Culture defined by the Oxford American Dictionaries:

the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively : 20th century popular culture.
- a refined understanding or appreciation of this : men of culture.
- the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group : Caribbean culture | people from many different cultures.
- [with adj. ] the attitudes and behavior characteristic of a particular social group : the emerging drug culture.

I of course realize that the above descriptions do not in any way give the design profession a lock on the creation of culture. Quite the opposite: everyone has the opportunity to contribute to culture, no matter what station or profession in life.

What I want to talk about is (what, in my experience, I perceive as) the expanding role of the designer — to be able to address broader cultural issues than just 'decoration' or 'production'.

As I mentioned earlier, I am finding myself in many more brand development and brand strategy meetings than ever before. These discussions move far beyond creation of a logo or a package or such related designs. They move into names, meanings, functions, experiences, even aspirations and hopes. For some reason my role as a creator of one sort (design artifacts) is now allowing me to be considered a creator of another sort (a brand experience).

While the creator in me is more than happy to be included in this process, I do find it to one degree or another dissatisfying. The issues that a 'brand' touches on are broad, far-reaching and difficult to control. They involve many many people, perceptions and points of contact. Most importantly these issues involve my design recommendations to the business owner as to 'what I would do'... but 9 times out of 10 it is the business owner who really has to do it, not me. And by the very nature of our roles, the business owner has very different priorities than the designer. Hence a sort of disconnect occurs in the development of the brand identity. It is conceptualized to be one way, and yet becomes another in practice.

It is this dissatisfaction in brand execution that has made me all the more interested in contributing to culture in a more straightforward manner. Create an entire thing – business of the product or service. Its name, its place, its structure, its personality, its look, and so on. In a way that makes me the business owner, primary stakeholder-decisionmaker and designer all at once. This way a true and authentic 'brand' can be created in a truly sustainable fashion — because it develops a true sense of what/who it is. It can flow out of a focussed vision and develop much like one's real personality might... Become its own 'true self'.

This is not to say that brands that follow a different model of creation do not contribute to culture, they most certainly can and do. But I feel that for me personally, the ability to create an authentic experience that is holistically interrelated to a genuine personality (where all facets reflect that core personality) is more likely to affect culture in a positive manner.

But perhaps this leads to a completely different conversation about what influences culture and how...

Am I delusional? Controlling? Egotistical? Or do others of you design professionals share my sentiment?

Please contribute to Widgets & Stone culture: