Comments on: Branding to Design?

By: Rasul Sha'ir

Rasul Sha'ir — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:31:46 +0000

AAAAMEN! Another person who definitely empathizes with EVERY word. As an architect by training (and now a business strategist) I soooo agree. Endlessly when I deal with folks and I tell them that my degree is in architecture and I now do branding/business/organizational strategy they look at me with crossed eyes. People don’t get it. Architects are system thinkers (just as businesses are systems themselves) and in my head it makes perfect sense. But I patiently engage people and explain what our company does (help to design and/or redesign business systems). Most business folks don’t get it though. But that’s part of the battle. I will continue the struggle and the fight and love every minute of it!

By: bosboss

bosboss — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:48:52 +0000

Irritated by BS: yep.

And that’s my point, I guess… putting energy into worrying about the theoretical role/status/blahblahblah of design is just joining the tide of wanting to “own a piece of the “design” action.”

If instead we all put our energy into creating great design, then we’re doing what the world needs. And we really do own the “design action.”

Everyone else can say what they want but talking about design doesn’t add value to the world like actually designing does. Five years from now all the talk will mean nothing, but the kid who can communicate, or the community that has clean water, or the athlete with a new world record will thank us for the designs we created that enabled those things to happen.

By: Gems Sty

Gems Sty — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:19:05 +0000

bosboss: IMHO, I think we can’t afford to simply do what we’ve always done and ignore the world – that simply puts peril to ourselves. For instance, it’d be foolish to tell the horse-carriage maker to ignore the world (and thereby ignoring the automobile revolution), which would definitely impact his livelihood and value.

The world changes, more and more rapidly even – and designers should be at the forefront keeping tab: that is different from the blind wholesale following of whatever’s cool at the moment – but for me it’s important to at least be aware.

boost: Aye, everybody branding something as design (not only design, I’m also particularly allergic to words like: strategic, vision, holistic, new experience, more interactive, globalization, individualization, mass-customizable, etc). Not because there’s anything particularly screwy about them per se, but more often than not they are used in a bland, meaningless way, often corporate.

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I guess we could agree that we are irritated by bullshit?

By: boost

boost — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:50:13 +0000

I am glad to hear someone feels the same as I do. The word design is used too much in society and it drives me nuts when I hear someone misuse the word in places it never belonged to begin with. I agree that design is much more than just surface styling or any of the physical aspects that goes along with it. Design is something that can be applied to non-physical things, such as business models and structures. The true problem was mentioned by the author, “Herein lies the greatest danger: as much as it is being trumpeted the loudest, design might fundamentally not be given the room nor its role to play.”

The core of design is still there, but you have to look through the murky cloud created by all the people that want a “piece of the design action.”

By: bosboss

bosboss — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 17:44:32 +0000

Can’t we all stop worrying about the all the theoretical politics around design? Who cares what anyone thinks or says about it. As long as we make stuff, we have to design stuff, and whoever’s doing that should focus all of their effort on trying to make it great. It doesn’t have to go beyond that.