Design Sojourn

Probably the thing that irks me the most [in car design] is when I see this repetition of the known, because it shows people have comfort zones that are too tight to themselves and they’re really afraid to walk out of those. And then somebody comes up with a new idea, and then everybody follows that because their comfort zone has been expanded. The work that we’ve done in the last ten years has been about expanding those comfort zones.

~ Chris Bangle (BMW)

Ever wondered how the leaders in design do it? This is how. They push themselves out of their comfort zone and boldly go where no one else has or dares to. This is vital especially if you want to be a leader and not a follower.

On the flip side, don’t be that person that keeps on highlighting why things can’t be better, smaller, lighter, cheaper etc. and then find out that someone else, in likely China or Korea, was able to do it.

Now is not the time to be conservative. You have only one budget, make your choices well.

Quote Via: Objectified

Once in a while I would come across a design idea that is just pure brilliance, I just have to share it here with you. The sheer simplicity of the solution is just mind boggling. So much so that it sends tingles down my spine. Furthermore, when you start to bring the potential environmental impact into the picture, you can really see that this is just “great design” in action.

Design Engineer Sherwood Forlee has come up with this very clever staple-less paper holding solution. Just cut the slot, fold back the edge and tuck it under the back of the paper. Check out step by step process below and the rest of her fantastic work here.

Via: My friends at Yanko Design.

The background of this article stems from my interest in how Strategic Industrial Design forms the backbone of thinking in the very best designers in our field. Therefore I have been quietly spending some time studying and observing strategic designers and their “modus operandi”. In the process, I have been fortunate to meet, attend lectures, interact and share ideas with such talented strategic designers and design leaders.

These 5 secrets of Strategic Designers have been derived from some of my conclusions, and I would like to now share this with you.

Image: The Pathway of Strategic Designers

In general, I believe Strategic Designers have a very unique approach to things, especially in regard to the design process. The strategic designers’ pathway around the design process oscillates from a “bird’s eye” view of things to a “telescopic” focused one and then back up to a “bird’s eye” view again. Rinse and repeat. This constant momentum allows them to keep on reframing the tasks or design problems at hand. The ability to “Zoom” in and out (and not get dizzy!) is an important over arching skill that strategic designer have.
So who wants to be a Strategic Designer? Let’s now dig a little deeper to find out how:

1) They are great Zoomers!
We have already touched briefly on this first secret. It is aptly put as the first point as it’s the most important. The ability to engage in big picture thinking and yet still be details orientated is what I like to call “Zooming”, and its people “Zoomers”.

Strategic Designers have this ability to look at situations or design problems from many different angles, think through different solutions, and finally reframe the answer at high and detailed levels.
This reframing ability requires a lot of skill. The key ingredient in reframing problems is the all important ability to wear many hats and speak the many different languages of business, marketing, design, engineering and manufacturing etc.
Remember all the times you bitched and moaned about how Industrial Designers are “jacks of all trades and masters of none”? Well now you know where to start!

2) They know the design process like the back of their hand.
Strategic Designers are experts of the design process. They know it so well that they can “swim” in it, mould it and control it. The ability to have ultimate control over the design process means that they can ensure that the strategic objectives are achieved or at least maintained.
Strategic Designers also know that in order to manage the chaos, design can sometimes be, a strong process is the key. Designs cannot be conceived in a vacuum, but I like to add, Design cannot be executed without a strong process. The best strategic designers all work with a strong and efficient design process, some processes are personal, but most are part of an organizational system.
Learn it, live it and love it. Look to the process, it will guide you.

3) They are able to do everything.
I’ve never met Strategic Designers or leaders who were not designers first or did not cut his/her teeth in the design trenches. Being designers first, they are able to do everything a designer can, and perhaps more, because of their connection to the wider view and their ability to reframe.
The problem is that because of their focus in design strategy and management they do tend to get rusty, in fact very rusty with the technical design stuff. Therefore it is very advisable for Strategic Designers to keep that “designer in you” alive. Personal projects, constant sketching, running design programs are all ways strategic designers use to keep in touch with things.

4) They also know that they don’t have to do everything.
Strategic Designers know the value of a good team and great team work. They also know when to let go and try not to do everything. Letting go is the hardest, but they know where their value lies and when they can add this value in the design process.
Therein lies a sad truth with Strategic Designers, they are always almost part of a team and rarely individuals. It looks to me almost impossible to walk the path of a Strategic Designer and also manage the design process at the same time.

5) There is “no job too big or too small”.
The interesting thing about Strategic Designers is that their ability is scalable. No problem too big or too small. Strategic Design can be about the smallest thing and also about the biggest. You don’t have to be running multi-million dollar programs to be strategic; you can also be strategic with small meaningful solutions.
Strategic design is about an approach or a process of design. Like any process once you get it right it can applicable on many levels and in many situations.

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So what do you think? Do my observations make sense? I love to hear what you think and please do not hesitate to leave your comments; I look forward to reading them.

Image by: Inobras, via HongKiat.

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Design Sojourn would like to wish all readers a Happy Lunar New Year, good health and happiness in 2009!

From Wikipedia:

The Ox ( Niu ) is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Ox is denoted by the earthly branch character. In the Vietnamese zodiac, the water buffalo occupies the position of the ox.

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The Ox is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. This powerful sign is a born leader, being quite dependable and possessing an innate ability to achieve great things. As one might guess, such people are dependable, calm, and modest. Like their animal namesake, the Ox is unswervingly patient, tireless in their work, and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint.

Ox people need peace and quiet to work through their ideas, and when they have set their mind on something it is hard for them to be convinced otherwise. An Ox person has a very logical mind and is extremely systematic in whatever they do, even without imagination. These people speak little but are extremely intelligent. When necessary, they are articulate and eloquent.

People born under the influence of the Ox are kind, caring souls, logical, positive, filled with common sense and with their feet firmly planted on the ground. Security is their main preoccupation in life, and they are prepared to toil long and hard in order to provide a warm, comfortable and stable nest for themselves and their families. Strong-minded, stubborn, individualistic, the majority are highly intelligent individuals who don’t take kindly to being told what to do.

The Ox works hard, patiently, and methodically, with original intelligence and reflective thought. These people enjoy helping others. Behind this tenacious, laboring, and self-sacrificing exterior lies an active mind.

The Ox is not extravagant, and the thought of living off credit cards or being in debt makes them nervous. The possibility of taking a serious risk could cause the Ox sleepless nights.

Ox people are truthful and sincere, and the idea of wheeling and dealing in a competitive world is distasteful to them. They are rarely driven by the prospect of financial gain. These people are always welcome because of their honesty and patience. They have many friends, who appreciate the fact that the Ox people are wary of new trends, although every now and then they can be encouraged to try something new.

It is important to remember that the Ox people are sociable and relaxed when they feel secure, but occasionally a dark cloud looms over such people and they engage all the trials of the whole world and seek solutions for them.Also the Ox people are all caring and loving but at times when you mess with them they will tear out in anger.

In case you did not know this Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States is 48 and thus born in the year of the Ox. Probably one of the most famous “Oxen” around.

Recently Raph, from the very excellent Design Droplets blog, wanted to know how I would define Strategic Design.

I never had to consciously apply strategic design and thinking methodologies as it was something that I just did through my daily design activities. It was, in a way, second nature to me and a somewhat automatic response when I have to deal with problems. So I have to admit when I was asked this question I was momentary stumped.

As Design Sojourn’s focus is all about “Mastering the Business of Strategic Industrial Design”, I thought I might take a stab and define it, with help from you of course! So here we go.

Let’s start by looking at the definition of “Strategic”. Which is “Of or relating to Strategy”.

strat·e·gy (str?t’?-j?)
n. pl. strat·e·gies

1.
a. The science and art of using all the forces of a nation to execute approved plans as effectively as possible during peace or war.
b. The science and art of military command as applied to the overall planning and conduct of large-scale combat operations.

2. A plan of action resulting from strategy or intended to accomplish a specific goal.
3. The art or skill of using stratagems in endeavors such as politics and business.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

So this definition implies that when you become “strategic”, there is a plan, a mission or a goal behind what you do. If we now combine it with Design, I would extrapolate that “Strategic Design” is about Design (with a capital D) that has plan or specific goals behind the reason for its existence.

I’m not trying to be philosophical here, but lets pause for a moment and think about what I said for a bit? Does it start to make sense?

Now, I like to expand this definition by massaging the keywords and terminology a little. Unfortunately it is not close to being a perfect definition. I think Strategic Design is about a process that takes a very holistic and multi-disciplinary approach to achieving design solutions. In other words, Strategic Design captures all aspects of a product’s requirements (consumer needs, marketing and business plans, design language, brand identity etc.) and then uses these requirements to influence the final design solution.

Phew, that took a few rounds of editing and rewording. So now it is time for you to have your say, please let me know how you would define Strategic Design?

Edit: Rephrased and re-edited the post. I did not like the tone of the original post, it was written in a hurry and I was tired.

A fictional discussion at a studio near you.

Friend: Designers need to loosen up.

Me: Yeah? How so?

Friend: Designers occasionally take their design work too seriously. The rest of the world just takes design at “face value”.

Me (In a philosophical voice): This organic form reflects the beauty of natural elements that are found in plants and nature…

Friend (In an also philosophical voice): Yes this forward leaning tilt represents a strong iconic aesthetic that reflects pride in ownership blah blah…People don’t really care, it is just not as important to them.

Me: This looks like one of the “Gaps” in the thinking between Design and Business eh?

The only people who really care how about how a design is meant to look are designers. The rest of the world just considers our designs at face value. In other words, if its crap no amount of justification is going to cut it. Philosophical talk is dangerous and can result in mental masturbation.

Don’t blame us designers; it is just how we are wired. All our lives, we are taught to justify our designs and design work. What they did not tell us was justifying designs was really meant for designers to learn how we came about creating said designs. It was about structuring and giving meaning to design, not for defending it.

Therefore when we (designers) look at designs, we automatically decode them to “see” and appreciate the meaning, inspiration and intelligence behind the form or solution. Unfortunately, the rest of the world just takes it straight up, and at the end of the day, it really comes down to whether people intuitively “get it” or not.

So the next time our clients don’t seem to “get” our designs, take a step back and consider our work objectively and at face level and see how it goes?

This question of the week by reader Jane is delayed, in fact much delayed. Apologies as I have been caught up with work! She writes:

I’ve been working at a product design company for almost a year and a half. Meeting new friends, colleagues, clients, manufacturer and people from different walks of life has been so fun and it has certainly kept me going for so long. Notice I did not mention my boss at all, well he does not have a design background.

Recently he seems to be learning more about design, as a result he starts getting all philosophical on me. Saying things like with a great concept, the design will follow. But still he knows nothing about design and worst he is demoralizing, saying that my work is ugly or Ii do not have any design sense. With him constantly criticizing my work, I am slowly losing passion in what I love and feel like quiting this job.

This is a complete opposite of what my lecturers say about me in my current design school. The lecturers mostly love my work. I’m currently taking a one year degree course and I’m still in the midst of my studies.

I don’t know how to confront my boss regarding this issue and he is a typical egoist who always thinks he is right. He takes design lightly and is always negative about the work i do. Even if i do my work well he doesn’t give me credit for it. Sigh.

First off, I like to thank Jane for letting me share her story with all of us. I think it is very relevant as many industrial designers do not have an opportunity to work in studio environments. Many of us will find ourselves one time or another working in marketing and engineering departments or businesses.

There are two ways of looking at this situation. On one hand you could adopt the position that anybody can become a “manager” if you work in a place long enough. This implies that there is very little merit required in getting into a managerial position. Another way you can look at this is designers are often too quick to blame other people for not “getting” what they do.

Jane, I can’t really comment on your design capability or ability, but I will assume you have got what it takes. So if your manager is truly a jackass then there is not much you can do except plan your exit strategy. However do consider this; have you done everything in your role as a designer to communicate the benefits of your design or your design intent in a language your manager can understand?

Sorry for being cliché but it does “take two hands to clap”. The biggest problem for industrial designers working in non-design environments is bridging this “language gap”. Once you can do it, it gets a lot easier. How to do it is worthy of a book that I am planning to write, and my best advice is for you at this time is to subscribe to Design Sojourn!

Someone in the Transformer Brand Licensing department is not doing their job.

Wishing all readers a HAPPY 2009!

Wow oh wow. Three full years of me being online and ranting and raving about everything industrial design! I have to say it was a bumpy ride from the start and while looking back to see how I can improve I have to say that my older posts were really poorly written. Hopefully the posts are a lot better these days?

With the constantly evolving nature of the Internet, and perfectly reflecting the growth of an individual, I thought it is about time I update this website. This update is also significant as it represents my transition into my 4th year of blogging and also some changes in my personal career goals.

Also dear reader, I have also taken your feedback, synthesized it, and used the best ones that gel well with my goals for this website update. So I like to officially announce the new look Design Sojourn Version 4.0 that contains a number of significantly new features and changes. They include:

1) Full RSS Feeds
This is has to be one of my biggest reader requests to date. The reason why I never had full RSS feeds because I kept on getting my copyrighted content stolen by SPLOGS or Spam Blogs. So I decided to turn down lots of requests my Full Feeds. However recently I better understood my reader’s requests when I got really irritated when sites I wanted to subscribe to did not have full feeds. So I concluded that my readers, whom are so inclined, would feel the same way. Therefore I had to weighed the Pros and Cons of readability vs. thief of content. As my readers come first, I have decided to give full RSS feeds another try and see how we go.

Oh, if you are reading this post by RSS, please do come and visit the site (DesignSojourn.com) and let me know how you feel about the new look?

2) Featured Story
One thing that I noticed on Design Sojourn is that my featured design articles often need some extra time on the front page before I get feedback. Sometimes on a productive blogging week my newer posts tend to bump these design articles off the front page. Not good as I do I spent quite a lot of time crafting these Design Articles. Also with a few reader emails and comments telling me how they missed this and that article, I decided to create a “Featured Article” section up top. This allows me to keep certain articles around a little longer so that I can get additional feedback or comments.

3) Favorite Stories and other reformatting
Occasionally I create Design Articles that receive heavy traffic and lots comments. These “reader favorites” are also often significant posts or articles that really define what this website is all about. Therefore under the “Featured Story” bit I have created a Favorites section for all such defining posts.

The discerning reader would have noticed that these post “chicklets” used to be in my sidebar. But with this new placement, I have the opportunity to reformat other elements, such a a new Twitter cell and creating post excerpts. Overall I think the new blog design has now a better hierarchy and a comes together in a tighter package.

3) Less Ads!
Recently Design Sojourn got featured in a local Marketing magazine. That was cool. What was not cool was the screen shot the magazine took had a butt ugly 480×60 Google picture Ad slot in the area below the post title. Arrgh, never again. Readability and Image before anything else in design. So out that ad slot went.

4) New Blog description and focus!
This blog was and is about “How to do Good Design and Create Clever Products”. Lots of tips and tricks on how a designer can do his/her job better. A year or two ago, I added “Mastering the Business of Design” to the end of the description. This reflected my move towards design entrepreneurship as well as focusing on the ’selling” aspect of design.

As my blog evolved, my passions moved in the direction of strategic design. I think I have always been a very strategic thinker, it just took a awhile to manifest as I believe I had to acquire the skills first. True to the name of this blog, mine was really a design journey.

Therefore simplify things and make the focus of this blog more meaningful I have revised this Version 4.0 blog description to a more simple “How to master the business of strategic industrial design.” This brings a lot of clarity to this website and also really reflects what I do in real life.

On a personal branding note, this refocusing should be done anyway as more often than not sites like these are can be instrumental in your career as it has been to mine.

5) iPhone viewable
Not much to say here, but if you visit me via your iPhone’s Safari browser, my Wordpress backbone should auto detect that and reformat the site to fit your iPhone. I think it should work for any mobile device as well, but I have not confirmed that.

6) 500 Posts!
I like to end this post a little nugget. According to my Wordpress meta stats, I have written 500 posts! 500 posts, now that to me is amazing! So this would be my 501st post, and how apt, seeing this is my first post for the new year and all.

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I had planned to update a lot more stuff, including a new color, logo and perhaps even a brand new theme. However I was not able to find a theme that I was happy with nor a color that made sense to my personal brand. At the end I decided not to go for a theme change, however I still think I will take another look at a color and logo refresh. So do stay tuned to that!

I like to personally thank you for being part of my design sojourn or journey, and I hope you will continue to enjoy being part of my process as much as I will be sharing it with you! I look forward to all your feedback and still continue tolove receiving your emails. Please keep in touch?

Hat Tip to Pat Law and David Airey for their feedback during my redesign of this theme.