STARS ASCENDING

In a rapidly changing world, the route designers take to discover their calling is increasingly circuitous. We profile ten creatives forging their own paths to success

- HUGO MACDONALD

How does someone become a designer? It used to happen like this: design school to trade show to design studio to (for the lucky ones) having work picked-up by a manufacturer and thereby joining the cabal of known names within design. The pools we fished from as scouts, manufacturers, buyers and media were shallow. We could list ten design schools of pedigree, five ‘emerging talent’ sections at fairs, and a handful of braver manufacturers who acted as incubators; and together, we birthed the new generation of design talent into the industry. It was all very safe and chummy. Everyone wanted to be Philippe Starck.

Thank goodness the industry – if we can even call it that – is weirder now. It is certainly more wonderful for it. We might lament the chaos of the forces that govern our lives, but these same forces have introduced a rich sense of possibility in how design and designers don’t just emerge, but make a living. Technology has liberated manufacturing possibilities, communication and routes to market. The lack of state funding for design education is woeful, but it has driven privately funded initiatives and community enterprises to step in. The design industry was once a fairly impenetrable, top-down establishment. Today, it looks more like an energetic grassroots movement.