'Polymath interpolators' - the next generation of designers

This paper argues that a new emerging generation of designers is needed to tackle the many different challenges facing the design profession. These challenges are many and well documented in, for example, the recent Cox Review of Creativity in Business in the UK [1]. This include 3 key issues - (1) changes within the design profession itself [discipline blurring], (2) changing economic factors within a global marketplace [employment patterns], and (3) emerging rapid technological developments [most notably in information and computing technologies]. This paper explores the notion of the "polymath interpolator", as a new breed of designer, who will be best placed to address these challenges. Using a number of recent interdisciplinary design case study projects from both industry and academia that embrace the fuzzy and dynamic space between and beyond the traditional categories of product, furniture, and spatial design, for example, this paper will describe the role of this future "hybrid designer".