Depending on your viewpoint, the various specialist strands of design are either converging or diverging. What's certain is that nothing stays the same. While there is clearly room for the rarified skills of a typographer or logo wizard, design is increasingly about bringing different skills together to create brand experiences.
From software to services our memory and attachment to brands (or businesses) is determined by the experience we have. We seamlessly, sometimes simultaneously, shuffle between big and small screen via print, a physical product or a service. (Think how you might book a holiday for reference). Designing for these related media components takes a different mindset, and a different kind of designer.
Step forward the content designer
At the root of all brand communication and experiences is content. Whatever the medium, content, and the idea behind it, is the differentiating factor. Increasingly, the strategy, creation and delivery of great content ideas requires a versatile, collaborative mindset from people who can conceive brilliant fluid ideas that work in any scenario.
At UXB we rely on people that think beyond their specialism. We need people who have at least an opinion on the interrelated components that make an experience. The designer's role therefore is not to make a nice arrangement of things. The job is to engage, inform or entertain in the most elegant and appropriate way. Design here is about understanding the role and importance of content and how best to maximise it's value in any medium.
Some of the best UX'ers I know have a background in product design. Marcio Kogan, one of my favourite architects, was a film maker for 18 years. And a former Spice Girl keeps winning fashion awards.
Proving that thinking beyond your field and understanding how content works in your niche is both vital and rewarding.