Yes of course they are, they have to be creative to imagine solutions to problems. Do they know how to creatively design a product?  No I don’t think they do…

Now, please don’t get upset, Engineers come up with fantastic ideas, and the goods ones are very creative people. Perhaps if you want to generalise, designers are a bit more artistic, engineers are better at maths, but the really important difference is in training. Where engineers learn analysis tools to solve problems, designers learn how to use creativity to solve problems.

I remember various debates on creativity in an engineering and CAD forum, where Engineers have hotly argued that the felt tip fairies are all just coming up with daft ideas, whereas the engineers can be  just as creative AND practical too. I’m lucky to have a foot in both camps, trained as an engineer and working as a designer. From this perspective I’d have to say that the engineers in these debates are wrong. (more…)