A designer is not a “decorator”

The word “designer” has been devalued by us. It has lost its essence. Today it's almost a curse word. It can mean everything - or nothing.

In , in the best case, this is a specialist who is sent references from Pinterest and and says: “do it this way, just to make it a little more beautiful.” In the worst is a banner executor for 5000 rubles, who takes everything to alone and will never see the final result of his work in real product. Neither feedback, nor rights, nor prospects.

And after all, a designer, in essence, is an architect of reality. A person who must work at the level of meaning, strategy and of the future. Which forms an idea, and does not serve others.

Who rules the profession now?

Today, on most projects, the designer is not a subject, but a function. He is at the very bottom of the chain, and above him is a layer cake of managers, each of whom takes his share from the budget, according to work experience, this is 50% with of each iteration of the “effective manager”

Here's what it looks like:

1. The budget comes to the agency or production

2. There it is cut between accounts, producers, strategists, coordinators, and their assistants

3. Then he goes freelance, where at the end of the chain sits a designer from Telegram who drags the project for pennies

This person does everything: concept, and visual, and presentation. But his share is tiny. Why? Because he does not control the process and remains in the shadow.

Fuck managers

Managers, in their current form, are a relic of the industrial past. They do not create values, they distribute power, they do what understands nothing. A system in which it is not the artist who determines the aesthetics, but the customer who decides “what is beautiful” - is dead.

Control should return to those who do with their hands and with their heads. Processes must be managed by designers, developers, and authors. Those who bear the consequences of decisions and wield the tools, those who are in the profession.

Power to the workers - sounds like a slogan of the 20th century, but now it is more relevant than ever. The time has come when the designer must regain his role as a leader, and not as a performer.

The problem is not in the clients. The problem is in the structure

In Russia there is no full-fledged B2C design market. No one buys a design directly from the author. There is no culture of asking for a idea, for uniqueness, for style. There is only a culture of “cheap, fast and so as not to interfere with .” Because all sales go through the B2B layer, and it decomposes the value into margin and KPI.

The Western market works differently. I managed to work with until 2022. There you can start as a designer, and in six months you will already be managing projects. They trust you. They hear you. You become a partner, and not a function.

In Russia - even after 3.5 years you are still recapturing the positions you already had. And is not only about money. It's about the feeling that your voice is not considered significant.

I look at the Russian-language design community - and I see incredible potential. In reality, people can do things that Western markets and have never dreamed of. But we simply have no conditions, no infrastructure, no tools.

The designer here is either:

• The person who got into big tech by screwing up the system through testing

• Or a homeless person making 5k cards for weeks, burning out after a year

There is no middle ground. No path to growth. No ecosystem.

What to do?

To begin with, admit that the system is broken. And refuse to play according to her rules.

We will not build a new type of market while designers are viewed as “designers.” We will not raise authors until they themselves sell their work, their meanings and products directly.

Therefore:

• We are building a store in which design is a product, not decoration

• We work openly, show processes, talk to the audience

• We sell ideas directly

• We give platforms to other designers so that they too can join this manifesto

Maybe you thought that I was the same. That my store is just an attempt to sell another T-shirt.

But no. For me, money is not a goal. This is access to influence. To the opportunity to build an ecosystem, in which designer = author. Creator. Leader.

I would like to overestimate the value of design. So that do not look for cheap performers, but go to people who can change everything.

The designer is not style. This is the influence

And if this resonates with you, then perhaps you are also tired of of the way everything works. This is not article manipulation. This is the manifesto.

Design is not service. Design is a way to change the structure of reality.

And it's time to regain your influence.

Ready to discuss how to change the system? Write and let's talk about how designers can take power into their own hands.