{"id":7316,"date":"2020-03-02T18:03:16","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T23:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/?p=7316"},"modified":"2021-04-21T11:05:52","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:05:52","slug":"ageist-stereotypes-in-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/originals\/ageist-stereotypes-in-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Refuting Ageist Stereotypes in Design"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

\u201cOK Boomer\u201d memes<\/a>. Anti-Boomer election campaigns<\/a>. Ads in the subway<\/a>. Trailers for Hollywood blockbusters<\/a>. Facebook<\/a>. Tinder<\/a>. There\u2019s seemingly no escape from ageist stereotypes in our culture, especially not in the workplace. According to AARP, three out of five workers have either seen or experienced some form of work-related age discrimination and new research is showing that that age-based discrimination can start as early as 42<\/a>.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s face it\u2014design isn\u2019t known for its age-diverse office culture<\/a>. Part of the reason why is because it\u2019s a creative field and a fairly youth-obsessed field. The latest is often seen as the greatest. Not only is that overly simplistic, it\u2019s flat-out wrong. Design is design, and an individual can have the vision and the training to do good design at any age.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, there are a number of persistent stereotypes about older creatives that we can\u2019t seem to shake. Here, we\u2019ll look at some of the most destructive ageist stereotypes impacting design, and show you why they\u2019re baseless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re old, you\u2019re out of the loop<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an assumption that the olds don\u2019t have their finger on the pulse. They\u2019re bad dressers<\/a>, they\u2019re gullible<\/a>, they\u2019re not on TikTok<\/a>\u2014and if they are, then maybe they shouldn\u2019t be<\/a>. Therefore, whatever they\u2019re designing is bound to be culturally irrelevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milton Glaser, still hard at work in his nineties, explained to Design Week<\/em><\/a> that one reason why this particular stereotype is so entrenched is \u201cbecause graphic design is frequently related to changing fashions\u2026 Many older practitioners are shunted aside for a generation that is cooler and cheaper. Alas, this is a consequence of modern capitalism and won\u2019t change unless the world does.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There might be some evidence that the culture at large<\/a> is challenging this stale notion that older individuals aren\u2019t up on the trends. Getty Images\u2019 recently ran an initiative<\/a> to populate its database of stock images with more inspirational visions of older adults living social, fun lives. There\u2019s some evidence that the conversation around design is changing, too\u2014hiring teams in the field are embracing diversity<\/a> and experience<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can\u2019t teach an old dog new tricks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a myth propagated by the youth-obsessed Silicon Valley<\/a>, where 20-something entrepreneurs seem like the norm. \u201cDigital natives\u201d have an insurmountable edge, they say. If you\u2019re not so closely intertwined with these new technologies, why bother learning them? A designer born before the creation of the cell phone will never be as fast or as proficient as someone who was born playing Candy Crush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This stereotype\u2014that seasoned designers aren\u2019t tech-savvy enough to do their job\u2014falls apart when you start to look at the facts. Recent has shown that older adults will learn a new technological skill when there is a need for it<\/a>\u2014and that they have a strong desire to keep learning new skills<\/a> as they get older, understanding it to be an important factor in their overall quality of life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, it\u2019s not really a question of technology. It\u2019s a question of exposure and necessity. Anyone can learn InDesign at any age\u2014someone just has to teach them how to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creativity genius peaks early<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Conventional wisdom would have us believe that creativity is for the young. A cursory glance at the annals of history would corroborate this: Albert Einstein was 26 <\/a>when he had his so-called \u201cmiracle year.\u201d Steve Jobs was 21<\/a> when he built his first Apple computer. Orson Welles was 25<\/a> when he directed Citizen Kane<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what about those creative geniuses who peak later in life\u2014like Alfred Hitchcock, who directed some of his greatest films in his early sixties? Are these anomalies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New research suggests that your creative peak isn\u2019t dictated by your age at all, but rather by the kind of creative process<\/a> in which you engage. David Galenson, an economist at the University of Chicago, published a study in which he distinguished between two different types of creativity. He associates the first, \u201cconceptual\u201d creativity, with the kind of bold, innovative thinking of the young genius. The second, \u201cexperimental\u201d creativity, is a kind of iterative, exploratory creativity that develops over the course of a career. Experimental creativity, Galenson argues, can peak at any age. That\u2019s because it\u2019s predicated upon diligence\u2014putting in the time to hone your craft<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Steve Jobs used to say, creativity is associative<\/a>\u2014it\u2019s about making unexpected connections. Those with lesser experience might not make the connections that a seasoned designer can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boomers are clogging up the pipeline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

20 percent of Americans over 65<\/a> are either working or looking for work, a higher percentage<\/a> of older workers than even before. It\u2019s no surprise that there\u2019s a widely held belief that older workers are holding on to jobs for longer\u2026 because that is actually happening. But the idea that these workers are blocking the rise of early career or mid-career employees is unfounded<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For starters, it\u2019s predicated on the idea that more seasoned employees tend to have high-level jobs. But that\u2019s not necessarily true. Let\u2019s look at the small sample provided to us by AIGA\u2019s 2019 Design Census<\/a>. Of the 111 survey-takers (1.2%) age 65 or older, less than a quarter of them (25) had full-time work as designers. The majority of them (53) were either self-employed or freelance\u2014and 77% of those respondents complained that they were not being paid what they were worth, or that they were having trouble finding new clients. Less than half (49%) of the 65-plus respondents reported making more than $75,000 a year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a small pool, but what it shows us is that by the time designers reach age 65\u2014in other words, retirement age\u2014most of them are no longer in positions where they could \u201cclog up the pipeline.\u201d That\u2019s because of the ageism already working against them. Research shows that workers begin to get passed over for promotions<\/a>, raises, or new jobs much earlier than retirement age. And as a result, they either stay stagnant in their mid-level positions or get moved out of creative tracks and into managerial positions<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if you find yourself complaining about the seasoned designers who are holding on to the jobs you covet, consider congratulating them for beating the odds and start blaming the system, instead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re powerless to stop these stereotypes <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ageism tends to hide in plain sight. There\u2019s a wealth of advice out there on how to confront ageism in the design industry<\/a>, but a lot of it is centered around how to make yourself ageless: how to reinvent yourself as a job candidate over 50<\/a>, how to move into consultancy, how to bill yourself as an expert. It\u2019s not so much advice on how to combat ageism, as advice on how to deal with it. While potentially helpful for some individuals, all of this advice just illustrates the extent to which age discrimination has invaded the workplace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to confronting these stereotypes might be meeting them head on<\/a>. That\u2019s the bet that the World Health Organization is making. The organization is currently studying how intergenerational conversations about age might lead to a change in perceptions about age<\/a>. It\u2019s possible that the more we talk about age, the more our perceptions will change\u2014and hopefully, workplace culture will follow.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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