“The World Economic Forum has identified complex problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity as the top three skills needed to succeed—these are all skills central to a design education.”

MH+D ASKS FREID TO TELL US MORE.

Q. Why did Maine College of Art and Design change its name last year? 

A. We changed our identity from Maine College of Art (MECA) to Maine College of Art and Design (MECA&D) to recognize how central design has become to our world and throughout our courses of study. Fifteen years ago, 30 percent of our students were interested in design. Today 60 percent of art school students are choosing design majors—our newest major areas of interest are animation and game art, textile and fashion design, sustainable ecosystems and design, and art and entrepreneurship. At MECA&D, we are teaching fine arts, applied arts, and design. We are educating artists and designers to have the skills, experience, and attention they need to make their creative mark on the world. 

Q. What skills do you think are critical to future designers?

A. Design is a process or approach to problem-solving. Designers create experiences; design is not only about what something looks like but also about how it works and makes you think, feel, react, and understand.

Future designers must be creative, adaptive, flexible, and receptive to new ideas, technologies, and cultural mores. Designers will continue to understand that collaboration is critical, and the process of research and iteration will always be necessary. Excellent design is ultimately innovative, useful, aesthetic, expressive, understandable, and honest.

Q. What jobs are future designers likely to hold?

A. Today, probably more than at any time in civilization, everything we touch has the work of a designer within it. It’s hard to predict the future. I imagine more than half of our future designers’ jobs haven’t been described yet. It is safe to say future designers will likely be the problem solvers in every room they are in. Some new and unusual jobs that our alums have been offered are Vice President for Massive Change, Forensic Animator, Digital Director of Climate Change, Change Communicator, Associate Experience Director, and Head of Puppet Head Development. 

Q. How do designers add value to our society?

A. Good design considers the future, not just recurrent trends, which is a tremendous value. Designers create new tangible products but also design the intangible: customer experiences, techniques, services, and networks. The enterprises we see succeeding all have incorporated design thinking.

Q. What is design thinking? 

A. The human eye desires beauty; the theory argues we intuitively know good design because we can easily use it. Design thinking is the body of knowledge that focuses on how people reason when facing design problems. Empathy, problem definition, idea generation and collaboration, prototype, and testing are all part of that process. Problems could be real, known, or unknown—understanding unmet human needs is a powerful process. For example, the Apple iPhone, Apple Watch, and Apple iPad all have design as a core function; children can use them before they can read because of the embedded design logic. For that reason, social, emotional, and physical needs are all important to understand when creating new products.

Q. Why do you think our society is so interested in design?

A. Design plays a primary role in understanding, questioning, and integrating our 2D, 3D, and 4D spaces and places. Take the cell phone, for example; it’s not simply an instrument used for conversation. It is a way to mediate all our interactions—our news, our commerce, and our dining all come to us through this technology, and design is central to how everything is experienced. Visualizing information is second nature for children born in the past 20 years. Good design makes things simpler, more accessible, and more aesthetically pleasing. The best design is responsive. It makes our lives easier—and it’s fun for the maker and the rest of us.  

MH+D IS PROUD TO PARTNER WITH ACCLAIMED ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHER TRENT BELL ON HIS ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, AND PHOTOGRAPHY PODCAST. TO HEAR BELL’S CONVERSATION WITH FREID, PLEASE VISIT TRENTBELL.COM/PODCAST