Visionary Bruno Munari wrote already 1960^th:  “Today it has become necessary to demolish the myth of the ‘star’ artist who only produces masterpieces for a small group of ultra-intelligent people. It must be understood that as long as art stands aside from problems of life it will only interest a very few people.” [1]

It seems to us that ‘star’ designer is living well in 2010^th. Wow architecture gathers attention and many designers still act (and are treated) like stars. The spirit of public and media reporters is still supporting the ‘star’ image.

It is basically true that the roots of design are in arts and crafts, but maybe it is difficult to see the relationship between arts and service design.

One of our interviewees may have provided an answer to this problem when talking about the future master education of service design:

”I’d make sure that all participants have a good enough background in both theoretical and practical aspects – lots of philosophy and arts (art productions). Arts enable designers to think about issues more widely. In the new media field everybody has to be able to code. Basic logic (a part of philosophy) should be studied and competence in research methods acquired. A scientific and systematic approach towards analyses has to exist – as does the ability to prepare for planning/design work.” [39]

The respondent has very positive remarks on art and its role in service design education. He takes both practical and theoretical aspects into consideration.

The relationship between art and design has been somewhat complicated and there is no clear picture how the roles of art and design ultimately differ. Some are saying that if design is good enough it becomes art. One great design thinker Kenya Hara has written some very good analysis about the relationship:

Art is an expression of an individual’s will to society at large, one whose origin is very much of a personal nature. So only the artist knows the source of his own work. This loftiness is what makes art so cool. Of course, there are plenty of ways to interpret the expressions that artist give birth to. Non-artist commune with art by coming up with interesting interpretations of art, appreciating it, commenting on it, re-editing art as in an exhibition, or using art as intellectual resource (…) Design, on the other hand, is basically non self-expression. Instead, it originates in society. The essence of design lies in the process of discovering a problem shared by many people and trying to solve it. Because the root of the problem is within the society, everyone can understand the plans for solutions and processes for solving the problem, in addition to being able to see the problem from designer’s perspective. Design is appealing because the process creates inspiration that is engendered by this empathy among human beings in our common values and spirituality.”[2] Hara goes even further: “Verbalizing design is another act of design.[3]

How we could think of a designer as auteur when we talk about service design: “It’s always easier to evaluate a creation in terms of its relationship to its creator. So what happens to the idea of authorship when many hands are involved in bringing something to life.”[4] Service design is cross-disciplinary, collaborative form of work. Service design is done many times anonymously, but sometimes there is an auteur or auteurs.

One of the greatest missions of design educators in last decades has been to develop recognizable handwriting or style for each of their students. Own style can be a very effective strategy for success. On the other hand, clinging to one’s own style can be a very, very bad strategy. Different clients want different styles for different purposes. And talking about service design, one’s own style sounds weird all in all.