Creatives capable of more than just pretty pictures

Regarding your Comment (DW 22 May), I think that part of the issue goes back further to how art and design are perceived at school.

While many of my colleagues took ‘serious’ subjects, I took art and found myself going to art college much to the dismay of many claiming that it was an easy option and that it was not for serious professionals. Art and design are perceived as ‘unworthy’ subjects to study and the perception is carried throughout your career.

If you are a designer, you are labelled as a creative and what you do is ‘pretty pictures’ and you can’t make any serious decisions; creatives lack any serious management skills or business skills, they can’t be trusted.

This kind of prejudice continues to annoy and frustrate many, including myself, as we seek to combine creativity and business. Why aren’t there any business courses for creatives and vice versa, and if there are, why aren’t they more high profile?

Similarly, as we move into a service-led economy, why aren’t design colleges responding and introducing entrepreneurial skills and redefining design as something more than aesthetics, but more about planning and design of services people can use, as well as talk about the business of design?

We use well-designed objects every day. Why can’t we use well-designed services – banking, phone services, restaurants and so on? Creativity and business is not about the suits and the prima donnas. All businesses should be creative and not led by teams of management consultants who think they know innovation and creativity. Why can’t designers and management consultants collaborate together. Why can’t they think seriously about the business of being creative?

Yooni Suh

Head of strategy and planning

Random Media

London N1

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