Experience can certainly make you well rounded and good designer, but is that all? and does it?
After a few hours of pondering on the subject, I scribbled this though provoking diagram regarding factors that might make you a great designer.

Let me expain….

On the Horizontal axis is the spectrum of… DOING to THINKING
On the vertical axis … VISION to PRAGMATISM

We encounter these in the act of designing, in different quantities and at different times during the process. Some areas you may not know, some you may be better at than others.

Let’s personify this and think about the human roles…..
A Scuplter has grand vision for the statement of their art, it doesn’t have to be pragmatic at all. Then in practice a Sculptor is hands on to create, craft, form, mold etc and make the sculpture. It needs both of those skills to create a vision.

A Machinist must be hands on in their craft to machine excellent quality metal parts, but they must also be down to earth / pragmatic and super considerate of real world constraints. Standards for threads have existed for years and bucking those systems may cause

An Event Planner must be able to create and understand a strategy (and a vision?) to execute on the real world details for an event. Understanding the goal and the plan to get to a real world execution of an event, they have to be pragmatic and deal with the existing realities and last minute change

Steve Jobs!, its hard to put a practical job title on Steve Jobs, but he had great vision meshed with the long term strategy thats still being executed today 10’s of years later in Apple products.

Back to a great well rounded designer. Do all these aspects have to exist?, do you have to have a little of every persona?

Vision, Strategy, Creation, and Pragmatism

What do you reckon?