“I know something you don’t know. I am not left handed.”
How I ended up researching and writing about generalism in design - and why it probably matters to you too
I've been engaged in various aspects of design leadership for nearly 20 years, and over the past year or so, I've felt that the profession has almost completed a spiraling cycle of fundamental changes that’s lasted, well, almost two decades. This cycle isn’t following a typical linear pattern or bell curve, but rather a spiral structure, seemingly coming back to a starting point, but continuing to develop and enrich the profession with each shift.
These have been fantastic years for the design profession. Its scope has expanded, it has become desirable, in demand, and rewarding. But something else happened along the way; the profession splintered into micro-disciplines and nano-designer roles. And now, as the cycle comes full circle, the design profession crashes against the harsh reality of the market and technological shifts. The design profession calls for reassembly, possibly to a fusion of these micro-disciplines into a majority of a single, generalist and holistic entity. Whether that’s even possible is still up for debate.
What we said about generalism in design back in 2024 is now truer than ever. We still don’t know exactly what the landscape will look like once the dust of this revolution settles. But we do know this: disciplinary boundaries are blurring, the profession is shifting toward art direction, and the curious designer—someone who knows a lot about a lot—is emerging as uniquely strong in this new reality.
For all of this to take root, one thing is clear: design leaders must shift their mindset—from specialization to generalism, from deep focus to wide exploration.
Between 2000 and 2021, the number of visual designers in the world roughly doubled. Consider this example of growth in the US:In the Occupational Employment and Wages, 2000 report by the U.S. Department of Labor (April 2002), 135K designers were employed in the graphic design profession. (By the way, the average annual salary at the time was around $35,000.)
By 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 267,000 American designers were working in the field, with a median annual salary of $58,900.This didn’t happen by chance , the rise of tech companies created a new and growing demand for designers as part of the technological development chain, and new disciplines were invented. Simultaneously, the technologies produced by these companies generated digital real estate and economic models requiring even more designers.
For instance, when Facebook was founded in 2004, it needed designers to build its platform, interfaces, and marketing materials. This foundational need formed the first layer of the design network. As Facebook’s business model evolved, it provided digital real estate for businesses - ads, business pages, video campaigns, and more. These businesses, in turn, required designers to support their presence on the platform, forming the second layer of demand. With each technological advancement and shift in consumer behavior, new layers emerged, expanding the network into a thriving, talent-rich ecosystem that grows alongside innovation.
The bottom line is that by 2021, there was an abundance of experienced design talent, and plenty of money in the market. So, as a manager, if I needed to strengthen brand design and 3D capabilities in my team, I’d sit down and draft the ideal candidate profile without much hesitation. I would hire the best brand designer in town and the top 3D designer available. Why choose when you can have both? Why compromise when you can get the very best?
In a market that’s rapidly growing and has both zero interest rates and abundant resources, those two questions perfectly summarize the overarching sentiment of the time. Thus, enabling an environment that welcomed and encouraged specialist designers.
By 2024, the situation was very different. Post-pandemic waves of layoffs in tech companies and market turmoil forced organizations to adapt to the new reality — tightening their belts, streamlining processes, and cutting expenses. This inevitably affected design departments. Now, choices had to be made. Is this still an environment that nurtures and encourages specialist designers or are we moving towards something different?
This trend has been noticeable since 2023, following the pandemic, across many professional fields, as demonstrated by Tanner's 2023 research. However, it is only now, a year or two later, that it is beginning to impact the design field. It is still met with skepticism by some design leaders and design schools.
For me, this trend reversal came as no surprise. For years, I’ve felt that the over-specialization of design roles undermines the profession and, ultimately, the designer.
As we know, design exists to a high extent to solve problems, yet we’ve reached a point where many designers in the industry can only solve problems through highly specific, limited means aligned solely with their narrow professional focus. In other words, instead of a Swiss Army Knife designer, we now have a bottle-opener designer, another who’s a file, and so on. Many designers today lack the ability to pull off an “Inigo Montoya maneuver” — and they’re the first to lose because of it.
Remember that scene from The Princess Bride, when Inigo Montoya, played by the legendary Mandy Patinkin, is locked in a sword fight with the masked man? At the height of the duel, with a smug little smile, he suddenly says, “I am not left-handed,” switches his sword to his dominant hand — and of course, wins. It's a move that's unexpected, clever, and powerful. It shows he can do both. Like a football player stepping up for a penalty kick and landing a perfect shot with their “weaker” foot, leaving the goalkeeper stunned.
Inigo Montoya has more than one way to fight — and he knows exactly when to use each. In contrast, many designers today have nothing to switch to. No surprise moves, no second skill set. They’ve been fencing with their right hand for more than a decade now.
In a 2024 project featured in Brand Identity, Christopher Doyle - Creative Director of Christopher Doyle & Co.- articulates something I’ve long felt myself:
We may already be in an age of multi-hyphenated roles, with many creatives stuck in a “How do I describe what I do in a 280-characters-or-less rut,” so what if that went further? Are we on course for a ‘generalists-only’ hiring renaissance, where everyone brings a multitude of talents to the table? Specialisation giving way to generalisation, making versatility and adaptability the must-have. “The best designers are always the ones who are willing to try things and get outside their core skillset,” Doyle adds. While the future might point towards the rise of generalists, that fact has always been true.
Output anticipates an increasingly hands-on approach, with all team members contributing to client relationships and project success. The democratisation of technical skills through new tools and AI will likely further blur traditional role boundaries, fostering a more collaborative and dynamic work environment. Roles within studios may blur and intertwine, depending on the studio’s scale and requirements.
In my opinion, this hyper-specialization developed artificially, not organically. While the reversal of the trend may very well shake the profession and industry, I see it as a genuine and necessary opportunity for correction.
Generalism in design is a superpower. As Gilles Deleuze described in A Thousand Plateaus, creation is not the privilege of a single discipline, it is the constant reinvention of connections between distinct fields.
The understated generalist designer needs to be harnessed, managed, and let’s face it, needs a bit of a reputation facelift. I’ll try my best to illustrate all of this with a series of metaphors, examples, and ideas in the upcoming series of articles.