The role of collaboration in design work

А.

These days, no one can truly create meaningful work alone, particularly when it comes to impact. But trusting others and their life experience and giving them room to play, experiment, and fail without risk leads to some amazing work and outcomes. The key to this is having a shared vision for what the outcome should be and enough flexibility to explore how it could be.

Abb-d Taiyo, Founder of Driftime, a UK-based creative practice

When it comes to business and marketing goals, collaborative design projects are the most successful

1.

Teamwork facilitates a faster turnaround of design projects. With team members working in parallel, tasks can be tackled simultaneously, significantly reducing project timelines. This agility is especially valuable in a dynamic design landscape where quick adaptations and iterations are often necessary.

Ultimately, by emphasizing teamwork in a design studio, the studio can produce higher-quality work, meet tight deadlines, and stay competitive in the ever-evolving design industry.

York Creatives
AIGA
Art Directors Club of Europe
Australian Graphic Design Association
Type Directors Club
Design en Recherche
Más Mujeres en UX
La Maison Des Artistes
Creative Artists Agency
Uxcel
The Design Kids
ADPList
Working Class Creatives
Berufsverband Kommunikationsdesign
Design+Friends
The Designers Institute of New Zealand
Interaction Design Foundation
Growth Designers
Design Buddies
Institute of Designers in Ireland

The place of communities in co-creation

B.

Designers rated the role of formal design communities/associations in their careers as average, with a score of 5 out of 10

6.

office
remote
hybrid
Designers' Ego
Distance
Fear of getting critisized
Lack of time
Poor communicative skills
Unclear goals
Lack of information
Unrealistic business metrics
Competition with others
Lack of space
Mistrust in the team
Language barrier
Intrusive opinions of non-designers
Poor management
Different approaches
Fear of being vulnerable
Non-stimulating company culture
Lack of designer-friendly tools
Ego/teamwork balance
Inadequate bugets
Co-create with Readymag

Recap

D.

5/10

74.4%

43%

vs.

is the average score design communities got in terms of impact

of collaborators prefer to work from home, but only

25.6%

25.9%

23%

Collaborative projects tend to be more successful than individual ones in terms of business goals

of respondents participate in a formal design community

believe long-distance creationship is effective

3

68.3%

meetings

meetings per week are held to help designers stick together as a team

of designers mostly turn to self-reflection to improve collaboration skills

50%

66.3%