From frogdesign's Tim Leberecht, via Cnet, comes the latest diatribe/debate/list of musings on What Product Design Is. Entitled "Design conversations, not products," the central tenet of this one is that it's about the experience, not the product.
The essay features all of the catchwords and catchphrases ("branding," Starck's "design is dead," "apolcalyptic times for designers," etc.) we've come to expect, and throws in a new one: "Auratic." What does that mean? Well, read it for yourself! It's bound to come up next time you're swilling Shiraz at the Cooper-Hewitt.
Good reading, making a point that others have already made, with different terms.
Design is over; its all about 'screens' and 5x7 glossy LCD rectangles. Hey people, design ain't dead, its just going to the in-house Singapore contract manufacturing house that is cheaper this week. Somebody still has to do the work, make the models, decide on colors, and create products.
It just changes, and in many cases, moves down the rung one notch. High-brow design firms can't easily charge as much as before for strict "product" design, since clients can get turnkey solutions that usually look and feel like turnkey solutions. The only way to keep monetizing the design firm's utility is to elevate the perceived need, asking a bigger marketing question: not "what kind of widget do you make?" but "why do you want to make widgets?"
So if you're a firm or designer that is great at making clamshell wifi router covers, yeah great, your design career is going the way of the Brontosaurus. Create an experience around it, the product may sell, and you may have a future.
Its simply a change in the process.
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Design is over; its all about 'screens' and 5x7 glossy LCD rectangles. Hey people, design ain't dead, its just going to the in-house Singapore contract manufacturing house that is cheaper this week. Somebody still has to do the work, make the models, decide on colors, and create products.
It just changes, and in many cases, moves down the rung one notch. High-brow design firms can't easily charge as much as before for strict "product" design, since clients can get turnkey solutions that usually look and feel like turnkey solutions. The only way to keep monetizing the design firm's utility is to elevate the perceived need, asking a bigger marketing question: not "what kind of widget do you make?" but "why do you want to make widgets?"
So if you're a firm or designer that is great at making clamshell wifi router covers, yeah great, your design career is going the way of the Brontosaurus. Create an experience around it, the product may sell, and you may have a future.
Its simply a change in the process.