Professionalisation and its Discontents: Design 1930-1980

What does it mean to be defined as a creative professional? Since the mid- twentieth century, this term has been used to describe people working in advertising, design and other creative industries, but its meaning and history has never been traced over time. Taking a creative approach to trace the history of a creative profession, this research project will investigate the representation and identity of the Design Consultant in Austria, Australia, Britain and the United States, 1930-1980 to answer the question, what makes design distinctive as a profession? The researcher investigates archives of designers working internationally in the period, connecting the work of Viennese designer Carl Auböck from his archive in the family workshop in Vienna, with Gaby Schreiber, Viennese design émigré, whose archive is held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Importantly, the research brings the role of women to its centre, arguing that female designers, including Belle Kogan and Gaby Schreiber, played a significant role in the shaping of this new profession, which has previously been overlooked. This research project, based in the department of design history and theory at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, explores the idea that the designer lifestyle, represented and promoted through the media and popular culture, represented a new way of working, through flexible attitudes and cultures that would later shape professional identity in other areas, outside design, including business, through practices such as design thinking. The project is designed to develop a close collaboration and exchange of ideas with international colleagues in the fields of design history, sociology and the history of technology through seminars, workshops and conferences to generate new ideas about creative work, identity and professionalization. In its final outcome, the research culminates in a monograph publication that explores the history of the designer: a creative professional.