RR04

Chapters 9 and 10 of Design: A Very Short Introduction talk a lot about deign in the business world. It is stated that not many designers work just for themselves, but rather for a larger employer or industry. This bigger owner has the power to call the shots with the direction they want their design for the company to go in. I especially found it interesting where Haskett mentioned that some companies prefer long-term design as opposed to short-term design. I personally appeal to long-term design because I think it has the most impact over the years. In the book, they mention Mercedes continually using the the same type of style car and same logo so that their brand and design remains timeless. Yet I could see the approach of a company like GM wanting to have several different short-term designs (Chevy, Buick, Cadillac) in order to appeal to consumers across the board with different model changes. In international companies such as McDonalds, it was interesting to learn that they use design when thinking about the delivery, preparation and environment of their franchises; not simply just the product. When you have a multibillion dollar world-wide company like McDonalds it is not a surprise that this is the only way to make sure their original design and creative approach to business sticks. The tenth chapter of Haskett's book goes on to talk about the future of design; which seems both exponentially opportunistic yet extremely uncertain. With some companies, such as Sony, entire strategic design groups are hired specifically to work on design and report back to the president of the company. Yet when thinking of the rest of the world, how will we ever know how advanced countries besides the US will be? Haskett mentions that China already has a firewall which enables its citizens to go to websites outside their governments limitations. Design in order to help third world countries has caught on as well. I thought the design by Angelo Garay and Andrea Humeres was complete genius and actually reminded me a lot of the coleman products we were designing in class. The packaging on the lightbulb they sent out to poor rural homes could be reused as a lampshade, where usually these homeowners did not even own shades of any kind. It is a big question over all where the future of design will go, but it seems that big companies here in the US are realizing the impact of design. Consumer sales increase when design is incorporated. As with other countries, design will always have an opportunity to flourish when discovering the more simplistic needs of the citizens in these countries.