Howell Creative

Request for Support

2008-03-18T11:24:00.002-04:00

I don't know how many people wander over to this part of the inter-webs, but if you read this, I strongly encourage you to go to my brother-in-law's site to see if you can help. He has been diagnosed with high grade Neuroendocrine Carcinoma. Your help would be much appreciated by his family as well as myself. Thanks.

Design discussions without the designers

2008-02-28T16:16:00.003-05:00

Sometimes, when there is a product review, the reviewers focus more on features than on design when calculating a products rating.

Design and discussion of design is not mainstream. I do not think it will ever become main stream, unless it is enveloped into something else (like business, marketing, or historical context jargon among others...).

Design discussions are absent from non designers because the design vernacular is absent from main stream. I might say that most do not know how to rationally communicate why they don't like something or why they prefer another design over another, aside from mere preference because their individual contexts are different and non transferable. Perhaps within "erudite" design discussions, contexts are equalized so that various design principles and elements can be discussed somewhat rationally.

So, the problem here (which might be extrapolated to other philosophical areas) is one where design discussions become meaningful only to those people that are not necessarily the people the design is intended for. For example:

Say I am designing a product for company X. In our design requirements, we have identified (perhaps even based on early research) that the product should be a modern contemporary design. Through iterative processes, we (as designers) discuss various elements of contemporary design, such as color, radii, proportion, as well as ergonomics and manufacturability. Say we even come up with what we perceive as a successful design among designer's circles and win some design awards. Despite all this "good design", a consumer can come up to the product in the store and immediately (and rightfully) reject the product because of bad design. What if the consumer wanted a playful product that looks like an animated character and is intended for children and not the parents?

The context of the designers and those of the consumer can be different. A major problem here is that the number of contexts vastly outnumbers the designer context.

The reason why designers might have problems describing what it is that they are expert is because of the lack of words that can translate through these various contexts.

So what can designers do about this translational challenge?

Designers continue to try to develop the story about a particular product in the context of the end user. But even the idea of "telling a story about a product" is something that is foreign to most consumers. I can imagine how well it would go over if I stood in the store beside the products I designed and told potential buyers why my product has better surfaces, radii, and proportion than the others.

Dr. Machael Drout, a philologist at Wheaton College has a theory that explains how tradition and culture work to influence language and literature (among other things). His Meme Theory as it is called talks about how tradition is composed of many persistent big and small concepts that flow in and out of heads until the congeal and become a tradition or recognized pattern that can be used symbolically to represent the idea. This requires a little more editing here.

The reason why this theory is interesting to product design and development is because it attempts to explain how complex ideas can navigate through a culture under an intuitive course, as apposed to more complicated overreaching theories.

In design, I would adapt the theory as follows. Art is a type of language (despite what some Post -Minimalists might think). If it is a language, then there are certain traditions that are becoming largely canonical. Maybe cotton-gin, steam engine, q-tips, post-it notes, i-Pods, bics, etc... designs that are ubiquitous and classic, or becoming such. We even have periods of design that are popular enough that people have heard of them. Victorian furniture, modern architecture, handycraft, etc.... Perhaps what designer need is to be more explicit in soliciting the already culturally accepted memes of design.

This is starting to want to push toward a categorical division of design elements and principles, which is something that designers will not do. Designers resists definition. So we are back at an impasse.

hmmm...

What to do.

Successful Products

2008-01-29T14:09:00.000-05:00

I am starting to think that the success of a product may not have as much to do with innovation and good industrial design as it has to do with having a "perfect storm" of collaboration among various individuals who have influence in particular areas.

Jim Collins in Good to Great describes it as "getting the right people on the bus." He argues that it doesn't matter if you don't know where the bus is headed, because the "right people" can figure that out.

I think that a successful business is born out of meeting the right people who can help provide a product or service that is meaningful and competitively unique.

In dealing with one company, I am seeing that they have a potentially unique relationship between a consumer focus group as well as a patent law office. Part of the collaboration could be as follows: The lawyer can train the designers to understand patents better. If the designers understand patents better, they can create more valuable intellectual property for the lawyer. They can be a tool of the lawyer to increase the scope of his business.

Collaboration between industrial designers and consumer groups could provide an opportunity for the consumer group to take brainstorming information and feedback and turn them directly into rapid prototypes for client evaluation; a service that they do not currently offer. The result would be increased the scope of their business as well.

A successful collaboration is one that allows for all parties to be enabled to perform a better service for their clients. All three groups can extend the services they offer, as long as they remain in the scope of their business, without investing in the capital necessary to bring the service in house.

If someone is looking for a prediction about what the economy is going to start doing in this next period of slowed growth, I am willing to posit the idea that the borders between industries are going to become a little more nebulous to allow for such collaborations. At the very least, these collaborations will continue to grow.

Forward looking

2006-09-06T15:48:00.000-04:00

I gravitate towards industrial design because I like to resolve ambiguous problems that don't have right or wrong answers. I am not quite sure how many other professionals share this directionless method of problem solving, but I sure get joy from deriving conclusions on my sheer gut reaction. "Should this surface be convex or concave?" Who knows-but I usually have a feeling that it should go one way or another.

The only drawback is that I can make myself quite comfortable in this unconstrained void. At times I think, "Why resolve anything when brainstorming is so much fun?"

The problem here is the very lack of direction I claim to enjoy. It is free to dream, but reality requires much work and concentration.

Nature, nurture, and great design

2006-08-16T09:02:00.000-04:00

There is an ongoing debate between "nature" versus "nurture" when it comes to talent. What is more important to design?

We may have heard an anecdotal story about someone who wasn't very "talented" but stayed up day and night practicing and eventually surpassed a more complacent and talented counterpart. This story may be true in some respects. Recent studies have shown that "experts are made, not born." Nevertheless, I believe becoming truly great requires much more then either talent or experience.

Neither natural born talent, nor technical skills hold any weight without passion. Without passion, any God-given talent would atrophy or any learning would be stifled.

I have a friend who is quite gifted in design. However, he liked to rock climb just slightly more than he liked to sand Bondo. The result was a conflict of interests on his time, and both his talent and experience were short-changed.

We all like to do things that we find pleasurable or interesting. I have found that truly great abilities lie in individuals who will do what it takes to make their design superior to the rest. Mediocre design is the product of individuals who fail to harness these passions.

If you are trying to figure out if you are as talented as someone else, don't bother. Make sure your passion is kindled for creating great design.

Who is an industrial designer?

2006-08-09T17:37:00.000-04:00

I have come to realize that when I have been doing freelance, with my own business, it is pretty much "Industrial Design". I want to refine my skills, but I do not want to attend a school that will stifle me and categorize me into a certain bracket.

If you want to take on the design world (with or without a degree), you need to know who industrial designers are.

The field of industrial design is a nebulous cloud of marketers, engineers, sculptors, managers, ethnographers, techies, enthusiasts, and many others. In other words, industrial designers come in all varieties. Here are some typical types of designers.

1. The design consultant.

The consultant should be really good at dazzling investors and clients and distill confidence in the people they deal with. To be effective, they need to be able to communicate their ideas clearly and concisely through their portfolios and face-to-face meetings with clients. Therefore, their portfolios and people skills should be really well developed.

Most ID programs, including BYU's, shoot for this objective. If you were to get a degree in design, you will spend lots of time tweaking both your sketching and communication skills so that you can dazzle anyone you present to. The curriculum is centered on lots of projects that pass through every phase of the design process-from conceptualization and research through to physical prototyping.

2. The corporate designer.

This designer is a different beast altogether. This designer also needs to communicate effectively, but also has to manage the development cycle of the product as well. Whereas a consultant tends to get a broad understanding of a variety of materials and processes and products, the corporate designer gains a tremendous depth of knowledge surrounding the entire culture and lifespan of a specific set of products. For instance, the corporate designer is much more integrated into a company's other departments dedicated to the products development-such as marketing, sales, supply, manufacturing and upper management to name a few.

From what I've seen, this is usually overlooked in the core design program at the design schools, though this information is readily available in both manufacturing and engineering degrees as well as business degrees, depending on your focus. Students in these degrees learn how to actually manufacture products and how they would get to the store shelves. This is less intensive on the actual styling of the products and more intensive on the materials, production, and distribution, etc... of the product's design. Nevertheless, most of this knowledge will come through on the job experience.

3. The design craftsman.

These include freelancers that specialize in a particular area of the design process and get really good at it. One design craftsman could have awesome sketching skills and make poster quality promotional images for products or concepts. Another design craftsman could have a strong aptitude for CAD/CAM, and know the idiosyncrasies of applications such as Rhino, SolidWorks, Alias, Pro-E, and others. Still, another type of design craftsman could a prototyper who understands how to make physical models quickly and/or precisely to show proportion and dimensionality before or after time is invested into building the 3D CAD geometry for production.

At school, you would get an introduction to all of these tools and processes, but only an introduction. To become a top candidate in any of these areas requires a great investment of time and altruistic attitude. The advantage of school here would be to set deadlines and put the specialized skill in the context of the project as a whole.

4. The design spokesperson.

These people are really good at selling ideas to others. They may not even have good sketching or engineering skills, but can tap entrepreneurial veins of investors and stakeholders. Nevertheless, they understand how design can make or break a product or product family. The design spokesperson tends to be more of an ally to the design world as apposed to a charter member of it.

Design programs at BYU or elsewhere rarely covers this aspect of design, mainly because it has become rolled up into the business program's entrepreneurial degrees. As with corporate designers, design spokespeople gain most of their knowledge after entry into the industry and use school only as a foothold to get into the field.

5. Design Critics and the Masses.

I will arbitrarily role up the rest of the design community in with the masses. As I asserted in an earlier post on my blog, I believe everyone has an inarticulate designer inside of him or her. Everyone on is entitled to an opinion about why design is the way it is regardless of their ability to explain why they think the way they do. Nevertheless, some people can make careers out of explaining where design came from and where it is going. These will usually come from a degree in art history or perhaps journalism or communications. They can become the much coveted and courted editors in magazines like Business Week or Wired, who have recently devoted entire sections to tracking trends in industrial design.

Now, in order to succeed in any of these areas, regardless of the formal education you may receive, you will need an awesome portfolio and resume. BYU or any other design program will give you the opportunities you need to build your portfolio, but if you are able to create an awesome portfolio and resume without college, all the better. Keep in mind though, that the learning curve is steeper and quicker outside of college and can be daunting at times.

Many professionals from an equally diverse number of industries have jumped ship and landed into any of these areas of design. They seem to have the spark that seems common to all of us industrial designers. Many industrial designers may not even know they are industrial designers, but find themselves doing the same things we do.

On the other hand, many industrial designers jump ship and land in another industry in which they find interest. I once knew a lead designer at a firm where I worked who was perhaps one of the best design engineers I have ever met. He knew almost every part of the SolidWorks CAD suite and understood a great deal about designing for manufacturability as well as aesthetics. He left to become upper-middle management at a family company back in the area where he was from. He will probably rarely use his skills in SolidWorks again, but he happy that he made the move.

The lesson that can be learned from all of this is this: You can be a successful industrial designer without an industrial design degree, let alone an "industrial designer" job title. What a design degree is good for is getting an introduction to the expansive and nebulous design world, as well a chance to stuff your portfolio and resume with some cool projects along the way. I probably could have said all this in fewer words, but I think this has been more informative this way.

-Dan

Never satisfied.

2006-07-15T15:25:00.000-04:00

I am never really satisfied at the completion of a design project. During the course of a project, I learn so much about both how and why a design is the way it is. So, when the deadline passes, I often look back at the bigginning of the project and wish that I had done certain things differently so that the design could have been a lot better. But, alas, a designer is never the same after he designs something. Therefore, they will never be satisfied with earlier efforts.

With that in mind, I have been working a little on the redesign of the site. Features include a template update, AJAX implementation, and an expanded portfolio. Though the site will be cutting edge in technology and design, I am avoiding the stereotypical Web 2.0 "look".

So, while I work away at that, the least I can do for now is to show you a picture I just completed. I was commissioned (for free) to design a logo for the East Brunswick Young Single Adult organization. Eventually, the logo will go on stationary and perhaps contact cards. For the time I put in it, I think it came out real nice:

The problem with designers.

2006-05-05T08:02:00.000-04:00

So, as a professional designer, I feel I can speak about a few problems that I think the "design world" is suffering from. And being the person I am, I am going to blog about it. This could be a bumpy read, so here is my disclaimer: I'm not talking about either myself or my boss in this article! These points are based on conversations with other designers and represent my point of view.

Designers are not any more capable of creating beauty than non-designers.

Often times, I am asked to hang decorations at a party or draw a quick poster for a local fund-raiser. Knowing that I am a designer by trade, they ask me what I think should be done. When I explain that whatever they like would probably be acceptable, they reply that they don't have an "eye" for that sort of stuff. They then request that I use my "magical designer sense" to create something beautiful.

We designers have done a great job at trying to convince everyone that we have a monopoly on aesthetic understanding. But, in actuality, something like a small party is not really about the decorations; it's about the person or event the party is for.

In my opinion, some of the most beautiful designs I've seen were simple expressions of love or admiration from a "non-designer" to someone special. And more often than not, I would suggest that the quality of those designs operated somewhat independently from reactions of the viewers and receivers. I.e. Even the most hideous design atrocities can bring joy to our lives.

Designers are not rock stars (contrary to the picture in a previous post)

There is a growing population of would be "rock star" designers. The fame and fortune of a few are twinkling in the eyes of an ever growing movement of creative professionals. This is not what design is about.

We as designers should be honestly and earnestly striving to make the lives of people more safe, comfortable, and beautiful. The moment our own egos get in between the people and our designs, we have a conflict of interests. How can we honestly be striving to understand end-user needs when, ultimately, our true desire is to want people to be more like ourselves?

Design is not a standalone solution.

Like the idealists we often are, we like to imagine that design can save the world, if you only give it a chance. Fortunately for us, designers do not rule the earth. The more I deal with engineers, marketers, researchers, lawyers, doctors, and so forth, the more I realize how design really is only a small piece of the greater puzzle.

It has been rather humbling for me to realize that if it weren't for those engineers (who I sometimes feel like they modify designs despite me) there would be no design opportunity at all.

Gone are the days when I thought that I could do it all myself. Designers only have jobs because everyone else does.

Its hard to be an old designer

The problem with being an old designer is two fold. First, when we are young in the design field we are open and willing to learn and understand style for what it is. As we gain experience and graduate into leadership positions, there is a danger in thinking that we are contemporary dictators of style.

Secondly, when we are experienced in design, our prestige can negatively influence the perceptions of our design. In the business world, this can be likened to the boss's "yes man." I would humbly suggest that even the worlds leading designers sometimes get it wrong. Sometimes, we think that just because they are our leading designers, they must have some understanding or knowledge that make what they say absolute.

I am not saying that old designer status is undeserved, because old designers really do have understanding and knowledge that surpasses our own. What I am saying is that young designers should not keep from asking questions or taking design lead's orders for granted. Good design always benefits from positive criticism and collaboration, regardless of the experience of the designers.

So there, I've gotten that off my chest. My basic message is that we designers really need to be honest with ourselves and our role in society. We are not elite, we are not as important as we think, and we don't know as much as we think. This is probably heresy to some, but I think that this realization will only benefit our designs in a most positive way.

Now I can relax...

Rocker

2006-02-10T22:07:00.000-05:00

Just an old picture I found. Enjoy!

2006 AKDS T-shirt

2006-01-21T08:27:00.000-05:00

Here is the design I did for the annual American Karate-do Shotokai course t-shirt. I like the typographical treatment. I think there is some real potential for creating visual depth by putting the words into perspective to create a dynamic visual motion and an interesting composition. It kind of goes along the lines of the diagonal composition of Russian Constructivist posters. Anyway, thats what I was thinking when I drew this.

Shotokai Karate Official Site

Empathic design to music

2005-11-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

First, here's a site update:

I finally uploaded my current portfolio. This is the one that I was talking about in the September 25th post. I also updated my resume with my new address in New Jersey. What an exciting time this is. Hopefully, the next post will include pictures of my new apartment.

Now for the article:

In school, we had an assignment to draw various shapes and forms on large newsprint while listening to a specific of music. The goal was to develop a "speed shape" based on our gestural motions while listening to classical and new age music. The teacher had us listening to some Andre Bocelli, Enya, , Mobi, and a few more newage-ish artists.

While listening to this floating and rhythmic songs, I through down streaks of charcoal and bobbed my head to Ave Maria. I realize now, that I wasn't drawing fast "speed shapes" at all, but rather graceful, curvaceous shapes. To me, the music inspired more graceful and aquatic shapes rather than streamlined fast moving objects.

The other day, I was listening to some music that I consider more representative of speed in order to help me with some concepts I was designing. My coworker, on the other hand, did not appreciate that particular type of music (which is fine with me, because I like his taste for music anyway). To him, the music grated on his nerves and prevented him from concentrating on some of his work. This got me thinking.

It is incredibly interesting how different types of music inspire the same kinds of emotions in different people and yet the same type of music can produce drastically separate emotional responses in different people.

Could it be that my professor, when he listens to Enya, think of speeding objects that I would envision only by listening to something like Crystal Method? If I wanted to use music as a means to sketch objects that were soft and elegant, I would say classical and new age music would be appropriate. If I wanted to draw something that was edgy, hard, and fast, then I would pull out my techno. I doubt my professor would see it that way, but I am confident that my "speed shape" would have been a lot faster looking if it were drawn at the pace of 16 bps.

Music has a hypnotic quality for sure, and I think it plays directly into industrial design. I have friends that groove out to Indie Rock and 80's to get there pens moving. Electronica was the genre of choice for a studio I worked in once. In retrospect, I think a lot of that music manifested itself in the work that came out of those people.

My advice is to be conscious of this interesting influence. I would recommend listening to music that seems to fit the demographic that the product is intended for. Of course, you might not have to listen to Sesame Street CDs while designing children's products, but I think you get the picture.

Perseverance pays off

2005-10-09T18:53:00.000-04:00

Well, I am packing my bags and getting ready to move to New Jersey because I have accepted a job offer with a small but very reputable design firm. I have already gotten my feet wet there and I am looking forward to producing some good work for them.

In other news, I have been made a moderator at Product Design Forums. This site is a cool hangout for professionals and amateurs that are willing to help each other out. If you want to talk to tomorrow's leading designers, I think they are getting their start here.

How to assemble your portfolio content

2005-09-25T00:24:00.000-04:00

I recently redid my portfolio (I'll post a link to it next week) so I thought I would take the time to discuss the strategy I used to create the portfolio:

The purpose of the portfolio is to communicate to a potential employer that you have the skills necessary to meet their needs. In other words, you are COMMUNICATING your skills VISUALLY.

So, in deciding what content you want in there, you should first decide what you want to communicate. Are you good with computers, a good sketcher, a good design strategist, a good model maker or what?

For my portfolio, I wanted to show that I had both experience and versatility. I chose only the projects that had the best sketches, model photography, and computer renders. To show diversity, I also included some of my concept art, graphic designs, web designs, and fine art pieces. The overall effect I wanted to generate was something along the lines of "wow, this guy is really good at a whole bunch of stuff, what isn't he good at?!"

Every Single page should reinforce the main message you want to communicate. Unfortunately, it will be hit and miss finding a company that will buy into your statement, but when one does, you can rest assured that your interests and talents will closely coincide with your employers.

As far as formatting goes, When I did my resume and portfolio, I wanted to maximize the publish-ability of my work. I have printed copies, digital copies with small file-sizes, digital copies with very large file-sizes, online information, PDFs, INDs, PSDs, Text files, Word Documents, Gifs, Jpegs, and a sample packet that I could email or print and mail at a moment's notice. This is why:

Sometimes companies will request that you do not mail anything to them in the post and that you submit your work online or in an email. Others request that you do not email them, but mail it to their HR department. Still others want you to copy and paste your information into a web form that goes into their database. Others just want links to online versions of your portfolio (or even just you're Core-folio)

Also, when you are looking for work, you want to get them to want to see more and more of your work (the wow-factor that I tried to go for in my portfolio). So a good strategy is to create a "sample packet" that contains a cover letter, your resume (one page only!), and a page or two of your work (I would include only the best of the best). This way, when they open your packet, they can give the resume to HR, and then look right at your best stuff. Most likely they will want to learn more about why you chose certain designs and what kind of sketching skills you might have. It is kind of like bait fishing.

I try to avoid showing my work online unless it is requested because it destroys the "lure" effect that abridged portfolio samples can generate. But again, I want it all online, just in case someone wants to see it.

By the way, if you doubt my qualifications or prerequisites for making these suggestions, I can happily reply that the above mentioned strategies resulted in two full-time job offers this last Friday. Booyah.

Who Owns Design?

2005-09-14T17:55:00.000-04:00

Despite what I would like to think, designers are not the stewards of good design. Rather, I would have to admit that my friends and colleagues no just as much about good design as I do. Sometimes they don't know why they know, but they do nonetheless. The only thing that might differentiate us is the fact that they may not be able to draw as well or explain clearly why a particular product is out of whack. Nevertheless, I no longer feel like I have to justify to friends my existence as a designer and why they should really listen to me. Here is why:

Everyone is a consumer, user, or commentator of the products and services they buy. By the success of online reviewers and periodicals, people are very quick to identify the shortcomings in a given design. There is always room for improvement. Well, what if the masses were involved in the decision making of the design process? I would then be more of a spokesperson of the collected consumer consensus, as apposed to a hippie high end designer.

A lot of corporations try to include us when they are developing a new product, but intellectual property management forbids them to disclose any more information then they would like to. This withholding of information is ultimately detrimental to the design process. I believe that the more information you can collect and organize, the better decisions you can make.

I do not assume that I can anticipate what people will like and what they won't like. To do so is either dishonest or self-centered. I have to concede that sometimes, superior ideas require outsiders' assistance to reach their full potential. I cannot say that I am always greater than my own ideas. It is pretty much consistently the other way around.

So what about patents, intellectual property, and corporate interests? Well, they have their place, and they have traditionally worked so far. But there has never been an alternative, at least not for a long time.

We can look to nature as a good example of how collaboration of many different systems has come to produce an essentially perfect design. This kind of goes along the lines of William McDonough's Cradle to Cradle concept. Nature, in a not so business-like fashion, collected and interpreted data for thousands of years and applied its findings to minor feature upgrades in its products. It connected the complaints and failures of the previous designs and proposed new solutions to them.

We, too, as a human race have generally done the same thing. We decided that it was better to farm than to chase wild game across the tundra. We decided that this iron material was fairly handy. The industrial revolution and the information superhighway are other noteworthy improvements. All of our biggest innovations have used the help from all of us.

I am not saying that an "open source" strategy will necessarily replace tried and true business models, but I am saying there is some potential worth looking at.

Here are some potential benefits from a collaborative design effort:

Giving students at the university level experience with the organization and management aspects of product development.
Cross-pollination of experience between Marketers, Engineers, Managers, Manufacturers, Psychologists, Anthropologists, Designers, and many more.
Pooling of resources.
Snow-balling public relationships by including a greater demographic of consumers with the development process.

That's just off the top of my head for now. I do believe that greater things can be achieved by shedding the idea that we are more of an authority than our colleagues. The may not have as much experience as we do, but their ideas might help your idea become something greater than you had ever anticipated.

Thanks

2005-08-04T14:15:00.000-04:00

Thanks to all those who have commented on these posts. Of course, the more people that comment, the more enlightening the discussions will be.

I came across an interesting article about what the Business World can learn from Open Source and Blogging. The author, Paul Graham, has some interesting points he brings up, although, they may be a bit too extreme for most executives who have to satisfy the demands of so many entrenched corporate stakeholders. Slashdot's community also has some interesting responses.

What he is talking about can be boiled down to what we claim is the design process. The generation of a lot of initial concepts results in a better selection of the better designs. "The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas," says Tom Kelly on the infamous "Deep Dive" Nightline Report. Why is it, then, that the more experienced a designer becomes, the less other designers can question or disagree with that designer's decisions? True they have experience, clout, prestige, a successful history, but what is the trade off? Well, I believe that the more people you have working on a design, the more successful that design would be. From a business sense, however, this does not make any sense, because aggregating all the differing opinions becomes a daunting and impossible task. The need for design managers becomes very clear because it is their responsibility to organize and consolidate all the best guesses of their subordinates and be the go-to guys if there is a problem with it.

The real question is this: How can you eliminate all the obstacles of productivity with your employees, yet maintain an organized chain of responsibility? I am working on a theory, but right now it’s half baked at best. Nevertheless, I would appreciate any comments or theories that others might have.

Well, its interesting reading, none the less.

Experience Design

2005-07-28T11:46:00.000-04:00

These two words capture the philosophy of design that I have started to formulate. The words together have two meanings.

The first is the design of an experience. There is an article at Business Week about creating loving designs by Gianfranco Zaccai of Design Continuum. What I got out of the article is that designers are discovering a need to create products that have a stronger relationship with their users. In essence, there is an experience surrounding the mere physical dimensions of a given product. For fans of Apple, Harley Davidson, Sony, and other companies with iconic products, you don't just buy the device, buy you buy into the culture, the hype, and the whole society around those products. I don't think you can show any more brand loyalty than to tattoo Harley Davidson onto your own body. That is the power of designing an experience.

The second is the verb "to experience design." This is far more complex, but just as powerful. To be a designer is becoming more and more competitive, and designers are becoming more and more of a commodity. Shows on television and partnerships of media giants and design powerhouses are creating a good campaign to promote industrial design. Nevertheless, what is actually happening is a coming of age. Design is experiencing a growth spurt and will soon have to deal with all the growing pains that go with it. How will the West deal with the East? How can employers distinguish all designers with skill sets and proper education from the fast-food grade designers that are popping up all over? "Experiencing design" needs to take a mature leap forward. Experiencing design needs to be a more responsible and measured experience. This will have two benefits: a more structured career path that will better market designers to employers and a more solid definition of design will better market design to the masses.

Industrial designers started out as mere stylists for products. From there, they have developed a design process that involves meeting end-user needs with corporate production restraints. We are now in the age where design is a full service. It is integrated in various aspects of not only product design, but strategy, management, organizational behavior, manufacturing coordination, and the works. The next step is this idea of Experience Design. Designers will do all that they have done in the past, but now they will be creating cultures surrounding the next big products. They will answer questions like "Why do Volkswagen Owners wave to each other on the highway?" or "Why do gamers spend top dollar to by an Alienware system?" Designers will become more agents and brokers to link consumers who have a dream of forming a long-lasting and intimate relationship with a product or service.

Is design a commodity?

2005-06-24T15:19:00.000-04:00

So, I was reading a very interesting thread on the Core77 boards. Usually the content is inundated with whiny junior designers that are complaining because life is not as easy as they thought. However, one fellow designer posted is concerns about leaving the industrial design profession after about 10 years. There are lots of interesting arguments into why he should or should not leave, but no one has talked about why people fall out of love with design. Well, this is why:

It's sad to hear of designers that have such strong capacities and aptitudes but ultimately become dissatisfied with the fact that as Michael McDonough puts it, " 95% of any creative profession is [crap]." Design is definitely getting more press these days, and as a result, designers are becoming more and more of a commodity. Since there are more designers, there is a stigma growing that there is a scarcity of creative control.

The typical scenario involves somebody who is not happy because his sole existence is to do the evil bidding of his boss by tomorrow morning at the latest. The all-nighters have taken their toll on enthusiasm for the design process. Well, you are not sad because there is a lack of creative control in your life. You are sad because you stopped loving the process. It is not the end result that makes us designers; it is the process that we use to design that makes us. I have a tough time designing something that does not interest me in the least, but I still love learning about new subjects and getting inside the heads of those whose lives may benefit from the widget that could be mistaken as landfill-fodder.

Design is becoming commoditized because there are more and more designers that have entered the industry with no thought process, just some stylish moves they learned in school. They have breaded themselves from the beginning into becoming nothing more than the tool of the boss. Remember the design process! Remember that it is your job to come up with the questions as well as the answers!