The Social Role of Designers
By: Shao-Jo Lin, Shao
Tags: Covid 19, Social Responsibility, Designer, Design

Photo by Amy Ferris on Unsplash

The mission of design has altered over the past century, from the emphasis of branding and mass media advertising in the 70s to the stress of problem-solving user-centric design nowadays. Design is transforming from a study of fine art to an everyday activity, which also has changed the role designers play in society.

Traditionally, designers practiced and worked within the context of aesthetics, and designers’ default position, as CalArts teacher and type designer Jeffery Keedy once put it, is “to grease the wheels of capitalism with style and taste”.¹ Whether you accept it or not, this is still a stereotypical impression that the older generation (well, maybe just my mom), have on the role of designers.

In the past decades, along with the rise of design thinking, which sees design as a tool of problem-solving rather than a mean of artistic expression, the definition of design has shifted — it’s more than a practice of creating visually appealing products or advertising messages, but also an essential approach to improve and solve problems in people’s everyday life. And so does the position of the designers, which has become the profession of people who provide solutions to problems.

Photo by Pimwipha Ch. on Unsplash

In modern days, especially during this COVID-19 lockdown, the main social role of designers has changed again. The lockdown eternally changes the way people live and consume messages. Digital content, especially content on social media, has now become the prime vehicle through which we produce, spread, and consume cultural values. As one of the major creators of digital content, designers can no longer only consider the aesthetics and usability of the work but have become, consciously or unconsciously, have become significant contributors in shaping the cultural trends. The designers of advertisements, digital content, and even communicational tools like social media, all contribute to the process of controlling culture behavior.

Photo by Erik Lucatero on Unsplash

The social responsibility of the designer has become exceptionally important — our role is to assist society to adjust to a new reality, both physically and mentally. We should not merely address viewers as consumers with tiny attention spans or users who have no patience to think but as intelligent individuals who can be expected to take an informed and skeptical interest in the circumstances of their world. We should make an effort to be self-aware about what we do and why. And always scrutinize our works with this question — what, in this visual communication, are the statements that we’re putting out there that are contributing to form the culture behavior. Now is the time to publicly discuss the means, effects, and especially pressing issues in the society the design address, rather than just like and retweet. We need to be more mindful of and give extensive attention to the messages and values we deliver to society and contribute to the process of making ourselves ready for the new reality.

¹ Rick Poynor, (2005, September 25), Where Are the Design Critics?