Hello all
On defining design as a discipline -
I believe one point of tension arises because the term design is so widely used
and does indeed cut across so many disciplines. Here some design professionals
and academics understandably feel that their own professional credibility is
being undermined when the term is applied to everyday nose-blowing or
door-closing activites.
I may be wrong, but I believe in UK it is against the law to offer professional
services under the title "Architect" unless you are a fully qualified architect
and a paid-up member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (perhaps the
same is also true for various engineering disciplines). Also architect seems to
be a definition everyone understands and is comfortable with.
Now, since design is a definition that can clearly apply to all of us in so
many activities - and it seems just about anyone can set their stall out as a
professional designer (or design academic) of something or other however
significant or insignificant - perhaps this word design is just too general a
term.
When I go to parties I usually describe myself as either as "product designer"
(all little more specific but even that gets people confused - what kind of
products?) or as a PhD student ... then I have more explaining to do !?!
Peter
Peter Walters
PhD Student
Faculty of Art, Computing and Engineering Sciences
Sheffield Hallam University
http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/cs/cri/adrc/research2/peterwalters
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