregarded by designers, always on the look-out for new trends.

Design, a strategic discipline in tune with the major socioeconomical issues

So what role should design take on? Should we expect engineers to launch and drive the new industrial revolution Western countries have long been hoping for. Should we expect marketers to re-invent markets? Nothing is less certain because, to them, market trends mirror consumer needs. They take an overwhelming importance,thus totally putting the creative process aside.

Design and designers might take on a strategic position within companies bound to develop and grow bigger. To cope with the oncoming industrial turmoil to come many of those companies are going to have to adjust, evolve and veer towards new working methods. With globalization the era of total quality has been supplanted by creative and innovation-oriented approaches to industrial production: The era of total quality has come to an end, overthrown by creation and innovation-oriented approaches concerned with socio-economic issues. Now one cannot keep“improving and further what one already knows how to do” but rather “do something new by generating unknown matter from already known matter so as to create new, sustainable and large-scale situations.” This is how we should rethink the industrial paradigms in which Western economies now faced with globalization are rooted.However, should the automobile industry ask what they can do with their expertise for products other than cars, it would then be urgent to call on to designers.

The know-how of the car industry is focused primarily on engine technology explosion, the organization of the assembly line and particularly powerful distribution networks: “What can be done with this if it is not to make automobiles?

This is the only question that the leaders of General Motors and Renault, to whom one has lent billions of dollars or Euros, should ask themselves.

Designers are the innovation-oriented craftsmen whose duty it is to rethink the future of companies and the capitalism of tomorrow.Apple*’s tremendous success lies in its making creative skills a longterm and recurrent asset for the company, in its ability to become one of the leading online-music sellers at a time when engineers mistake it for a mere computer manufacturer.

Industrial societies are going to have to come out of the industrial branches in which they have been locked up for so long, and learn to do something else. This revolution is not to be triggered by engineers nor marketers, this revolution belongs to designers. The only companies that will live on are those that will prove able to switch from a working method and a profession to another, thus ceaselessly creating their own history. Acting as true pivotal stones designers will lie at the core of these ef f orts to keep mutating, to keep changing profession on a continuing basis by following a management-based organization and building new methods to take new strategic stances so as to generate and handle the much-needed change.

Design is by essence a human-centered discipline aiming to make tomorrow better. Conceiving products, packaging, creating the layout of spaces, displaying images are meaningless unless – like all creative initiatives – are centered upon Mankind and usage and one strives to infuse visions of tomorrow with images of progress.

Designers are the mainstays and initiators of eco-conceptionrelated issues within companies. They must make sure to convince their co-workers within companies that eco-conception is a vital process. Because as soon as eco-conception initiatives will take on an economic dimension, green economy will automatically start soaring and become a prevalent concern for companies willing to keep up to date. Designers are the key f i gures of a new type of marketing applied to sustainable and ethical eco-design that will help meeting consumer needs and improving usage.

Tremendous evolution of training courses in design: workbased education brought to the fore.Here is a question education institutions should def i nitely strive to answer: how can we make sure graduates who gained technical training in design schools manage to become “managers” and/or“strategists” f i t for all the challenges modern societies and companies are faced with on a daily basis?

Here is a question that should be addressed to institutions teaching design: how can we make sure that designers attending a technical training at design schools become “managers” and/or “strategists”with an educational background that meets the requirements of a company and equips them with suffi cient skills to take up the challenges the f i rm is faced with?

Should designers lag behind as mere technicians in the creative fi eld and keep letting engineers and marketing specialists overtake them and f i ll the positions of strategic innovation departments or product development managers? Or don’t they nowadays have the opportunity to fulf i ll executive management duties commensurate with their skills, their talent, their culture and peculiar vision of tomorrow’s world: a user-centered world where humankind lies at the heart of all economically oriented ref l ection.

The training mission assigned to design schools has greatly evolved.They no longer aim at educating merely creative technicians but at training professionals in the creative f i eld. Much is at stake here and the answer proposed by schools has an important impact on the future of the profession, of companies, of the economy and even on our society’s future – since it is the designer’s vocation to f i nd answers for it.

Design schools have always strived to train creative professionals acknowledged for their abilities to invent new shapes, new products,to f i nd new solutions with regards to processes, materials and/or services. Good designers are, above all, recognized as such for their ability to create.

This is what other people – society in general or professionals such as engineers, marketing specialists, managing directors etc. – expect them to do: to come up with ideas no one had ever thought of…This image of the designer – a creative, slightly deviant professional entrusted with the mission to shake up business executives and society as a whole – has been conveyed by all designers and all schools. Indeed, this “expected deviance” is claimed by creative professionals as part of their know-how, as a certain trademark.Schools and design students quite easily agree that the revelation of creative skills could have a praiseworthy and gratifying impact…

However, in doing so, they fail to take into account many aspects that now hinder and delay the acknowledgement of their work within companies and lessen their chances to climb the hierarchical ladder..Today design schools propose curriculums that have evolved a lot:Design schools have realized that students in design must be introduced to the industrial and economic f i elds during their training courses. They no longer solely focus upon talent, technique and know-how but now evaluate the social and economical relevance of student projects and the students’ ability to enter the job market.More and more emphasis is put on management skills required for teamwork and the ability to work as part of a team. This type of skills had been overlooked too long by design schools where the sole individual talent was taken into account. Because of this, instead of being shared and showcased ideas and newly created items have been kept like a buried treasure. When dealing with creations aimed at improving the world we should make sure the largest possible amount of people can actually take advantage of it.

Communication has now become an essential criterion in evaluating the relevance of students’ output. As obvious as it may seem, this proposal has never been taken seriously, as though creation was suffi cient unto itself.

Design schools have opened up to other disciplines so that the work of their students can be evaluated by a many-sided audience.Methods inherited from the Applied Arts tradition, based on a onesided relationship between omniscient Masters and supposedly unenlightened apprentices entailed an in-breeding process that has long prevented the discipline from gaining recognition and ground.Today schools endeavor to create diverse, mixed juries that bring together decision-makers, scientists and experts with all kinds of backgrounds.

Education in design schools has greatly evolved. It now increasingly encompasses the dif f erent elements I have just mentioned. In most institutions studies are increasingly opening up to the job market;multi-disciplinary teaching teams have been created and teamwork has been encouraged. Design institutions now set up links with business and engineering schools. Students learn to work with others. Companies are involved in many projects, students carry out internships and some schools now require students to put their knowledge into practice during a long-term internship so as to promote professional relations between schools and companies. A designer’s degree no longer simply validates the technical knowhow or mere skills but also the ability to f i nd a suitable work position and to engage into a fulf i lling career. Talent revelation and creativity are no longer a goal but a means, a sine qua non, a prerequisite to success.

But a lot remains yet to be done. To make design into a management discipline, we must transform the designer into a manager, a project manager, someone able to lead, to communicate, to impress. The mere ability to create is no longer suffi cient. If designers keep claiming their dif f erence and creative marginality, they run the risk of being reduced to this single feature and are likely to become suspicious for people who could possibly entrust them with other responsibilities. They must get out of their offi ces and share their ideas. One of the major challenges for design institutions to take up will be to provide students in design with enough management knowledge and self-assurance to aim for management-oriented once their talent is acknowledged within companies after they make use of their technical skills for a few years. In-house designers at age 25,what positions will they take up at age 35 or 45?

Thanks to their transversal culture, designers now qualify for team leader positions within companies in the creative fi elds. Why should the positions of product development managers in innovating fi rms only be coveted by business school graduates? Why should only engineers be hired as research and development managers?Besides, in order to transform design into a strategic discipline –which it is by essence – designers must stop refraining themselves from reaching top executive positions.

The strength of engineering schools lies in that engineers have never excluded the possibility of becoming top executives. Why, then,should designers not strive for the same? All the more as they are dealing on a daily basis with crucial issues centered on humankind,usage and progress. All of those necessarily require skills to become a “manager” whose pro fi tability will reach far beyond the mere fi nancial sphere, an “ecological executive”, so to speak.

The need to adapt curriculums to a shifting context All higher education institutions are soon going to have to cope with major development-related issues, namely:

Strengthening the winning triumvirate “research – education –business” shaping their curriculums. If obviously most schools now favor work-based curriculums, there is still a lot to be done to organize research and knowledge production activities in coherence with social and economic. “Research in design” raises many interrogations thus giving researchers much food for thought.But it often amounts to conducting research about what “research in design” could be. Of course, such a mise en abyme is far from being effi cient or serious. Nonetheless institutions must imperatively voice their opinions about this issue so as to improve the quality of their outputs. Along the same line the bond between education institutions and their industrial partners should be redef i ned and clarif i ed: schools can no longer stand to be substituted for agencies.“Incubation centers” – where new projects will be hatched – must be implemented. Moreover, like engineering schools, design schools must evolve into “innovation centers.”

Giving a true international dimension to curriculums. The signing of the Bologna Treaty which lays the foundation of a worldwide organization of higher education curriculums around Bachelor’s,Master’s and PhD’s will probably result in students pursuing their Bachelor’s in their native country and their Master’s Degree abroad.Master’s Degrees in design are but a budding initiative for now. Only the most competitive Master’s Degrees – complying with the winning triumvirate “research–education–business” will attract foreign students.

As schools gradually begin to organize their training courses around“socio-economical themes,” cross-disciplining and versatile skills will undoubtedly be brought to the fore. The former segmentation framing design education according to traditional categories such as product design, interior architecture, graphic design, and multimedia is going to be shattered to pieces, giving way to a more global-scoped practice of design. Moreover this new segmentation will also tighten the bond between engineering schools and business schools through jointly run curriculums. Because design is a technical activity fundamentally grounded in graphic representation and handcraft no other training course will be in a position to claim to be able to train operational designers in a few weeks time. Merging design education with other training courses could result in depreciating the very jobtitle “designer” because this label would be used to refer to activities other than design. A true designer is a professional who masters specif i c skills and a very unique technical know-how.

Education institutions are also going to implement exemplary sustainable development policies. The recent signing of the Cumulus Kyoto Declaration by all Cumulus Network member schools shows how committed institutions and designers are. Schools must strive to grow into some kinds of idea labs where projects would be conducted with a view to setting up a conception-based marketing to be implemented prior to any market creation.

To f i nish with I would say that there are two ways to consider globalization and the emergence of newly industrialized countries.The f i rst point of view equates challenging and questioning our whole economic system; it has resulted in a bottomless economic crisis. The second one opens up doors to new gigantic markets.Today all designers must busy themselves with adapting products to the Chinese, Indian, Brazilian markets… This opportunity will probably trigger new ref l ections about identity issues and how to make a dif f erence. In this overwhelming global market where cultural standardization based on a shared bastardized lingua franca looms on the horizon, the identity of creation takes on a revolutionary depth. Economically and socially speaking designers must strive to make sense out of dif f erences, because dif f erences are what makes Humankind so complete and plentiful.

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Cross, Nigel. 1993 ? Editorial ?. Design Studies, 14 (3) : 226 Cross Nigel.2001. Designerly ways of Knowing: design discipline versus design science. Design issues Friedman Ken. 2000. Creating Design Knowledge: from research to practise. Proceedings on international conference on design and technology

F.O Gehry in R.J. Boland and F. Collopy, Managing as designing(Palo Alto, CA: Standford University Press)

Manzini Ezio, Walker Stuart, Wylant Barry, 2008. Enabling solutions for sustainable living : a workshop. University of Calgary Press

Morelli Nicola. 2007. Social Innovation and New Industrial Contexts: Can Designers ? Industrialize ? Socially Responsible Solutions ?Design issues. MIT. Cambridge. Massachussets

Peters Michael A, Murphy Peter, Marginson Simon, 2008. Creativity and the global knowledge economy. Lang, Peter Publishing,Incorporated

Thackara John. 2005. In the bubble : designing in a complex world.Mit press Cambridge Massachussets

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Christian Guellerin（法國南特大西洋設計學院國際藝術設計院校 聯(lián)盟主席）

Christian Guellerin（Director-L’Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique President-Cumulus Association）

譯文：

動蕩局面下的兩大支柱：全球化市場和顛簸的資本主義世界變得“全球化”意味著在這“全球”的維度里，通訊和交通變得暢通無阻。若這為人們獲得自由鋪平了道路，那我們可以認為它功不可沒；若這種趨勢增進了與他人之間的溝通和理解，認可和學習了他國文化，那么我們應該為此歡欣鼓舞。從經(jīng)濟的角度來說，西方國家的“全球化”標志著始于十九世紀中期的工業(yè)時代已經(jīng)結束，意味著生產(chǎn)資料通過新的模式被重新分配。如今，資本主義將以勞動力為基礎的工業(yè)重新分布在了中國和印度。以后，它們可能又會被分布在勞動力成本更低的國家以獲取更多的利潤空間。效益和利潤空間是資本主義的主要動力。世界財富的不斷地重新分配是不可避免的。西方國家整個的傳統(tǒng)工業(yè)都在持續(xù)崩潰,曾代表著工業(yè)時代一度興旺繁榮的美國通用和福特公司，以及西方的福利社會制度正面臨著危機。

必須抓住的兩大經(jīng)濟機遇：綠色經(jīng)濟和社交網(wǎng)絡

我們的星球正面臨著危險。因此，我們需要為我們新的產(chǎn)品和消費模式打下基礎，鋪設更廣的平臺。但是，人類憑著科學就真的能夠做到么？看上去沒這么簡單。整個人類從未像現(xiàn)在這樣，如此關切天氣變化和環(huán)境公害，市場上也從未為滿足消費需求而賣掉過那么多的四輪汽車。面對如此窘境，我們不得不承認市場利益明顯與道德價值觀相悖。雖然資本主義完全不和道德沾邊，但我們應該盡力利用綠色經(jīng)濟來塑造新的工業(yè)和商業(yè)模式，它是豐厚利益的來源，從中，我們也可以找到治愈我們地球的途徑。

除此以外，一種新興的社會趨勢正在逐漸打破我們對虛擬世界的看法并且賦予了它新的定義。曾幾何時，當全球化威脅著我們親密無比的鄰里關系時，成為網(wǎng)絡的一部分就是創(chuàng)造并緊密我們關系紐帶的一種途徑。

設計學，與社會經(jīng)濟議題相一致的戰(zhàn)略性學科

那么，設計應該承擔什么樣的角色呢？可以確定的是，市場趨勢折射了消費需求。設計學和設計家們可以在公司內(nèi)承擔戰(zhàn)略性的角色，從而發(fā)展和壯大。為了應對行將到來的工業(yè)混亂，許多此類的公司不得不調(diào)整、轉變和演化出新的工作模式。隨著全球化發(fā)展，那個注重總體質(zhì)量的時代已經(jīng)被以創(chuàng)造與革新為中心的工業(yè)化生產(chǎn)方式所取代：以重質(zhì)量為主的時代已漸進尾聲，推翻它的正是與社會經(jīng)濟議題有關的創(chuàng)造與革新化生產(chǎn)方式?，F(xiàn)在，我們不再專注于“改進和發(fā)展已經(jīng)知道如何生產(chǎn)的東西”,而是關注“在已知的事物中發(fā)現(xiàn)未知的事物，從而創(chuàng)造新的，可持續(xù)發(fā)展的大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)環(huán)境”。設計家們就是這以創(chuàng)造為中心的工匠，他們的責任就是反思公司的未來，資本主義的明天。

設計必須是以人為本，以讓明天更美好為目的的學科，是起著與生態(tài)有關的中流砥柱作用的發(fā)起者；設計師是適應可持續(xù)發(fā)展、生態(tài)倫理設計市場的關鍵人物，使產(chǎn)品符合消費者的需求，改善實用性。

設計學課程的巨大變革：工作適用型教育受到追捧

教育機構必須考慮到的問題是：我們?nèi)绾蝸肀ＷC，在設計學院受到專業(yè)訓練的學生能夠適應現(xiàn)代社會公里司每天面對的挑戰(zhàn)，從而成為稱職的經(jīng)理人或決策者？設計類學校的訓練課程已經(jīng)經(jīng)歷了突破性的變革。他們的目標不再僅僅是培育富有創(chuàng)造力的技術員，而是具備創(chuàng)造力的專業(yè)人員。設計學院致力于培養(yǎng)富有創(chuàng)造力的專業(yè)人員，他們有發(fā)明新模型、新產(chǎn)品，找到與加工、材料和服務有關的解決辦法的能力，從而受到人們的認可?？偟膩碚f，一個好的設計師因他們的創(chuàng)造力而受到認同。這就是其他人，即社會上的大多數(shù)人或專業(yè)人員，比如工程師、市場專員、總經(jīng)理所期待的設計師：那些總是能冒出別人想不到的主意的人。

如今，設計學院各課程已經(jīng)經(jīng)過了很大的革新：設計學校意識到有必要推薦自己的學生在學習期間到工業(yè)或經(jīng)濟領域去學習。公司不再只關注于學生的天賦、技術和原理掌握，而且還關注學生參與的與社會與經(jīng)濟相關的實踐項目以及學生適應工作的能力。重視團隊合作時的管理能力和團隊合作能力的培養(yǎng)。這樣的能力長期被設計學校所忽略，以前更加重視的是個人能力的培養(yǎng)。溝通交際能力也是衡量學生是否符合社會需要的必要標準。設計學院的課程還向其他專業(yè)公開，這樣一來，學生們的工作可以受到多方人群的評估。

靈活對應的課程

所有的高等教育學校都要應對是否與社會主要發(fā)展相關的問題：加強“研究—教育—商業(yè)”的鐵三角模式，以此來安排課程設置。雖然現(xiàn)在各大學校都支持工作適用型課程的設置，但組織調(diào)研以及與社會和經(jīng)濟相一致的知識型產(chǎn)品活動這一方面，還有相當多的工作要做。

真正的國際化課程。博洛尼亞條約為建立起一個在世界范圍內(nèi)提供學士、碩士、博士的高等教育課程體系打下了基礎，它的簽訂使得學生在修完學士學位之后選擇出國進修碩士學位。而設計學的碩士現(xiàn)今只是個處于萌芽的新興方向，只有最有競爭力的設計學碩士課程，即遵照“研究—教育—商業(yè)”鐵三角模式才會吸引來外國的莘莘學子們。