Value to Inspire not Specify- Art education is no longer a space of difference but of academic equivalence.

Title: Value to Inspire not Specify- Art education is no longer a space of difference but of academic equivalence. Is there a need for designers to realise that they have to propose something that inspires stakeholders to adopt designs as a viable, desirable alternative? Sometimes this does not equate design processes with research writing, or research skills, in a demonstration of what could become real. This paper is interested in the suggestion that this is part of the skill set that designers better have or need to have now, perhaps a different value form of design research and or design practice? In a long gone era designers were given a problem to be solved and provided drawings of a solution, if the information added up these designs were realised. Not only is this unrealistic in today’s markets, as the fact is that nearly all design takes place in a network of stakeholders and indeed there are many definitions of what a stakeholder is or does. Design is collaborative, whether as participatory design, working in design teams, or in collaborations with other disciplines working on projects that involve humans. It always needs to inspire, not specify. So can the core values of design change to encompass and characterise new skills for designers? To develop models that value design skills and methods but proactively seek connections to ethical value, philosophical value, social value, value for the economy and value for change. Do our institutions, the fabric of design schools, need to hang on to the legacy of the past or break away to foster new links and new discipline connections. One of the most significant discussions in design and design thinking currently is the change in the future of our design education and practice. With this said it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the changes of monumental proportions within the world such as climate change, urbanization, water shortages, overpopulation and questions about the dissatisfaction around capitalism. Each of these transitions is altering the human experience on an international scale. These changes therefore dictate trends within our global design community. As designers can we use the inherent optimism embedded in design to deliver and solve these challenges or perhaps re-value them. This paper will use the basis of this to explore how design has evolved, is evolving and will evolve in the future. To fully understand these changes and look into the future we must look back to what has happened in the past and how design practice was formed and the complex relationship between socioeconomic, political and geographical factors within design. How have our actions shaped design appearance and how has this interplay crucial to how we can understand and re-value design ideas.