A designer is a person who designs something. Perhaps the broadest definition is that provided by Herbert Simon: ‘Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.'

As well as amateur designers, there are many professional designer occupations (see list of Examples). To become a professional designer usually requires study to degree level and certain work experience or training. Entry to some design professions is strictly controlled or limited by legal requirements, but use of the title ‘designer' is generally un-regulated.

Working as a designer usually implies being creative in a particular area of expertise. Designers are usually responsible for developing the concept and making drawings or models for something new that will be made by someone else. Their work takes into consideration not only how something will look, but also how it will be used and how it will be made. There can be great differences between the working styles and principles of designers in different professions.

In the 1980s the term ‘designer' began to be applied to products such as furniture and clothing that had distinctive aesthetics or were the work of certain ‘signature' designers. So, for example, there were ‘designer chairs' and ‘designer jeans'. The term later came to be applied to anything that was ostentatiously created for a purpose, such as ‘designer drugs', or even the ‘designer stubble' worn by some fashionable men.

Examples

Different types of designers include:

• architect or architectural designer,
• automotive designer,
• costume designer,
• engineering designer,
• fashion designer,
• game designer,
• graphic designer,
• industrial designer,
• interaction designer,
• interior designer,
• jewelry designer,
• landscape designer, lighting designer,
• scenic designer,
• systems designer,
• web designer.

See also

• Design engineer
• Design firm
• Design thinking
• Visual arts