I guess you already know that the world is changing. Or actually the world continuously changes, basically the only constant is change!
The only constant is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be. — Isaac Asimov
I truly believe that this continuous change has brought us to a level which needs us to question everything as we know it and asks for a complete new approach in order to define this new world. It’s not just the next step, it’s the third industrial revolution!
The best thing is to start with yourself, and as a creative Studio we also understood that this changing environment asks for another approach and the way things worked before are no longer applicable. We therefore redefined ourselves the past two years and today we feel that this exercise was necessary in order to deliver the right services.
During this transformation period I had a lot of discussions with close customers, friends and colleagues to discuss our thoughts and to verify their expectations. Below a few very clear topics which came up during this search for ourselves.
Story telling is the new design frontier. In the past we focused on features, but designing a new product with a few new specs doesn’t work any longer. Competition is that close that by the time a new product is launched and distributing is started. It’s already out of date. Customers are no longer interested in all kind of technical features, they’re interested in the story behind the products, even more they want to know how a certain product will influence their life.
Industrial design is often too easy. Thanks to technology and experience the process of developing a product has become much easier. The challenge to go from a sketch to a final product has become, in many cases, an almost standardized process. This makes that most products on the market are actually below what you might expect. The most important phase lies in concept creation, processing ideas into total experiences, executing the development is known.
Good designers are praised for their technique, great designers for their impact. One of my clients told me he’s not interested how we work and spend the budgets. He’s only interested in the story and the final result. If we’re able to surprise him, we’ll probably be able to surprise his customers. He’s actually interested in what we will add to his brand and how this will influence sales and rendability.
We want to invest in your abilities to bring clarity to chaos and deliver effective messages. For me this was the most valuable input. More and more customers ask us to think about the future. We’re not asked to design a product or a service but they ask us to think about there reason for existence in a couple of years. They ask us to help cultivating a culture of change and search for the right path.
“You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself” -Buddha
Het bericht Changing role of Design verscheen eerst op Studio Peter Van Riet.