Are New-Age Designers Really Learning?

Design, once a passion-driven path chosen by a rare few, has now confidently found its place beside traditional careers like engineering and medicine. The perception has shifted, design is no longer the bohemian cousin in the career family. It's now mainstream, aspirational, and let’s be honest, expensive. Four-year programs at prestigious design schools today come with a hefty price tag, promising to sculpt students into "industry-ready" professionals.

But as someone who has been in this industry for over 25 years, I find myself asking: are these new-age designers really learning? Or are we just watching an assembly line that churns out surface-level talent in sleek portfolios?

1. From Passion to Positioning

Earlier, design was something people fell in love with. You didn’t “choose” it like you would an MBA program you felt it. It grew from a deep personal need to create, express, solve, and explore. Today, I see that fire dimming.

Design now often feels like a career option chosen not out of passion, but because it’s good-looking. “I used to love doodling” or “I’m creative, so why not?” are common backstories. I’ve even seen top engineering minds IIT rankers enter elite design institutions simply because they’re smart enough to crack the exam. No doubt they’ll be strategic thinkers. But will they bring sensitivity to aesthetics, to form, to context?

2. Reference-Rich, Soul-Starved

We live in the age of infinite reference. Pinterest boards, Behance, Dribbble, AI tools, it’s all there. You'd think access to such a buffet of design would lead to more refinement. Paradoxically, it hasn’t.

What I see is referencing without internalizing. Copy-paste mindsets. Overexposure with under processing. Too much consumption, not enough contemplation. It’s like chewing food and spitting it out before digesting.

Design is not a shortcut. It’s a journey of absorption and reflection. But many don’t seem to have the patience for that anymore.

3. The Easy Exit Syndrome

Another rising trend I’ve observed particularly among interns or young studio recruits is a quick-swap mentality. Enter a stream, face a struggle, exit to another stream. Rinse, repeat.

The problem isn’t the switch itself. It’s the lack of depth before the decision. Struggles are important. They’re where the real learning happens. But instead of confronting the discomfort, many seek a new stream thinking passion will magically appear there. Spoiler: it doesn’t.

4. Reflections on Learning, Mentorship, and the Rise of Mediocrity

Having spent 25 years in this industry, I consider myself fortunate to have been trained and mentored by some of the finest minds. But that didn’t happen by chance. It happened because I wanted to learn. I surrendered myself to the process. I threw myself into the fire without hesitation no bargaining, no conditions just a raw, passionate desire to grow. I didn’t just treat my work as a profession; I fell in love with it. Deeply. Madly.

That’s why today’s scenario feels so different, and somewhat disappointing.

The hunger to learn, that sense of surrender, that willingness to be moulded, it’s rare now. What I increasingly witness is a generation of young professionals who approach the craft with entitlement rather than humility. Senior guidance is often met with resistance, defensiveness, or outright dismissal.

I’ve heard statements like:

• “Who are you to say that?”
• “I won’t be able to come today or stay back late.”
• “This wasn’t taught in my college.”

And these aren’t one-off comments, they’ve become a pattern. A pattern that slowly but steadily chips away at the very foundation of knowledge-sharing.

The result? Seniors step back. They stop investing. Not because they don’t care, but because it becomes exhausting to push against a wall of indifference or ego. They return to their own work quietly, guarding their hard-earned wisdom like an unsent letter.

The juniors, in turn, miss out on something priceless, real-world learning. Over time, they complete 3–4 years in the industry, but the depth of their understanding remains surface-level. The result is a pool of professionals with titles and portfolios, but very little craft at the core. Many unknowingly plateau at a very average level, not even aware of what they don’t know.

And then the strangest thing happens they begin to celebrate this mediocrity. They mistake visibility for value. They confuse confidence with competence. It’s like a cycle of unawareness, they don’t know that they don’t know.

This isn’t to generalize or paint all young professionals with the same brush, there are still some brilliant and driven individuals out there. But they are now the exception, not the norm.

If this continues, the gap between knowledge and execution will only widen. The craft will suffer. And most painfully, the culture of true mentorship will slowly die.

It’s time we rethink how we value experience, how we approach learning, and how we bridge the widening chasm between generations in this industry. Because skills can be taught, but only if there’s someone willing to teach, and someone willing to learn.

Where Do We Go From Here?

This isn’t a blanket criticism. I’ve met some brilliant young minds too hungry, humble, and brave enough to question themselves. But they are the exceptions, not the norm.

Design is not just a career. It’s a way of seeing. A way of questioning. A way of solving. And most importantly, it’s a way of feeling.

If we’re turning our design schools into factories, churning out degree-holders who’ve skipped the inner journey, then we’re not building a future of design thinkers. We’re building a generation of design decorators.

It’s time we ask not just what they’re learning, but how deeply.

Because if we don’t fix the foundation, we’ll all be standing on shaky ground.