Design Sojourn

Crowded Elevator with Crystal by Daniel Greene

If you look around you I’m sure you can find plenty of great advice on how to write a good design brief. Therefore I will assume that most of you would know what they are and how to do so. However I have found that such advice are often “cookie cutter” at best, and may not necessary help you get your design job done right. However if you want a better and tighter brief, these 5 steps might just help you turn your design into a great one!

1) Create an “elevator pitch”
Top on the list of things to have is an “elevator pitch” in your design brief. Essentially it is a short blurb that describes what your brief or design effort is all about. Adapted from my experiences with entrepreneurs, I found that entrepreneurs often use an “elevator pitch” to communicate or sell their business idea to someone else in a quick and concise way. Therefore, I see a lot of value for design managers to use an “elevator pitch” as a means to communicate the essence or gist of the brief to everyone, including members of the design team or even back to the client.

2) Build a hierarchy of needs
The next thing to do after diligently taking down all your business partner’s requirements is to prioritized them within a “hierarchy of needs”. A good design is one that fulfills the requirements of a brief, however it is impossible for a design to fulfill all the requirements of the brief equally. Thus a hierarchy of needs is important to ensure you will create a design that has focus.

It might sound like compromise, but it is not. It is about laying out the facts and managing expectations, so that your client is fully aware what he/she will be getting at the end of the day. For example, if cost pressures are a factor, you should not be creating a design with expensive materials, or embossing on letterheads.

3) Key benefits to be communicated in the design
These days, designs should not only be about making an object look good but also part of a meaningful brand language or a holistic business strategy. Therefore Designs have to communicate its intent, its benefits, and also resonate with the consumer. Lots to do! Therefore you should identify, with your colleague, client or business partner, the key benefits that need to be communicated in a design so that it can be a success in a competitive marketplace. Try to minimize the number of benefits as much as possible. Even better, keep it to just the most important benefit.

4) What is the big picture and how is the design part of it?
Any Design (product, graphic, interaction etc.) will be always part of a bigger story. It could be part of a family of products, or a range of similar products differentiated by specifications, or even just a simple accessory. At the end of the day, a successful product solution has to not only beat the competition but also play well with its friends. Therefore it is always a good idea to not create designs that will cannibalize the sales of existing products.

5) How are you going to make this thing?
Most of us designers, in any discipline, usually know how to get things made. It’s part of our training. However, the choice of our manufacturing or creation process often comes after we decide what we want the product to be. While this is great for genre breaking design work, the people who pay the bills may not be similarly inclined. So it is good to find out upfront what sort of manufacturing constraints, product part cost targets, or manufacturing strategies that should be considered during the design process. Once you identify the constraints, you should do what any decent designer would, ignore it! But seriously, it is good to bring realism into the discussion early in the game.

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Well I hope you enjoyed this post, and perhaps if you might have more suggestions to add. If so, I do look forward to reading your comments below.

Image by: tamachanhaazarashi.

Designers these days face a lot of pressure to not only do good design, but also to do the right thing. Indeed the importance of sustainable and environmentally friendly products cannot and should not be underestimated. However, while Designers are central to the creation of these products, it takes a lot more than just having the “Will” to do it.

Experience has shown me that Consumerism is such a humongous engine, with so many factors influencing or controlling it, that a Designer and his “Will” is but a drop in the ocean.

Regardless, Designers are in a good position to influence and often the issue is creating a sustainability discussion that can also be relevant and meaningful to the business and their financials. I would also like to add that this difficulty of translating a sustainable proposition into something that makes financial sense is one of the key reasons why “Green” is not taking off in many companies. Yes, sadly money does make the world go round.

Another key point I like to add is that traditional sustainability discussions are almost the norm these days. Recyclable materials, low impact processes, Lead and toxic free materials, and even end of life management etc. are all achievable and even part of government legislation in many countries. While a lot of products do satisfy such legislations, more could be done. However, I personally feel this is the wrong approach to take, more like a stopgap measure rather than a cure.

Rather than trying to fix a product, why not instead “fix” the buying behavior of consumers? Think about it, the awesome Macbook Unibody that I’m typing on is made out of recycled aluminum, however the amount of power you need to recycle it when you are done, makes this idea of a recycling process pointless if everyone is chucking it out after a year. However if I told you that this was my first computer after my 5-year-old laptop died, well you get the picture. It is not so much about cleaning up after it all, but about getting people to consume less.

This comes to an interesting cosmic alignment.

Industrial Designers are known to be experts in creating products that are a reflection of consumer behavior, or even, as some say, able to influence behavior by creating desire!

So the next time you are working on a design, consider shaping it to encourage ecological and sustainable consumer behaviors. Not only that, if you can add making the designs financially meaningful into the mix, you would have got it sold!

I have to say I’m not an expert in this, but here are some suggestions that might spark some ideas to help you along:

1) Design longer lasting products. Commit to designing and building the best possible product you can, and market the hell out of it! Charge a premium for this and I’m sure this product strategy can still be financially sound.

2) Design Products that are part of an upgradable system. Modular or Lego type systems are great way, for consumers to throw away less as they can now buy what they need.

3) Create products that can be fit into smaller packaging. Design products that can be easily assembled, so they can be flat packed IKEA style. Less factory assembly resources required, more products on a shipping pallet, and hence smaller overall carbon footprint.

4) Products that can be easily disassembled. People seem to forget design for disassembly. Why not create products that can be easily disassembled for re-use and refurbishing back into NEW products? Reused components save costs and landfills.

5) Parts reduction. Simplicity is back in style. This means elegant and simple product constructions with less fuss and less ornaments. Make it in one part or not at all!

These are just some simple suggestions off the top of my head. I’m sure you can come up with more ideas and options that either encourages sustainable behavior and/or makes financial sense. Please do share, as I love to hear about them?

PS: You might like to take a look at this post “10 Useful Cost Saving Design Strategies for these Troubled Times” for more ideas. Cost savings usually mean less materials and thus less impact.

Image by Balakov

This is my second article, that I wrote for Yanko Design (YD). As I know some Design Sojourn readers don’t really frequent YD, I have decided to republish and keep a record of the article here. Enjoy, and I’m looking forward to your comments if you have not left any before!

There is something really nasty about the Design Industry; something many know of but never really spoke of. In our ever-competitive society, we always seem to celebrate the winners, and outcast the losers. We often talk about the one that made it to the top and leave no space for second place.

Just like in our Design world it is all about our award winning designs, the big budget projects, and the ones that the client and consumers love. However we never talk about our setbacks, the projects we hate, the ones that failed the engineering tests, and the ones that got away. We never like to talk about this so-called “Dark Side of Design”.

I like to share with you a number of real life scenarios that shows how the world of design can be a pure hellhole. I like to talk about how money seems to overcome morality and sensibility. Facing the “Dark Side of Design” head on is neither easy or fun.

1. You will have to design something you hate
Designing something you hate is something you never really consider when you get out of school. It just does not register. You love design and you love your work so it is not conceivable that you would have to design something you hate. It will happen, so be prepared and bask in the frustration.

2. You will have to work with someone you hate
You will get assigned to that snot nosed designer that can’t design for nuts but can kiss ass like there is no tomorrow. When it happens at work you suddenly realize why your boss is not paying you his salary in addition to yours. Worst he may be your manager.

Not only that, but you might have to work with a client or business partner that treats you like that piece of dirt under his/her shoe. That person may be unreasonable, belittle you, and hate everything you give him. Unfortunately, the only thing you can do is swallow your pride and turn the other cheek.

3. You will have to make a decision between giving consumers what they want or what they need
The majority of design work, sad to say, is all about feeding consumerism. The reality is that your designs are often not necessary, nor what people need. In school they teach you to study your consumer, identify their needs, and design for them. However do you really think that person needs another chair, laptop or mobile phone? I’m sure you can do a great job, but will it be right? What about sustainability? When does that happen or does it ever happen at all? You will suddenly realize there are forces at play that are beyond your control, and you will have to decide if this is the right career path for you.

4. You will not be able to distinguish between night and day
You will work hard. Sure, you thought you worked hard in school to graduate at the top of the class, but you will never work so hard in your life when you are a designer in the trenches. So hard that you cannot tell the difference between night and day. You will do it because you have to. You will do it because you care. Needless to say, you will hate it.

5. You will never have clear brief
In the real world everyone knows what a brief is, but nobody really knows what a brief is. You will have to face the fact that there is no such thing as a clear brief. It is also never the straightforward design process you learned in school. You will hop back and forth through changes so many times you will think you are a trick pony. What is worst, the schedule will not move because of someone elses “briefing” mistake.

6. You will be made responsible for a design that has failed
It is too easy. Product does not sell? Blame the designer. Product cannot be engineered? Blame the designer. Suddenly you will be in everyone’s “cross hairs” and be blamed for everything. Remember though designers make suggestions. The people who pay for the designs are the ones who own the designs, thus responsible for the outcome. This leads me to my next point.

7. You will never own your designs anymore
What was a great solo effort in school, will now becomes everyone’s baby. You will pour your heart and soul into a design to only get it taken from you and passed off to someone else. Your design idea would be lost, modified, “raped” and even killed. Not only that, there will be projects that will have so many people working on it, that nobody owns or wants to own it.

8. You will hate design
One morning you will drag your tired body through multiple all-nighters to present your work to an unappreciative client, and you will tell yourself something along those lines of “I hate design”.

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They always say it is “darkest before the dawn” and in design it is.

Many designers quit before reaching this point, I almost did. Some of the popular excuses are likely to be “it’s too hard” or “not enough money for this BS” or even “no one appreciates the effort I put in”. My advice to you is to hang on because it does get better.

Strangely enough this turning point happens around the 5 – 7 year mark, depending on the amount of project hours a designer has clocked. Somehow after that, things just fall into place. It can happen like how it did for me, you wake up one morning and it just “clicked” as you reached that “tipping point”. You now know how to handle that abusive client, your 3D models just work with the engineers, and best of all, your designs start to kick ass and win awards. Trust me, I’ve seen it over and over again, not only with me but with other designers, the 5 year mark seems to be that magical number when your time in the trenches finally pay off.

I like to end this little post on another uplifting note. I cannot understand why people do not talk about their failures. They make great and interesting stories, especially if you can articulate what you learned and how you grew from it. In my humble opinion, this is far more important than always looking to sell your winners. Think about this when you next update your portfolio?

This article was originally published on Yanko Design. As I know some Design Sojourn readers don’t really frequent YD, I thought it might be a good idea to republish it here as well. I have also re-edited some of the text to make it more relevant to DS readers. Enjoy!

It is all around us, talk of doom, gloom, job cuts, job losses and recession etc. This is not what a young designer, fresh out of school, wants to hear. It is also not what an employed designer wants to hear. However it is not the end of the road, and as long as the Earth keeps turning, there will be a tomorrow. Personally, I like to believe a recession is a time of great opportunity for everyone. Especially for forward looking designers who have the right skills and are well placed to take advantage of a recovering economy.

When I first got out of design school, it was at the height of the Asian Economic Crisis in 1997. There were no industrial design jobs available. I was retrenched from my first furniture design job after 3 months, and it took me another 4 months before I found another design related job. It was definitely not an easy time in my life at all. If you are interested, I had compiled some of my lessons in this Pillar Article “10 Tips on Landing You an Industrial Design Job“. However I think it is the right time to expand and update these tips as, today’s economic situation is not only about getting a job, it is also about keeping it.

1) Be Flexible
In a time of recession, you need to be flexible. Not only should you do your best to chase down any design related job you can find, you should also be ready to be the one to do the “dirty” work. The tough jobs that no one else wants to do. In this time of crisis, employers look for people who are willing to do what it takes to deliver.

2) Can you sell Ice to an Eskimo?
The ability to sell yourself in interviews and all documents related to you is vital in winning in today’s job market. It is not only about getting your information out to people; it is about positioning yourself in the best possible light. Leverage on your achievements and strengths, but in a Design world filled with egos, soft sell goes a lot further than hard sell.

3) Know Thyself
Before you can sell yourself you need to know your strengths and weaknesses. Time for some navel gazing and be very self-critical. Play up your strengths and look to improve your weaknesses.

4) Where You want to go Today?
Have a strong vision of where you want to go or what you want to achieve as a designer. It’s important to employers as it shows vision, passion and ambition. A strong personal vision also helps you make the right decisions when you need to deliberate on job opportunities.

5) Continue to Improve
You can always look to do a task better or improve a skill. Striving to do things better, is an important mindset to have.

6) Lifelong Learning
Not only look to improve, but aim to learn new things. One new thing a week is a good start. Industrial Design is a huge profession with many facets of which you only learn the basics in school. Once you are out of school, take it upon yourself to lean more by being proactive.

7) Take Risks
A young designer, fresh out of school CAN and should take risks in their career. Of course you need to be prudent if you have to put food on the table. However it is not the time to pick the “safe” job, but the time to pick the job that gives you the best exposure.

8 ) Personal Branding
No, it is not the personal logo or monogram that makes most people cringe. It is about an image you want to present, a public “face” that represent the principles you stand for. A well written blog is a very powerful tool for Personal Branding.

9) Passion
I have to say that employers HATE designers with little or no passion for their work. Nobody can be more excited about your design work or career but you. Passion is also about doing what it takes to get things done. Employers like that. This should also be demonstrated when you talk about your portfolio.

10) Build Relationship and Communication Skills
When I got out of school, it was in the time when 3D CAD started becoming big and every employer wanted a 3D designer. Unfortunately my hand rendered portfolio could never compete, but it did not matter, my eagerness to learn 3D CAD, and my ability to communicate that design was innate and not reliant on a 3D tool was what won the day.

11) Be Serious with Your Job
Young designers are just that, young. They focus on a quality life more than quality work. Some just don’t take their work seriously. Good Design is serious business, this means quality work delivered on time and on budget.

12) Work Like a Slave
To get good in design fast, you need to clock the hours to acquire the skills. Work hard, when you are young, but also work smart. In interviews, show that you are willing to put in what it takes to get things done. Quality projects with short lead times are worth its weight in gold in portfolios.

13) Always Shine with Good Work
Always, I say ALWAYS focus on good quality work. When in doubt, awesome designs will always make anyone’s day.

14) HOMEWORK!
Be diligent, before you go for an interview, do your homework. No employer likes people who know nothing about the company or the work they do.

15) Network
Online AND offline. Enough said, don’t you think?

16) Polish your Portfolio, Again and Again
Portfolios are a historical document of you and your work. Make sure it is updated and presented in the best possible light. When I first started out, I updated or re-designed my portfolio every 3 to 6 months. Your Portfolio should become a living document that reflects your goals and vision. If you went back to a company for a repeat interview they would have new things to see and a good idea how you are developing as a designer.

17) Get Real Projects Fast
Student work is great to start your portfolio out with; however do aim to phase it out of your portfolio as quickly as you can with real design work. Real world projects give you the creditability you need. If you are stuck in a job that has very little design work worthy of your portfolio, try to get some extra freelance or temporary work to shore up your portfolio.

18) Deck out your CV with Results not Skills
In your CV you would probably have indicated that you are a “team player”, or “great at creating 3D models” etc. Well, so can millions of other designers. Make sure instead that in every past or present job listing in your CV you describe your contribution to the bottom line. So instead you should write that you “worked in global team that spanned 5 countries” or “you were responsible for the 3D database generation for this award winning product.”

19) Widen your Interests
The most effective designers can draw inspiration from their have very varied interests, that are often no design related. Share some of that during an interview or with your colleagues, it makes you a much more interesting person.

20) Be a Problem Solver
Last but not least, nobody likes a “Whiner”, and I can vouch that most employers don’t. You supposed to be a creative, so be creative and figure how to make the best of your limited budget or your reduction in man power. In a recession there is no shortage of work, just the resources to do it.

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Well, there we go! I hope these 20 tips will get you up and going as a designer, or perhaps even solidify your position as one. Please do not hesitate to leave a comment or additional questions you may have or need feedback for?

Source: You-Did

Tic. Tock.

Tic. Tock.

Tic. Tock.

Three seconds.

That’s all you’ve really got to make the sale.

Source: The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less (Amazon Link)

In a blink of an eye, a potential buyer would have entered a store, quickly scan the different products on the shelf and then make a decision to engage with a particular product.

All this happens in just 3-5 seconds!

A product’s external housing is one of the first things a customer sees. This means for your designs to be successful, it will only have 3 seconds to capture the buying interests of your target customer. In today’s ultra competitive market landscape represented by information overload, saturated product offerings and competent competitors who can also do good design, ensuring that your design does this job well is no easy task.

So then how do you do it? Here is how I think it can be done.

1) Create a Unique Design Identity

Similar to a Brand, a unique design language or design identity is one of the strongest elements you can use to form attachments between your product and target consumer.

Key design details, such as strong silhouettes, unique button layouts and even materials or finishing can be “identity handles” that give your consumers anchor points to connect with your design.

BMW’s “flame surfaces”, the iPod click wheel and Coke bottle, are great examples of unique iconic designs that communicates what the product stands for without even the need for the brand’s logo to be present.

2) Strategic Designs that Communicate

Coming up with a great design identity is useless if the design language has no meaning behind it. It is not called a “language” for nothing.

A design language, in the true sense of the word, needs to be in a form that communicates what your product is all about.

You should aim for your design to communicate the product’s benefits to your target consumer. You should take this opportunity to visualize unique competitive or differentiation elements of your product may have. Best of all, you could take this idea to the next level by sculpting your language in such a way that it tells a compelling story.

3) Only Winning Designs may Apply

If all your great ideas for unique design languages don’t look good when they come together, you are probably not going in the right direction.

You need to continue to push your design work to ensure that it is the best work you can do, and what you come up with is truly a “winning design”.

The competitive marketplace is merciless and ruthless. There is really no space for design that falls into second or third place.

4) Not Just a Wow Factor, but a Meaningful Wow Factor

Coming up with a unique iconic language is only half of the story. It is important that it is meaningful to your target consumer as well.

Do your homework and to make sure that your design is a clear reflection of your market research and target market analysis. Make sure your target market’s needs and wants are accounted for in your design.

5) Consistency is the Key to Prosperity

Finally, to wrap it all up into that winning recipe, you need to add an ingredient of consistency.

Identifying the key design details or “identity handles” are important first steps, but the discipline to ensure that these handles are consistently executed over and over again is what will make it stick in the long run.

Repeated and consistent exposure of your design language to your target consumer, will allow them to slowly build a visual relationship with your product that will create a lot of design goodwill that can be leverage over and over again.

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I hope you enjoyed this post? I look forward to all your feedback and comments, or perhaps a different methodology you have found successful.

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.

You start with the light blue frame and move towards the dark blue frame which represents a completed product.

I have been pondering over the new Macbook Pro’s “Unibody”, with my thoughts often sliding from sheer audacity of execution, to disbelieve, to the wonderment of who got threaten at gun point, and then finally going back full circle.

But as I thought more about it, I suddenly realized that this was probably one of the best examples of a new school of thought of Industrial Design that I observed about 5 or more years ago. First finding its roots in the furniture/interiors industry (those guys can really experiment!), it has now finally come to main stream consumer electronics with the new Macbook. In short Industrial Design has evolved into a holistic expression of “everything” that is required to create the product. Expanding on this, the Industrial Design of these products were inspired by the product’s manufacturing processes or materials and specifically designed to express it as much as possible.

But wait, there’s more! [ more ]

Originally published on 20 April, 2006.

In my 3 years of blogging, this has to be one of the biggest topics I get asked advice for, especially from graduating designers. So I have decided to compile the 10 things they don’t really tell you in school or anywhere else for that matter! These tips are based on my own personal experience and from other design professionals or HR professionals that I have worked or and spoken to.

1. The 10% reality
I think this has to be the biggest tip in this deck, so it’s right at number 1. Sadly it is not positive, but a “reality check” that nobody likes to talk about. Here we go, only about 10% of any graduating cohort will find a job right out of school as an industrial designer. Many fresh graduates need to come to terms with this first before they can move on in life. How to move on? We’ll see below.

Many design graduates still do become successful but in other design or non-design related professions that better suit their skill set. I have designer friends who become owners of their own Interior Design firms or CAD businesses, or some even get into marketing. I also have ex-designers who are successful bankers, writers and even a musician somewhere. As you can see, you may not end up doing design; you still can be successful in whatever you do. An ID degree arms you with problem solving analytical skills vital in any organization or business situation.
These days, design management and creative thinking is in itself a very fast growing sub-set of our design profession. Something you might be interested to explore.

For the record, I was not in this 10% graduating cohort. I ended up just outside of it.

[ more ]

Image Source: Listen to ME!

One of the key skills I noticed great designers have is the ability to engage in Active Listening.

I was lucky. I managed to pick up this skill 6-7 years ago in a training seminar and it has been vital in helping my access situations quickly, make good decisions, resolve conflicts, and even accurately read the emotions of people I am negotiating with.

So what is Active Listening? Here is what Wikipedia defines it as:

When interacting, people often are not listening attentively to one another. They may be distracted, thinking about other things, or thinking about what they are going to say next, (the latter case is particularly true in conflict situations or disagreements).

Active listening is a structured way of listening and responding to others. It focuses attention on the speaker. Suspending one’s own frame of reference and suspending judgment are important in order to fully attend to the speaker.

There are quite a few methods available to help people engage in Active Listening. I would like to share mine here.

[ more ]

October 15, is Blog Action Day 2008! This is where bloggers from around the world get together to talk about a common theme or topic. This year’s topic is about Poverty, and as Design Sojourn is a design blog, it will be about Poverty and Design.

I’ve decided to do something different, rather than write a post, I though I’ll give some “social currency” to a great design for the BOP or Bottom of the Pyramid.

The Chulha – a low tech, low smoke biomass stove, an initiative from Philips Design’s ongoing Philanthropy by Design program which promotes social empowerment through knowledge sharing, creativity and co-design. Based on deep and specific insights gathered from and tested by users, the Chulha was co-developed by designers, an NGO and users in India. Its innovative design significantly reduces indoor pollution. This is particularly significant as respiratory illness affects the health of the huge number of people living in developing societies who still cook indoors with biomass fuels (e.g. wood or dung). It is estimated that over 1.6 million people die as a result each year.

This is how design should be! Looking at real world problems and dealing with it creativity. This stove not only is more efficient in burning, it helps ensures that the smoke is moved out of the home reducing house hold soot and contaminants. Finally in typical designer fashion it can be dissembled for cleaning and comes in a nice earthly orange!

If you are interested in more information, check out a full write up at the Philips Design page. Please do not forget to Stumble or Digg the main site not mine! Also here is The Blog Action Day site.