Design Sojourn

I was very thrilled to be able to visite the Droog store in Amsterdam. Sorry I don’t have any pictures as I was so excited to go in to the store that I forgot! Anyways it is worth a trip there if any of you are next in Amsterdam.

What was also of great interest to me was the store was also a museum! You could view certain classic Droog Design pieces as well as new work. Unless there is a “do not touch” sign you could also interact with the products.

What was also really good, was a visit to the other quaint shops in the area. There was an excellent Typography and Graphic Design book store as well as one that sells really cute stuff toys.

The experience was very enlightening, and unknown to me a thought was brewing at the back of my mind. It only bubbled to the surface when I read Seth Goding’s “Why aren’t you (really) good at graphic design?“. So I like to state that:

In this day and age, not only do we need change, we need to evolve to survive. And if you want to lead in your field, this has to be a basic “hygiene factor”.

I have dealt with the need for designers to evolve into “Hyper-creatives” in the past, but from this experience and a few in the past, I now believe this evolution needs to be applied to all things around us. An evolution with perhaps a focus on the user’s experience with your brand.

For example:

1) You can’t create a boutique product brand on philosophy alone. You need to give people access and a means to experience your philosophy.

2) Book stores can’t just carry books. They need to be well curated and selected, so much so that buying from that store means buying into the curator’s thought leadership.

3) I have mentioned this before but I think its relevant here. With everyone getting access to cheap digital cameras and SLRs, Photographers have to become more than just equipment or focal numbers. They have to push their ability into an art form.

I can keep going and I’m sure you can come up with many examples as well. So I’ll stop here. However before I go, I would like to ask you to take some time from your daily grind to think about the future and how you can evolve your product or your business and even you. If not, in time to come you will lose relevance and go the way of the dinosaurs.

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