Remember the Design Director I mentioned earlier? The one who led by vision, not by title? They didn’t manage people - they managed direction. Their authority came from clarity, not hierarchy.

That role has all but vanished. Today, design leadership sits in a fog of titles, frameworks, and org charts. The distinction between trade, career, and function has blurred. Once, design was a craft; now it’s a job description.

Let’s unpack that. 

Design as a trade is about skill - using expertise to create value. Design as a career is about trajectory - how you grow and influence others. Design as a function is about integration - how design operates within an organisation.

When you treat design purely as a function, you become a commodity. You compete on cost, not contribution. Whether you’re a freelancer, contractor, or full-time employee, the danger is the same: you sell skills, not outcomes.

Over the years, I’ve spoken with more than 5,000 design professionals. Their frustration rarely comes from lack of ability. It comes from lack of purpose. The internet is overflowing with tutorials, frameworks, and masterclasses. But what it can’t teach is why you design.

Many people drift into design by accident. They take a short course, update LinkedIn, and call themselves “problem solvers.” But when asked what they actually do, their answers falter. “I do design.” “I’m a designer.” That hesitation says everything. If you can’t articulate your role, how can others understand its value?

This confusion weakens design’s influence inside organisations. In too many companies, business, engineering, or HR lead the conversation while design waits to be invited. Ironically, these are the very organisations that depend most on design to differentiate and deliver.

To change that, designers must stop waiting for recognition and start defining their own value.

Take time to understand what you actually contribute. Are you an executor, a strategist, a facilitator? Do you build the thing or make sense of it? Once you see that clearly, you can plot a path. Without that self-knowledge, growth is just motion without meaning.

I’ve met countless designers who believe that doing the same thing better will eventually earn them promotion. It won’t. Growth requires direction.

So ask yourself: What kind of designer do you want to become? Do you want to lead a team? To master a craft? To teach, or to build?

There’s no right answer. But there is a very wrong assumption: that you can have everything at once. Ambition has to be specific to be useful.

Maybe your goal is to build a world-class portfolio. Maybe it’s to be a great parent. Few manage both simultaneously, and that’s fine. What matters is honesty. Write it down. Say it out loud. Make it real. 

Before you announce you want to be a Design Director, talk to one. Ask what their job is actually like. You might discover it’s less creative and more political than you thought. Or you might find that leadership is exactly where your skills belong.

Either way, clarity is power.

Your beliefs and ambitions shape your trajectory. When you can articulate them, opportunities find you faster. Because in the end, people don’t pay for your tools or your titles — they pay for your judgment.

Your career isn’t over. But your old definition of career might be.