At Nollie, we want to demonstrate the transferable skills in Design. Being an interdisciplinary designer allows you to see the overlaps between design fields and use them to adapt to different projects with the 12 Principles of Interdisciplinary Design.

Learning from other fields of design outside of your specialty allows you to develop a bigger picture of how these different disciplines interact. Once you understand those areas of overlap it makes it easier to adapt to new projects.

What is an Interdisciplinary Designer?

An interdisciplinary designer is someone who works between different design fields with ease. They take a holistic approach to their design process allowing them to create projects across multiple fields of design. 

They learn from working on different types of design projects and harness the techniques and skills they’ve acquired to create new innovative solutions. They build a bigger picture of design and use that understanding to create holistic and innovative solutions.

These designers could be described as Polymaths. A polymath is someone who learns and understands a wide range of topics. They spend their time learning and developing concepts from multiple sources of learning and utilizing them together to create something unique and innovative.

In todays society, we’ve seen a backlash against the Jack-of-all-Trades, yet these people always forget there’s a second half to the saying…

“A Jack-of-all-trades, Master of None, is oftentimes better than a Master of One.”

Ten Interdisciplinary Designers

These designers understood how different elements and techniques can come together to build a bigger understanding of Design.

We hope you find inspiration in these designers to go and develop your own interdisciplinary skills.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh 

Scotland (1868 – 1928) 

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Designer and Architect who is famous in Scotland for his buildings, furniture, interiors and artwork. He and three of his peers, together known as the Four, launched their own brand within the Art Nouveu movement that became “The Glasgow Style.” 

Mackintosh created some of the cities most famous buildings in Glasgow, including The Glasgow School of Art, The Willow Tea Rooms and the Scotland Street School.

Within his buildings, he wanted his interiors and furnishings to follow the same level of detail that he applied to the exterior. For the Willow Tea Rooms, he designed everything from the building down to the cutlery to be used by the guests.

His design work has become the most celebrated Scottish Design exports. His chairs have become iconic in Scottish design and across the world. 

If you want to find out more about Mackintosh, you can read my article here as I went on Glasgow’s Mackintosh trail to learn more about him.

Lious Kalff

The Netherlands (1897-1976)

Louis Kalff was a dutch architect, designer and art director. He worked for Philips in Eindhoven where he was appointed Art Director after telling the boss that he needed to modernise his advertising… which took some bottle!

Louis Kalff began his career in Graphic Design designing posters for Philips, as in Philips the brand that you’ve definitely heard of. They began as a lighting company and now cover a whole range of sectors.

Being involved in the world of Lighting, he then was commissioned to create lighting sections at the Barcelona, Antwerp and Paris World Exhibitions.

Charlotte Perriand

France (1903 – 1999)

Charlotte Perriand famously had a connection with French Architect Le Corbusier. When she sent her application to work for his studio he replied “We don’t embroider cushions here.” But he would come crawling back time and time again.

Perriand gained attention with the rooftop bar, Bar sous le Toît. The bar explored new materials in metal and glass. It got the attention of Le Corbusier, inviting her to join her studio.

She worked with Le Corbusier before moving to Japan to study traditional crafts in 1940, only to become stranded in Vietnam, when they joined World War 2. 

She returned to France and asked Le Corubusier to help mass manufacture her work, but he told her he was uninterested now she had become a mother. She had the last laugh and set up her own practice, becoming independently successful.

She tried to bring affordable furniture to mass manufacturing. Aiming to get her famous Chaise longue in people’s homes. While she never succeeded herself, Foundation Le Corbusier now reproduces them for £4000 a piece. 

Kenji Ekuan

Japan (1929 – 2015)

If your a big soy sauce lover, the chances are you’ve encountered Ekuan’s work. Ekuan is perhaps best known for his bottle design for Kikkoman Soy Sauce, but his work extends across transport designs, interiors and experimental housing.

Ekuan’s story in Design, started after seeing the devastation of the Hiroshima bombings in World War 2, where he lost his sister and then father to radiation poisoning. He became a monk for several years. He then studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

His work is diverse from the classic soy sauce bottle, to motorbikes for Yamaha, to experimental housing, to the Komachi bullet train. He viewed design as a way to solve society’s problems and wanted beautiful design to belong to everyone, not just the wealthy.

Max Bill

Switzerland (1908 – 1994)

Max Bill was a Swiss Designer whose work covered Graphic, Industrial and Architectural designs. 

Originally he wanted to become a silversmith, before deciding to study at the Buahaus. Unfortunately he couldn’t finish his studies after getting his teeth knocked out and had to pay for surgery.

He funded much of his early years with Graphic Design work before building his own house and Studio. He used the studio for work, allowing him to begin industrial design and sculpture projects. 

He went on to create the Ulm School of Design. Not bad for a design school dropout!

Neri Oxman 

Israel (1976)

If you’ve seen the Design series Abstract, on Netflix you’ll be familiar with Neri Oxman. If you’ve not seen it, you should watch it immediately after reading this article!

Neri Oxman has become renowned for her ability to mix design with science. She previously worked at MIT where she started the Mediated Matter research group. Since leaving she started her own studio OXMAN, which pushes her further into the work of exploring design and biology.

If you haven’t seen Oxman’s work before, her project involving silkworms to create large complex silk structures is fascinating and definitely worth checking out.

Eileen Gray

Ireland (1903 – 1999)

Eileen Gray was a designer who was a pioneer in her field of furniture design and architecture. Sadly her work went mostly unrecognised until she was 94 years old, only a few years before her death.

She struggled to find a passion for design in formal education, but it came to her when she discovered lacquering, a traditional Japanese technique that used resin from tree sap. She opened a store in Paris where she sold lacquer screens.

Gray went on to create furniture items, and develop interiors but her career transitioned when she created her first architectural project, a building named E-1027, with no formal training. Only using Le Corbusier’s Five Pillars of Architecture as guidance.

Le Corbusier had a mixed reaction, on one hand he admired her work, but was furious at stealing his style. He built a cabin on the rocks below E-1027 near the coastline, where he drowned in 1965.

Gray’s work largely went unnoticed in larger design circles and it was in 1975 she was “introduced” to the world, gaining critical acclaim around the world, at the age of 94. Her works were reproduced and now sell for millions at auction.

Ai Weiwei

China (1957)

Ai Weiwei is best known for designing the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the “Bird’s Nest”, for the 2008 Summer Olympics held in China.

His work is known for blending art and design. A political activist, he has brought a lot of controversy in China for his views on their government, forcing him to live in self-exile.

His work often highlights injustice and suffering and uses design as a tool for his activism. His work has been so controversial in China that in 2018 they demolished his studio in Beijing, with no warning.

Gerrit Rietveld

The Netherlands (1888 – 1964)

Gerrit Rietveld was a Dutch designer and architect whose furniture designs and buildings have become known the world over. He learned carpentry at his dad’s traditional furniture workshop before studying architecture.

His Red and Blue chair has become an icon in design, and can be found in museums and exhibitions the world over. His other furniture, Zig-Zag Chair, Crate pieces and Press Room Chair have also went on to become classics.

His first building, The Rietveld Schröder House, was an instant success, and is said to have inspired Eileen Gray’s E-1027.

Massimo Vignelli

Italy (1931 – 2014)

Massimo Vignelli was a design powerhouse whose work spans interior design, environmental design, package design, graphic design, furniture design, fashion, and industrial design. He was a pioneer.

Vignelli was mostly associated with Graphic Design, his most famous work in this field being the New York Subway map. He also helped Helvetica become the household name that know now. 

He famously used only six fonts in his Graphic Design work, Garamond, Bodoni, Century Expanded, Futura, Times, Helvetica. 

Not only was he renowned for Graphic Design work but also for his industrial design work. His furniture and dish sets are staples of modernism. He also designed staple and simple fashion, packaging and book publishing.

Who’s Missing?

At Nollie, we want to build up a list of interdisciplinary designers from around the world. This list has only begun to scratch the surface of interdisciplinary designers past and present.

If there’s an interdisciplinary designer from your country that hasn’t been listed, leave their name in the comments. 

What Makes An Interdisciplinary Designer?

Hopefully, this post inspires you to begin looking at ways you can expand your creative work. But you might be wondering how these designers could become so well-rounded.

Natural Curiosity

Curiosity is a natural driver for many of the designers mentioned above. Being a designer is a great way to learn new things and use those insights into creative solutions that solve problems.

As a designer you’ll need to learn a lot. If you are not learning something with every project you won’t grow as a designer. 

Research is one of the key stages in any design process. You should be out meeting experts, meeting intended users and getting feedback wherever possible.

What are you currently curious about? What can you go and learn and how could you bring that to life with a design project?

Creativity

An interdisciplinary designer is not bound by the rules and limitations of staying in one field. These people refuse to stay in their lane, because sometimes it looks more fun in another lane.

They’re like explorers, always searching for new ideas and connections between different subjects. The more they learn, the more they can see how these connections can come together.

So, when you think about what makes an interdisciplinary designer, remember: it’s all about that sense of wonder and excitement for learning new things.

Passion for Design

These designers all have a deep passion for design. But how they found it differs from person to person. Eileen Gray didn’t find her passion for design until after leaving two prestigious art schools.

To build up your passion for design start in the areas that excite you the most and build from there. As you develop one skill you can begin to add and learn others. 

The most important thing for any designer, is you need to make it fun for yourself. Look at your interests, where does design relate to those interests? Design is everywhere and looking for ways you can incorporate it, in a way that highlights your personal interests, is going to get you further than burdening yourself with classes and lessons that you can’t relate to.

I’ll leave one more quote from Massimo Vignelli, “The reward? Why, the reward is to do all this!”

How You Can Become an Interdisciplinary Designer

At Nollie, we want to demonstrate how you can learn interdisciplinary skills by showing you the areas that overlap within design. You can use these areas of overlap to your advantage, and build up a diverse skillset.

If you want to become a designer with a set of skills like the names listed above, check out our 12 Principles of Generalist Design. Each principle is linked to one design field and you can add these skills to your creative work.

Who knows, maybe one day we can add your name to the list…