Christian Guellerin

Coming back to design schools, the issue of « academic knowledge » vs « professional practice » is different and more complex. Should design schools put the emphasis on creation or professional training? If it is indeed professional training, and, as a result, the student’s employability, then the ability to design is merely a means and not an end. In other words, is the best school one which showcases its final year projects or the one with the best employment rate?
 
Recent significant developments in design schools have tipped the balance in favour of professionalisation, perhaps to make up for past failings.
The hang ups that once surrounded economic relations have now disappeared. Many partnerships with companies have brought schools closer to economic issues, and have given deeper meaning to the word design by reminding us that it applies to the physical or virtual « product » and that it infers an economic dimension. Design is even perceived as an economic virtue ; the designer could play an active role in moralizing economic practice.
Today, design schools are judged on the talent of their students and their ability to design, as much as on the employment rate of their graduates. The employment rate has strengthened the crediblity of schools both for candidates and for companies, who now prefer to employ designers who are more aware of the professional and economic responsiblities of the tasks with which they are entrusted.
The professionalisation of academic design courses will lead to another problem for institutions : what happens to designers 10 years down the line and what career options do companies offer to enable them to access strategic positions? While the qualities of recent graduates are primarily technically based, after a number of years, designers seek to develop their career towards more managerial and strategic functions. Schools providing training in design will have to deal with a paradox: design has become a strategic discipline, one which involves project management, but does this mean design students are really trained in management and do they want to gain managerial posts?
If the answer is yes, they will have to demonstrate more than just technical skills, they will also have to show their ability to organise and animate.

The recent nomination of the designer Brian Nesbitt as general director of Cadillac is symbolic of the developments in the profession and in the image we have of it. In his current post as head of Cadillac, is Brian Nesbitt still considered as a designer? What we do know is that today, he is the CEO because his training, his background in design, and his work as a designer enabled him to be there.