The Mediante Trilogy is a didactic manual on the non-creative skills that are equally beneficial to a graphic design career. It is directed towards the young designer, particularly in Mexico, providing an all-in-one tool with valuable insights from respected local designers, educators, agencies, and studios. It also incorporates thorough research citing international authors whom the team admires—experts who have already succeeded in guiding designers through the modern industry and the business side of graphic design.

The purpose of this manual is to become an all-in-one tool that the Mexican designer can use to better their craft in the skills that tend to be less present in even the best of education systems due to inevitable limitations. It is visual, summarized, all-encompassing, and hybrid, facilitating its use. In this way, we can optimize the amount that the designer can learn in a short period of time. In the case of interest in a specific topic or author, the designer can choose to access it separately. Extensive research illuminated the fact that crucial project management and soft skills related to the graphic designer cannot always be included in undergraduate education because of the inevitable factors inherent to these, such as cognitive processes related to age or the lack of access to professional hands-on experience, making them best learned during the professional process. However, this is a process agreed to be inevitably learned through trial and error.

The design professionals referenced throughout the content of the manuals also believed that this was a transition that could be softened through guidance and mentorship that is not always easily available or accessible. Particularly in the modern design industry, young designers face a rapidly changing landscape that benefits tremendously from these insights and skills more than ever. As hard-skill value gets inevitably diminished by modern technology, non-creative skills are what can sometimes define a designer’s career. The opportunity to improve this particular period in a designer’s growth is something that the team detected around them and gained interest in exploring. The interest grew by analyzing and finding the areas of opportunity that the current market for these books experiences, and how this created the necessity that was still noticeable in their surroundings. From this analysis, a project was born that was to be a modern, all-in-one intermediary between the local designer and others’ knowledge, creating a community and space for communication, camaraderie, and collective growth.

The manual creates and functions through a visual timeline following the order of a general creative process, guiding the designer from beginning to end, covering unique tips and insights from experienced designers on each of these phases, making the most out of a project for both the designer and the client, and highlighting the challenges a modern designer might face. It is split into three original paperback books for easy, on-the-go use, fit into a clear case. Each book follows a conceptual two-tone color scheme that blends all three of the volumes together when stacked.

The use of gradients and color references the process of both a project and that of professional growth for a young designer. Through a structured didactic system, each manual addresses common professional weak points using original targeted activities and applied exercises. The tool strengthens skills while reinforcing the design community as a shared source of knowledge, fostering a space for collective learning. In doing so, it seeks to accelerate the learning curve designers face as they enter a modern, evolving industry.

The use of NFC technology was incorporated, allowing the contents of the manual to be amplified and extended through video interviews. This also permits the updating of certain sensitive information, like pricing, throughout the years to remain accurate. An AI search engine system was programmed for this project, with the purpose of incentivizing connection and collective advice to be first reached for in other designers, rather than the internet or regular AI. The way in which this AI system works is that it sources its responses from an original local forum designated to design-industry-related questions. That way, the AI can respond in a way that is not only tailored to the designer and their specific needs, but sourcing always first from the real advice of local designers. In the case of a not-yet-answered question, it responds like a regular AI would. The goal is to have as much input of this information source as possible from professors, professionals, research, & other young designers, helping the new generations of Mexican designers maximize their professional reach & careers.