In 2014, Fast Company published an article entitled “8 Reasons Why Creatives Will Rule the World” (Cooper, 2014). The reasons are interesting, and include hints at how right brainers handle complexity by being adaptive risk takers who understand the power of stories in an increasingly complex world. Although designers might be tempted to equate being a creative with being an artist, the article clearly points in another way

An experience at a recent conference break out discussion session focused on design foundation courses was insightful (Design Principles, 2017). The descriptions by the participants about foundational design courses at their institution highlighted the continuing influence of the artistic legacy in design. An attendee from Europe at an earlier design conference held in Australia, when listening to the presentations and subsequent discussions of designers from the United States, observed, “I don’t think that Design in Europe carries the same artistic baggage that design seems to in the United States.” (Futureground, 2004)

Although industrial design programs recognized by IDSA and NASAD are spread between Colleges of Art, Design, Architecture, and Technology, many Industrial Design programs today begin the educational experience of design students with the abstract compositional concepts described as the “Elements and Principles of Design” – some version of Point, Line, Shape, Form, Texture, Color, Proportion, Balance, Scale, Unity, Contrast. Compare this to the concepts of Complexity, Creativity, Adaptation, Understanding Values, The Power of Stories, Risk Taking, and Empathy combined with Rational Thinking. As we develop the ID curriculum of the future, are we moving in the right direction?