Thought You Should See This

November 28, 2011

"Designers can’t wait to be “hired” to enhance or improve these offerings. We must be active participants at their inception. If designers are truly skilled at identifying unmet human needs and creating the breakthrough products to address those needs, then, increasingly we will need to prove our value as entrepreneurs."

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I’ve been banging this drum for some time. Designers need to be able to explain why they do what they do in terms to which others can relate. Yes, business leaders need to sharpen up too, and learn to respect and trust practitioners of a profession that might just provide the keys to a sustainable future. But it’s a two-way street, and there’s a long way to go before the potholes and bumps of confusion are filled in and the tarmac of true collaboration runs smooth. (No excuse for that verbal butchery. Sorry.)

I was really confused by the U.S. myopia of the recent Fast Company issue on design, but in American Firms Now Embrace Design, But They’re Aging Fast. What’s Next? Frog VP of creative, Robert Fabricant, poses some important questions for those in the States to ponder. In particular, I liked his analysis of some of the American tech giants’ approach to design, which seems more grasping and desperate than considered and strategic. And yes, Apple, that’s you too:

Under Apple’s influence we are watching an entire generation of aging geeks recycle their early experiences with technology as iPhone apps with the look of Pong or Blade Runner. It feels like Back to the Future. Is this the future of American Design?

10:00am | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZLv7dxCXxy3z
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