Imagine you are in a room. You know this room. You grew up in it. Over time you observe more and more details in the room. A little crack in the wall, a few rotten decking boards, dirty water comes out of the tap.
You want to feel at home in the room. You want to secure a future for yourself and be there for other people. So, you design a poster to cover the crack in the wall. The poster features different species of whale and their names — a subject you are passionate about and wish others knew more about. Then you weave a carpet and lay it over the decking boards. It's not the best carpet you could have made, but never mind. You try your best to improve the room. But nothing really seems to work. One day, you realize that you had no control over how this room was built. It was already there when you were born. No matter how many designs you add to make it more livable, the overall construction of the room does not change.
So, close your eyes and try to imagine a different room. A room without cracks, rotten decking boards or dirty water. Looking good! Maybe you could even change something about the structure. But that's hard for you to imagine because you've only ever seen this room. Anyway, you open your eyes and ask yourself how you would get to this room. The best thing to do is probably to talk to different specialists who can help you understand. A civil engineer, a carpenter, an architect or a plumber, for example. You do this. You also read books about it, talk to people who have already dealt with these issues, and try to figure out how to change the status quo. Now you are more informed, but still far from knowing everything. The next step is to take action. Get practical. Create different prototypes: various mini versions of the cracked wall, different decking boards, and much more besides. You bring other people on board, build relationships, and create a community dedicated to being part of this change. Most of the time, the whole process feels like stumbling in the dark because there isn't really a blueprint for how to do this. However, with every interaction and over time, you learn more and more, and things slowly start to change.
This story and the room metaphor highlight various aspects of being a designer. The current view of designers is more akin to the first version: improving the existing room (our constructed world and views) slightly, but still being influenced by it. A more emancipated view of design is the second one. Design can be ancient and part of creating a new world. As it is a new, undiscovered territory, you experiment a lot and, with the help of many other people, create something that is more future-proof than the current system.