Classifications of Designers People

In the first chapter of Norman Potter’s book, “What is a Designer,” a functional classification for designers is outlined. The classification applies to the career of a designer, but also likely applies to every single other role that you might take on in your life.

What kind of person are you?

• Impressarios – those who get work, organize others to do it, and present the outcome.
• Culture diffusers – those who do competent work effectively over a broad field, usually from a stable background of dispersed interests.
• Culture generators – obsessive characters who work in back rooms and produce ideas, often more useful to other designers than the public.
• Assistants – often beginners, but also a large group concerned with administration of draughtsmanship.
• Parasites – those who skim off the surface of other people’s work and make a good living by it.

Hopefully you find yourself in or moving between the first four classifications, and not in the role of the “Parasite.”

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