IN BROAD STROKES, a Designer is the one who expresses a creative point of view derived from his or her life, talent, training, and observations (note that we’re using the term ‘designer’ an a generic sense, not specifically in a graphic art, fashion design, industrial design or architectural context). The Designer generally provides the creative direction for the team, and often the ideas and innovations as well.

Design is all about selection. The term designer even comes from a Latin word meaning “to mark out” or designate. A designer takes influences from a wide range of sources and chooses the best approach for a project, or synthesizes a new, novel approach by blending previous ideas.

Kevin Roberts (head of Saatchi & Saatchi) has written that the three things that draw people’s hearts are mystery, sensuality and intimacy. The Designer is the most likely of the three audiences to produce these in a project.

Designers are imaginative (which draws attention and promotes interest), humble, inspired by the world around them, totally invested in the worthiness of their art, which they consider a gift from God. Or they can be deluded, self-aggrandizing fools with massive ego-chips on each shoulder. Or any strata in between. The more unprofessional among them may be erratic when meeting deadlines, and whiny and temperamental about schedule, costs and input from others. Designers can be geniuses, your best friend, marginally talented, well-meaning hacks, or total monsters with an overabundance of self-esteem. Or all of the above.

THE LARGEST SUB-SET of the Designer is the Facilitator (although a Patron may sometimes be a Facilitator as well). They are essentially the same, but Facilitators have the drawback that they are entirely at the service of the Patron. Their opinions seldom matter. They don’t usually scale the lofty heights of starving-artist Creativity with a capital “C”—they just try to do their job day by day. They produce signs and programs and newsletters and events and put together teaching materials for kids in their charge. Their work is like any craft. Craft demands at the very least a workmanlike adherence to standards and a commitment to quality. On the top end of the scale, craft becomes real art, like a Shaker cupboard or a Tiffany lamp. On the bottom of the curve it’s tomorrow’s yard sale.

A 2005 New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell entitled “The Bakeoff” profiled three groups of “food scientists” which were given the task of engineering “the perfect cookie” (at least from a commercial standpoint). Each team used a different approach; Team One was an experimental team of A-list food engineers, bakers and confectioners; Team Two was run by a group of product-developmment experts; and Team Three was known as the Dream Team, a staggeringly talented creative group of high-level geniuses in exotic flavors, tastes, textures, baking methods, etc. Of the trio of competitors, Team Three was the favorite to win big.

The winner wound up being Team Two, the product development team, because they were thinking across borders. One of them wondered if some of the same baking processes used in tortilla chips could be applied to something that tasted like a strawberry cobbler? The result was a delicious, satisfying cookie with reduced calories that could be manufactured at a good price. A win-win-win for the competition.

You know what’s coming, right? The so-called Dream Team was a miserable failure. They just couldn’t seem to get any traction and finally gave up because of one obvious problem: there were too many designer-visionaries in the room. How do you lead a task force of a dozen equally matched 800-pound gorillas who all wanted their pet idea to be the dominant one?

The boundaries of creative work are often so seamless that few people can tell them apart, sometimes not even other “creatives.” But there are significant distinctions that can kill a project if allowed to run amuck. How do artists, producers, creative directors and visionaries need to work together? With great respect and without preconceived ideas. The alternative is gorilla gridlock.

NEXT TIME: The Patron