In the profession today we see a strong push for the designer to have total artistic control, wresting any creative authority away from the client. Look at the celebrities of our profession: each seems to embody some aspect of "creative genius" which imbues them with a degree of autonomy to do what they see as best. Our role models have a rock star status and are lauded for self-initiated (and self-governed) projects where the client only says "thank you." The trend toward "designer-as-author" is immensely popular too, not only does the designer design, but he or she creates the content being designed.

Those of you familiar with our blog may wonder if this concept of "total creative control for the designer" is something that I have in fact endorsed myself (see my entry about proposing one design solution instead of three or more: One Opportunity ). I don't think the concept of really serving a client and proposing one solution are mutually exclusive, and I hope my thoughts on the subject will elaborate on this...

The desire for a designer to be seen as a creative expert who should be autonomous in his "art" tends to overlook an essential part of the design profession: that we are in the business of being the messengers, not the message. Tibor Kalman himself said it best "Design is a means, not an end. A language, not content." This certainly does not mean we can't become the authors, many designers do and are very good at it. But my point is that it is still extremely valuable to be able serve by clearly communicating a message for someone else.

Think of it like this, the role of a designer is much like that of a translator. We may not create the content of the message, but we are very involved in shaping the exact nuances, choosing the proper vernacular terms and even the grammatical structure as we take that content into another language -- a visual language of sorts. This is an exceptionally valuable service. The message would fail to be delivered at all without us.

I feel that if our profession were better at relishing our role as a service, we would in fact begin to place our clients needs before our own. How often are we more intent on creating something that will impress our design colleagues than something that will best serve our clients? Based on conversations with designers across the nation, I think far too often.

I believe that design is an extremely powerful tool in serving to connect people to one another. It is not the only tool, nor is it a superior tool (there are many ways to communicate and connect people), but it is an extremely useful tool. Let's celebrate Design's role as a servant in the means of communication and be much more selective about the content we decide to use it for, and I believe we will not only be happier, but also much better designers.