What if design has become a luxury?
Here’s something I’ve been pondering … I don’t have it fully worked out yet, but bear with me, because I may have something…
I think many ‘non-designers’ — AKA our clients — are thinking about design differently because they’re doing design. Literally. They’re DIY-ing in Canva, or buying their own Adobe or Figma subscription and taking it inhouse. Or having fun experimenting in AI.
It feels like fewer are accessing the skillset of an actual designer.
Why do you think that’s so?
I think it’s because their perception of design has quietly shifted.
I think design has moved from a necessity to a luxury.
Design as a luxury
Using a designer used to be a necessity; there was literally no other way to get something designed. Now it sits in the same category as, say, hiring a painter for your house. Sure, you could do it yourself. You can easily buy paint and paint brushes, and it’s kinda fun to try different colours. You know you’d get a better result calling in the experts, but paying for a painter needs justifying. It’s a luxury, not a necessity.
Maybe there’s a benefit to start thinking about design the same way.
If design is a luxury, what can we learn from luxury brands?
Luxury isn’t about commerce — it’s about culture and belonging.
French researcher Jean-Noël Kapferer, one of the foremost academics on luxury branding, argues luxury operates on entirely different rules to mainstream commerce: it’s driven by rarity, symbolism and social capital rather than utility or price competition.
Luxury brands aren’t chosen because they’re efficient. They’re chosen because of what they represent, and who else chooses them.
What incomparability looks like
Commodification has diluted our desirability and increased our efficiency just when getting something done quickly is no longer as desirable. Instead, desirability comes from curated experience.
Luxury is not about accessibility. It’s about being incomparable.
Incomparability comes from deep knowledge and provenance. Designers with genuine expertise in one sector become, quite literally, difficult to replace. When I was working with the Ombudsman schemes, the Magistrates, Supreme and County Courts, clients found it hard to find another designer with the same knowledge base. That wasn’t about being the cheapest or fastest (or even the best designer). It was about being the only one who really understood the sector.
A small, lo-fi example
For years we ran an invitation-only annual report show. Reports sourced from all over the world, feedback shared via handwritten Post-it notes stuck directly onto the work. Genuinely low-fi, no fancy production, no glossy event styling. But the invitation itself became something people wanted. That alone drove loyalty and quietly built our authority in the sector, far more than any amount of general marketing could have.
So, tentatively, some strategic takeaways
Here’s where my thinking is landing:
Make every touchpoint valuable. A shared insight, observation or idea, curated specifically for that client. Not spray and pray. Communication with intention. Quiet knowledge.
Invest time understanding who you can best serve. Really understanding client segments — what they want and need — simplifies their choice and lifts your authority.
Consider invite-only experiences. Exclusivity, done well, drives loyalty in a way open-access marketing rarely does.
Project social authority. Be visible. Let your clients share in the halo effect of working with a knowledgeable, credible design partner.
So what?
I don’t think this is fully resolved thinking yet — more a hypothesis I’m testing. But if design is increasingly seen as a luxury rather than a necessity, maybe we should stop apologising for that and start behaving like the luxury brands we admire: rare, considered, and genuinely hard to replace.
As always, happy to discuss further, just email Carol
Carol Mackay
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About Carol
After 30+ years running a design studio, I accumulated a pretty special network of fellow designers. One thing most have in common: a need for more information about the ‘business’ side of design. Most are impatient with any task competing for time spent doing what they love – designing so they wanted more info about how to work more efficiently and effectively.
Not me. I love that intersection between design and business. I built a career working with Ombudsman schemes, the Emergency Services sector and the Courts. My special power has always been an ability to use design to translate the difficult to understand or the unpalatable message.
I now use exactly the same skills with creative business owners. I translate the indigestible into bite-sized chunks of information. I share insights, introduce tools and embed processes to help others build confidence business decision-making skills. More confidence makes it easier to grasp opportunities. More confidence makes it easier to recognise a good client from the bad.
Outside DBC I have mentored with Womentor, AGDA The Aunties, and most recently Regional Arts NSW.
And I’m a proud volunteer and board member of Never Not Creative.
Always happy to chat, I can be contacted here.
