Design is fundamentally utopian.
As a designer, you live in a certain time and culture, and that comes with peculiar habits, opinions and expectations everybody takes for granted.
Some 10 to 20 years later, all of these veneers and assumptions you take for granted now will look curious, offbeat, and at times shocking.
A designer has to be able to see beyond the immediate.
If what you design manipulates or deceives, you are a politican, not a designer. If what you design is a copy, you are a thief, not a designer.
If you have curiosity, a taste for exploration, and the unwavering commitment to make things better, you are on your way to become a designer.
Design has no religious beliefs, but it has ideals. Design has no place for politics, but for best practices.
Design always has to give something: something to make life more liveable, something which helps people and the environment, something which enlightens.
If you create something which inspires people to learn something they did not know, if you create a product which gives people joy, if you contribute to improve lives, or if you just write a single sentence which inspires new viewpoints, then you are a designer.
— Mario Gagliardi, 2021