Design: knowledge and missions. The generalistic training of ‘Made in italy' industrial designer

Since its first formulation, the term “design” has been attributed the function of driving the commercial success of a product through specialized skills capable of mediating between social needs and technical innovations. But since the 1960s the designer's work has been relegated to a form of product styling for the purpose of his ability to compete commercially, and aesthetically, on highly globalized markets. Design has become a commercial attribute to satisfy the desires of consumers at the expense of its ethical, social and environmental prerogatives. The current socio-economic condition, the changed environmental demands, the advent of new production technologies and the triumph of new communication systems now require the training of a new figure of designer who not only knows how to worry about giving shape to things but also knows how to investigate and analyze the environmental contexts in which he is called to work in order to look for problems to which to give appropriate and efficient solutions. The contribution intends to reflect on the theme of the foundation for the training of new designers that must be sought in the interdisciplinary and transversal nature of knowledge and skills. It is necessary to train a designer with a 'generalist' and not 'specialist' approach, able to communicate with the different cultures of 'doing' and to resist the current division of knowledge. Design must be understood as a process and an activity aimed at innovating, which means to design a transformation that aims to create something new to satisfy a need, solve a problem, improve the quality of life. The designer must be able to interpret and coordinate various knowledge around increasingly complex problems, without giving up the 'poetic' dimension of design, understood as an expression of art. He should be able to share information and learn knowledge belonging to sectors outside the design one, in order to trigger synergies, expand research fields and rediscover the ethical dimension of the profession.