Diseño, cine, ideas

Whereas the craft of design; creating logos, layouts and Web designs, is becoming as much a property of amateurs as it is professionals, designers need to find new areas of unique value that they can provide their clients. By addressing the areas of complexity, co-creation, context and accountability, designers position themselves to better meet the needs of their clients and the demands of a changing economy.

In 2000 Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan stated that technical know-how would be superseded by “the ability to create, analyze, and transform information and to interact effectively with others.” This idea was echoed in Daniel Pink’s book A Whole New Mind, in which Pink projects that the future economy will be driven by six key “senses” - design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning. For designers with a collaborative spirit and the ability to conduct and synthesize research, this is good news.

It is becoming clear that designers in this new era must not only be experts in form, as they have been traditionally taught, but must be equally skilled in solving more complex problems that require a broader range of skills including social sciences, technology and the organization of teams. The ability to collaborate, manage the increasing complexity of design problems, design “in context” to their target audiences and be accountable through measurement transforms designers from “makers of things” to “design strategists.” Along with the ability to create form, these skills complete the designer of the conceptual economy.

This idea of a well-rounded design professional is not a new concept. In 1957 Henry Dreyfuss stated, “A successful performer in this new field is a man of many hats. He does more than merely design things. He is a businessman as well as a person who makes drawings and models. He is a keen observer of public taste and he has painstakingly cultivated his own taste. He has an understanding of merchandising, how things are made, packed and distributed, and displayed. He accepts the responsibility of his position as liaison linking management, engineering, and the consumer and co-operates with all three.”

The thought of orchestrating these diverse disciplines can seem daunting. However when we consider the areas of collaboration, complexity, context and accountability, we see that they can easily fall into the framework of design process.

Project initiation: This phase is focused on aligning stakeholders toward a common goal and requires collaborative planning to address complex design problems.

Skills: Business, interpersonal, organizational and communication planning skills.

Design research: This phase defines the context for making design decisions. Centered on the needs of business stakeholders and audiences, this phase relies heavily on collaboration as a means for understanding meaning.

Skills: Social sciences, interpersonal, qualitative, quantitative and analytical research skills.

Concept development: This phase synthesizes the research into an idea and requires divergent and collaborative thinking from multiple perspectives.

Skills: Creative, ideation and facilitation skills.

Design development: This phase is focused on developing an aesthetic that is relevant to the audience.

Skills: Design, production and manufacturing skills.

Measuring ROI: This phase makes design accountable through the measurement of outcomes; whether they are financial, attitudinal or behavioral.

Skills: Business, accounting and marketing skills.

By looking at design systemically, as a group of interacting skills brought together to create whole, designers can think about their work in new ways, expanding their focus, and bringing their inherent creativity to bear more broadly by working with other disciplines. Through process designers can better orchestrate the needs of their clients, manage the complexity of design problems and provide a means for co-collaboration, all in a scaleable framework.

Designers that make the leap from craftsperson to collaborator, who don’t necessarily have all the answers, but provide a methodology for facilitating design thinking will be able to position themselves as a trusted consultant. As such, the new designer does not tell, rather, they listen. They do not control. Instead, they collaborate. In addition to being able to offer expertise in a specialized area, the new designer provides a broad and sophisticated body of knowledge.

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