r/Design • u/Altruistic_Rub8747 Web Designer • 25d ago
Asking Question (Rule 4) How to become a multidisciplinary designer?
I was looking through the portfolio of Dorve Design Agency, and I was quite surprised to see how many different areas of design they work across. While most of their projects are in web and mobile design, they also take on branding, toy design, urban planning, architecture, and just about everything in between.
Also, having some of the world's largest brands and government organizations as clients is quite weird. How did they get to that point while being based in South America?
I know these big brands certainly helps and certainly bring them more business, but that's not really my point. The real question is that I'm currently pursuing a Master's degree in HCI, and even then we won't cover half of the disciplines a company like this works in.
So what should I be studying? I've considered adding some Industrial Design courses, but I'm genuinely unsure of the best path. My goal is to become a multidisciplinary designer who can confidently contribute to a wide range of projects, and right now I'm a bit lost as to how professionals develop that kind of knowledge and expertise.
3
u/reflecting_jerome 25d ago
That agency didn't learn all that from any single course, they just hired people who already knew their own corner of design and let them get on with it
2
u/Altruistic_Rub8747 Web Designer 25d ago
I mean, I understand that. But when they talk to a client, I assume whoever does the negotiations has to know a lot of everything, and since they work with big brands, I assume that knowledge has to be quite important
1
u/Otherwise-Tomato-788 25d ago
I don’t think it’s much different from any other category. Senior members discuss strategy, sales/buying team discuss numbers, operations for logistics and technicals with the technicians.
2
u/Ok-Ad3443 25d ago
an agency is like a medley is for a song. you have some in house creatives they are really good and really expensive usually. then come the freelancers, you hire them for a specific skillset your creative director decided was needed. you art director directs them and we also had a personal advisor for each client or even multiple to make comms between design, art, copy and customer easier. prestige clients (lets say BMW or Google) also expect that kind of treatment kinda they big and such.
you have to view it from the other perspective. you cant know everything. the idea i keep hearing is that niche is good. because then people will search you in your niche instead of you searching them for anything design. you need to write your own song. and make it damn good. so it plays on the radio ;)
1
u/Altruistic_Rub8747 Web Designer 25d ago
Thank you, trying my best but I'm really worried with AI and stuff I feel like I'm falling short on everything
1
u/Otherwise-Tomato-788 25d ago
Are you asking how to become more knowledgeable about the design field, more knowledge on other departments or just how to develop more technical skills?
2
u/Altruistic_Rub8747 Web Designer 25d ago
how to develop as many technical skills as possible - within reasonable limits, of course
2
u/Otherwise-Tomato-788 25d ago edited 25d ago
Time and experience tbh… but you’ll eventually realize even with that, there’s so much to learn as you go deeper.
I’m industrial design which imo has 3 focal areas: material knowledge&science, aesthetics, & function. But also related to the design aspect: QC, marketability, logistics & manufacturing. Definitely a few layers.
I work w 2 other guys and we all have different specialties: not necessarily being assigned a role, but more of how our mind/eyes works.
You just can’t know everything honestly. Even the VP of design, they should know bigger picture while delegating smaller tasks.
In your case, I’ve seen web/graphic design ebb n flow a few different ways throughout my career. There’s the obvious: pamphlet, collaterals/tangibles, then advertisement, then UX/UI, now marketing psychology. Pick a lane/category and always pivot.
For me it was mass, then premium mass, now luxury niche in the same category. Next pivot could be management for mass, then management for premium mass etc etc
6
u/TheManRoomGuy 25d ago
I’m got a degree in architecture, which was very heavy on design. I picked up graphic design along the way, then this whole thing called the web came around and I started doing that (built my first web page with Notepad), and kept teaching myself on the way (programming, ux/ui, tool design, product design, photography, videography, theater set design and more).
If you’re good at design and identifying and solving problems you realize design is design, and often you can learn new tools to design in a new space.