Designis Personae

For designers out there unaware of Metropolis, this magazine is a must-read for those seeking monthly updates on highly relevant issues concerning architecture and design culture. The magazine aims to bring progressive and generally environmentally sensitive creations and ideas out of laboratories, studios and construction sites and into the public eye. As Metropolis itself puts it: “Subjects range from the sprawling urban environment to intimate living spaces to small objects of everyday use. In looking for why design happens in a certain way, Metropolis explores the economic, environmental, social, cultural, political, and technological context.”

Here is a fun Metropolis online article Designis Personae about student and faculty stereotypes, specifically in schools of architecture. These personalities types are, however, certainly encountered in every design related field. The Rathaus’ Designis Personae favorites for faculty and student, respectively, are:

THE BITTER-ENDER. This is the theory-head or other pan-flash ideologue unable to update his or her shtick, adopted a million years ago from some lapsing mentor or deceased guru. Begins all comments with “Peter used to say…” Some students are bedazzled. Most are unmoved. All who are not a close reflection of himself will be attacked. Those who are will get an unpaid internship on the spot.

THE LEAKER. The one who always loses it. He or she has been awake for three weeks. He or she has been totally misunderstood by his or her critic for six weeks. He or she has been dreaming things in his or her head that he or she is unable to draw on his or her piece of paper all of his or her immeasurably frustrating life. It’s not incompetence, but there are, shall we say, some issues with creativity. We see before us one half-scratched pencil drawing, one limp tissue-paper model, and a thousand perfect La Tourette monasteries locked inside. You’d cry too.