I had fun with this survey. It presents a lot of questions I often say to myself when looking at many designers in my class and how they often never stray far from what they are comfortable with.

Good luck with your survey and degree!

In school one should push all envelopes and accept no barriers to creativity, even bend the brief rules a little bit when necessary. It's the last and only chance you will have in this career to totally please yourself with what you create.

I stopped at this question:

The answers are biased, especially by "sadly." It's obvious that you want designers to "play," and you think it's wrong that they/we don't.

In my position as an in-house designer I can take some time to sketch, craw thumbnails, and do photo searches, but I avoid the word "play," because it increases the chances that clients won't take the work seriously. I mean, you're just "playing," right? That means you're leaving an element to chance rather than skill and knowledge.

Also, a good deal of my work is constrained by brand standards, company graphic guidelines, literature systems, and/or advertising/marketing campaign standards. Each of the Health Service Organizations (HSOs) I do work for wants to differentiate themselves from the other HSOs within our health-care system. So we have specific colors, typefaces, and layout guidelines for each HSO.

In the end, it's all about clear, consistent communication of the message.That's the most important thing about my work.

The time and place for unbridled creativity is in the creation and development of those standards, guidelines and systems. Sometimes we get to do that, sometimes agencies do it for us.

I hope that helps a bit with your thesis. Good wishes!

That's a good point Gar. I avoid using the word play too. Just because I enjoy my work, doesn't mean that I should be paid less or that my expertise is not to be appreciated.

The use of the word play initially had me confused. I thought the OP meant playfulness in design as in clever associations, not actually playing in a sandbox with some glue and macaroni.