What is a core element that aligns design and business?

At the core of designer education, though not specific to design, we have the ‘project’ as a unit that designers learn to apply their skills and competencies to. The ‘project’ is a process through which occupations organize themselves to attain market power and recognition, and it is an essential component of design attitude. Though in design this ‘project’ splits itself in natural science and fine arts led projects, designers marry both types of project attitudes depending on context and application. The reality of business is one of initiatives that can be described as projects, or a combination of projects that run through a number of stages that require different skill sets and competencies, rely on different ceremonies, rituals that are important and align with what designers can do by training, beyond instinct and experience.

This can be observed across a wide range of design professionals, the ‘project’ itself as a means to an end in an ongoing battle for design to be recognized and accepted as a credible profession in the midst of others, something typical of other occupations that use the project as a means to assert their place in society.