A far-reaching impact of design today does not only include product creation, enhancement of its aesthetic and functional level but also design of innovative constructive solutions, systems in which the product exists, whether in the sphere of sales or their liquidation. Yet, it offers more than this. Today design also intervenes in designing a broader framework of the functioning of society as such through the so-called design thinking. Design moves from a product to service. The impact of digital technologies cannot also be ignored as they pose new questions and doubt established design thinking at the level of its creation, production, and users.
Another point is that it is often controversially perceived. On the one hand there stands a notion that the role of design and a designer is to make the world better and bring about new solutions to problems and on the other hand we are talking about the so called “ designer´s paradox”, who strives to make the world better by designing products and bringing about innovations which are causing resource and energy consumption, and environmental pollution. That represents only a partial solution within a system that is intrinsically unsustainable.
In the next point we follow a very simplified perception of design as a pop discipline, which is primarily geared towards profit and consumption increase, which influences its status in the cultural hierarchy as less valuable art. On the other hand, we can see that design can perform the mission as a means of personal and cultural expression, which can also exceed the impact of art.
In recent years, there have been discussions on the necessity to alter the paradigm and reassessment of seemingly unchanging positions of design in the world, which is slowly shifting into an intangible digital space in the background of the impending climate crisis.