One of the benefits of my job is being able to sit down with colleagues and friends and chat about what's happening in the design industry. I've been doing a lot of that lately as part of our research into how the industry is performing.
Recently, a designer I've known for years contacted me for a coffee. I'd watched him progress through agencies we'd mentored, from mid-weight designer to senior and eventually design director.
We sat down and he dropped a bombshell. He'd just been retrenched.
He'd been with the agency for 10 years, working on branding, corporate communications and websites. Recently, project timelines had stretched out. He thought having more time was a good thing. What he hadn't realised was there simply wasn't enough work coming in.
His design director title was largely that. A title. The owner had offered it instead of a salary increase. He wasn't directing anyone.
So we started talking about what he'd do next. After all, he potentially had another 20 or 30 years in the industry.
I asked what he'd learnt over the past decade.
Strategy? No, the owner handled discovery and strategy.
User experience? No, he did the interface design while the owner handled UX.
Client management? No, he'd rarely dealt directly with clients and wasn't particularly skilled.
Then we got to the dreaded AI.
He saw it as a threat, so he'd avoided it.
That was when the conversation got uncomfortable.
I pointed out that, apart from keeping up with Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Figma, he'd done very little professional development in 10 years. I pointed out it was his responsibility to do professional development not his employer.
Beyond visuals
He'd become better at producing design, but hadn't developed the skills needed to understand the client's business problem.
And that's becoming a real issue.
AI can now produce many of the visual outputs designers have traditionally been paid to create. Clients and business owners are experimenting with doing that work themselves.
He argued that AI couldn't solve problems the way an experienced designer could. And he had a point.
AI can produce a first attempt, but clients often don't know what's wrong with it or how to improve it. That's where design experience, judgement and problem-solving skills matter.
The trouble is, we haven't done a particularly good job of explaining that difference to clients.
Wait, there’s more…
But there's something bigger happening.
Ten years ago, a typical small agency might have had two owners and five or six designers. The owners managed clients, developed strategy, estimated projects and provided creative direction. The designers produced the work.
That agency model is changing.
We're seeing studios with fewer designers but a broader mix of skills. Strategists, content producers, creative producers and client service people are becoming part of the team.
Why? Because the design process now needs to extend well beyond producing the finished work.
It starts with research and understanding the client's problem. Then strategy, scoping, design, testing, implementation and measuring what changed.
That's where I think the opportunities are.
Designers need to understand their clients' businesses, their customers and what influences customer behaviour. They need to identify the impact their design should have and establish ways to measure it.
Simply being good at design software isn't enough anymore.
What’s his answer?
My friend left our coffee feeling pretty despondent.
But yesterday he contacted me. He'd enrolled in a strategy short course and was exploring UX and service design. He'd also started experimenting seriously with AI to understand what it could and couldn't do. He was using it to understand behavioural design.
That's encouraging.
He hasn't suddenly solved his employment problem. But he's started doing something about it.
The industry isn't finished with designers. It's changing what it needs from them.
And perhaps the biggest risk isn't AI replacing designers. It's designers standing still while the industry moves on..
As always, happy to discuss further, just email.
Greg Branson
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