In Poland, it has been over two decades since we started talking about design thinking in the design process. And rightfully so, due to its democratizing effect on the designer’s profession, but wrongfully, as the market is now flooded with so many design process facilitators after one-year design schools and courses that it seems like little studying will suffice to be a designer. Still, design is taught by academies in Poland and abroad. They teach from the perspective of art, technology, management and humanities. As much as a director or artist, you can become a designer by acquiring a series of competences and experience. What, therefore, is the role of the design process, including design thinking, in this long-term process?
The article explains why design thinking is not enough to call yourself a designer, what role this process serves in design work and why abduction – a certain creative way of reasoning – must be passionately developed. It also takes this perspective to describe changes in the intercontinental approach characteristic of the rational (vs. intuitive) fight for design, in which design thinking seems to be the most apparent and common at the moment.
Keywords: international approaches, design process, design thinking, designer’s abduction