A lecture that investigates the changing nature of design practice from specialised disciplines to the convergence of disciplines within and outside of design.

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GENERALISM AND
SPECIALISM
INTRODUCTION

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The role of the designer today - researcher, architect, artist, craftsman and writer.
CONTEXT
RECAP: CREATIVE LANDSCAPE

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At the lowest levels are components and products.
These represent the types of design problems that exist
in simple societies like this in the early [twentieth
century]. At the upper levels are system-level problems
(demanding related products or activities) and
community-level problems (involving related systems).
Design problems at these higher levels are
characteristic of complex postindustrial societies like the
one we live in.
RECAP: CREATIVE LANDSCAPE
“
”McCoy & Heller (eds.), 2005, P.15-16
CONTEXT

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Complex integrated projects that require a multi-disciplinary result
Storytelling
3D Mediums2D Mediums
Communication Experiential
Integrated
Projects
Time
CONTEXT

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CONTEXT
Global issues that require more than one discipline of design to address
(clockwise) Poverty, Education, Pollution, Climate Change.

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QUESTIONS:
• How do we begin to address complex projects that require many
different disciplines or trades?
• Who will/can provide the facilitation of synthesising these
knowledge together?
CONTEXT

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DEFINITION
The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows
one big thing.
HEDGEHOG AND THE FOX:
“ ”Archilochus (Greek Poet), 685 B.C.

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HEDGEHOG (SPECIALIST):
“ Relate everything to a central
vision… In terms of which all they
say has a significance. “
Isaiah Berlin, 1953
http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9981.pdf
Access: 10/08/2015
FOX (GENERALIST):
“ Pursue many ends, often unrelated and
even contradictory, … entertain ideas that
are centrifugal rather than centripedal;…
without seeking to fit them into, or exclude
them from any one all-embracing inner
vision.“
DEFINITION

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DEFINITION
Generalists tend to have a broad range of skills and
experience across a range of disciplines within their
field, while specialists invest time and effort in
becoming the go-to person in a certain niche.
ON SPECIALISTS AND GENERALISTS:
“
”Helen Crane, The Guardian, 2013
http://www.theguardian.com/careers/careers-blog/specialist-generalist-what-do-employers-want
Accessed 15/08/2015

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As a specialist, you know more and more about less and
less until eventually you know everything about nothing.
As a generalist, you know less and less about more and
more until eventually you know nothing about everything.
ON SPECIALISTS AND
GENERALISTS:
“
”User from Quora
DEFINITION

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Complex integrated projects that require a multi-disciplinary result
Storytelling
3D Mediums2D Mediums
Communication Experiential
Integrated
Projects
Time
CONTEXT

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THE DEBATE:
• The specialist era is waning and the future lies with generalist.
• The generalists cannot do anything without specialists.
• This is just a trend.
• Which is more important?
DEBATE

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Streaming PSLE
EM1
EM2
EM3
Special
Express
Normal
Normal (Tech)
JC
Poly
ITE
University
Fig 2. Education is designed for specialisation
SPECIALISATION
TYPICAL EDUCATION ROUTE

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GRAPHIC DESIGN PROGRAM
Typographer
Photographer Illustrator Creative
Graphics UI Designer
Branding
Designer
Image Making
Copywriter
Advertising
Publication
Designer
SPECIALISATION
Fig 3. Typical Graphic Design education follows a specialisation pattern

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WEALTH OF NATIONS
ADAM SMITH, 1776
Classical economics is rooted in the concept of
economic growth through division of labour. It is
the specialisation of a labour force, essentially
the break down of large jobs into many tiny
components, where each worker becomes an
expert in one isolated area of production thus
increasing his/her efficiency. The fact that
labourers do not have to switch tasks during the
day further saves time and money.
SPECIALISATION
ON EDUCATION:

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Specialism creates experts in their field who know their work inside out and upside down.
Clockwise: Hussain Bolt, Coco Chanel, Marie Curie, Paula Scher, Albert Einstein
SPECIALISATION

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The specialist at work.
SPECIALISATION
WHY THE NEED FOR GENERALISTS:

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GENERALISATION
We’ve become a society that’s data rich and meaning
poor… A rise in specialists in all areas—science, math,
history, psychology—has left us with tremendous content
but how valuable is that knowledge without context?
ON GENERALISTS:
“
”Phipps, Evolutionaries, 2012

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GENERALISATION
We’ve become so focused on specialisation, but just as
there are truths that can only be found as a specialist…
There are truths that can only be revealed by a generalist
who can weave these ideas in the broader fabric of
understanding.
ON GENERALISTS:
“
”Phipps, Evolutionaries, 2012

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Philosopher, Scientist,
Writer (Metaphysics,
physics, poetry, logic,
music, theatre, rhetoric,
government, politics,
biology, ethics and
zoology)
Discovered the golden
ratio, reason, logic and
deductive reasoning
Painter, Sculptor,
Architect, Musician,
Mathematician,
Engineer, Inventor
Anatomist, Geologist
Cartographer, Botanist
Writer
Doctor (Medical), Scientist,
Biologist, Futurist, Inventor
Helped NASA design
instruments for space
exploration in the 1960s,
discovered the damage of
CFCs, invented the Gaia
Hypothesis
FAMOUS EXPERT GENERALISTS
(POLYMATHS) :
GENERALISATION
ARISTOTLE LEONARDO DA VINCI JAMES LOVELOCK

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PROBLEMS OF A GENERALIST:
• Jack of all trades, master of none.
• No one knows that they really do.
• If no one can identify what they do, what is their value?
• Generalists cannot achieve anything without specialists.
GENERALISATION

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PERSPECTIVE
WARNING: I AM A GENERALIST

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These thought processes enable a creative person to
bring together lots of seemingly disparate streams of
information in a unique way not immediately obvious
to those grounded in "reality"
ON CREATIVITY:
“
”Psychology Today, 2012
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beautiful-minds/201201/must-
one-risk-madness-achieve-genius-0
Accessed: 12/08/2015
PERSPECTIVE

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If you want to pass through open doors you have to
respect the fact that they have a fixed frame: this principle
is simply a prerequisite of reality. But if there is a sense of
reality then there must also be something that you might
call a sense of possibility. Someone who possesses this
sense of possibility does not say for example: here this or
that has happened, or it will happen or it must happen.
Rather he invents: here this could or should happen. And
if anybody explains to him that it is as it is, then he thinks:
well, it probably could be otherwise.
ON CREATIVITY:
“
”Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities, 1930-1942
PERSPECTIVE

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PERSPECTIVE
PETER BEHRENS
Clockwise: Portrait, AEG Ventilator (1908),, AEG Turbine Factory (1909), German Embassy in Saint
Petersburg (1912), AEG Corporate Identity (1907), AEG Kettle (1909), The Kiss (1898)
in
Architect, Industrial Designer, Graphic Designer, Painter

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ALAN FLETCHER
Graphic Designer, Advertising Creative, Illustrator, Writer
PERSPECTIVE

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PERSPECTIVE
MIES VAN DER ROHE
Clockwise: Portrait, Barcelona Pavilion, Barcelona Chair, Chaise Lounge, IBM Building
Architect, Industrial Designer, Writer

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ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
Fashion Designer, Installation Artist
Clockwise: Portrait, Savage Beauty, Holographic Performance AW 2006, Performance SS 1999.

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UNITED VISUAL ARTISTS
Mixed media designers/artisans
UVA High Arctic, 2011
PERSPECTIVE

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PROPOSITION:
The nature of design and creativity is incompatible with principles
of generalism and specialism.
PERSPECTIVE

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CONCLUSION
• Generalists and Specialists are equally important
to any practice, field or industry.
• Generalists see the bigger picture while
specialists focus on only one thing.
• As a specialist, you know more and more about
less and less until eventually you know
everything about nothing. As a generalist, you
know less and less about more and more until
eventually you know nothing about everything.
• Contradiction - The nature of design and
creativity is incompatible with principles of
generalism and specialism.
PERSPECTIVE