Should designers learn multiple forms of design or just focus on becoming an expert in one? Will learning multiple design disciplines make you a “Jack-of-all-trades, Master of None?” Or will it open you up to a larger world of Design?

At Nollie Design, we want you to understand the importance of Multidisciplinary Design. Multidisciplinary Design is about understanding multiple forms of Design at once. We’re beginning to see a movement back towards Multidisciplinary Design.

You might think that this sounds amazing, but you’re probably wondering whether it’s for you. 

We get it, this isn’t the norm in Design. But it used to be. Many of the greatest designers, the ones they taught you about in Design education, were mostly multidisciplinary. 

Designers like Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Massimo Vignelli and Max Bill were all multidisciplinary, and we celebrate multidisciplinary design movements like the Buahaus or the Renaissance.

Check out our list of 10 Multidisciplinary Designers you should know.

Yet, we still see designers feel apprehensive towards becoming multidisciplinary.

Why You Should Consider Becoming Multidisciplinary

Design is not art. It can be art, but that isn’t what Design is at its core. Design is about solving problems for other people, using your ideas and following a process to reach a desired outcome for your clients.

Graphic Design posters solve the problem of drawing attention to an event, or an Industrial Designer creates products to enhance the lives of the people who use it, a Fashion Designer solves the problem of creating clothing that celebrates individual tastes and styles. The art that accompanies design comes second.

This is what designers mean by “Form Follows Function”, or “Function over Fashion.”

Design is about helping people with your work. There’s something rewarding and altruistic about it. It’s what makes our field, in my opinion, more valuable than anything.

By learning from other design disciplines you can learn how other designers tackle different problems in different ways. You can build a larger creative skillset and become a better problem solver.

Multidisciplinary Design from a Different Creative Perspective

I think one of the best ways to explain multidisciplinary design is through using other creative fields as an analogy. Let’s compare multidisciplinary Design to playing music.

Let’s say you started your music journey playing guitar. Once you have a good understanding of playing chords or playing lead guitar, those skills transfer quite easily over to playing bass guitar. 

It doesn’t suddenly mean you’re an amazing Bass player, but if you have a solid foundation from guitar you can crank out a few tunes. You can now play two instruments well enough to play songs. You can then expand into ukulele or banjo. That’s 4 different instruments, just from learning guitar.

If you understand Music Theory, you’ll have an understanding of what makes good music. It will make it even easier for the musician to pick up another instrument and understand what they’re trying to achieve. These skills work together to build a better understanding of the music.

Nobody is telling Dave Grohl to stay in his lane, stick to drums and pack in the singing and the guitar playing. We understand, or even respect him more, because we know the breadth of his musical ability. Yet, we do this to Designers… Why?

Being a Multidisciplinary Designer is similar to the musician story. It doesn’t suddenly make you an expert in everything, but you know use your foundational knowledge to adapt. The more you learn, the more you can do. 

Like Dave Grohl, you might not be the world’s greatest guitar player, but you can still make great music. The result is what matters. 

Why Multidisciplinary Design is Important for the Future

Multidisciplinary Design can be a hard sell sometimes. We’ve been told for years that we needed to specialise in our careers. 

This is because thanks to Henry Ford and his invention of the assembly line, businesses want one person to one specialised task over and over again. 

We see this in the Design world, designers who feel like “pixel pushers” doing the same boring tasks over and over. Since starting Nollie Design, I’ve met so many designers who feel stifled.

The job market favours specialisation, but things are changing. The world is changing, it’s becoming more complex, globalised and technologically advanced. We’re facing giant difficult problems like plastic pollution and climate change. 

As things become more interconnected, the way we’ve been solving problems needs to change. We now can’t rely on a specialist. We need multiple perspectives to be able to solve these problems. These changes are happening now…

In the UK, we’re seeing governments pushing for multidisciplinary teams, new multidisciplinary universities and agencies like the Design Council pushing for more multidisciplinary design education. This is happening around the world.

What To do If You Want to Become Multidisciplinary?

If you’ve made it this far, then you are clearly weighing up what it takes to become Multidisciplined.

At Nollie Design, we’ve broken down the different design fields to what they are at their core. These are our 12 Principles of Multidisciplinary Design. Each principle can be applied to your own field and a way to expand into others.

Many multidisciplinary designers were architects who worked in multiple fields down to Graphic Design, that’s where I started so I’m going to show you the reverse.

Our goal is to take you from posters to post and beam (self-build) architecture. 

If you want to keep up to date with our latest Multidisciplinary Resources and posts, sign out to the Nollie Newsletter.