Indi Design won the Lexus Design Award for its initiative Pool Magazine. It has brought the focus and attention to Indian Designers with a readership of 2.4 million.
They don’t just make the world look cool – some designers go further. They improve the environment, build communities, even save lives. They have great skills, and even greater ideas. They are concerned with how the world behaves and not just how the world looks.
‘Design Thinking’ has been very widely adopted by business and industry as a creative process tool to improve the real world and help boost productivity. Non-designers are also using the tool to face challenges in their everyday life/work scenarios.
It’s time now for ‘Smart Designers’ who take this creativity to much broader briefs such as social impact, health care, and environmental sustainability.
So, how do you recognize Smart Designers? They tend to be:
1. Extremely skilled: in drawing, sketching, articulating, model making, materials, etc.
2. Extremely connected: with a presence on social media, blogs, networks.
3. Very well read: everything from politics, geography and history to fiction, technology and economics is on their list.
4. Extremely human: empathy is natural for them.
5. Multiexperts: Usually have another stream of expertise besides design.
I think you will like the ‘Smart Designer’ featured on the cover of this issue – he is certainly a ‘Designer++’.
Sudhir Sharma, Editor-in-Chief
Get your print copy of POOL 91 from Indipool Shop or get digital version on Magzter, AppStore or Google Play right away!
