Rob,
Sorry - do not agree for the most part with your post.
This is an old discussion. Loewy etc lived in an age when the complexity of
the products they were designing was often far less than it is today.
Saturn V (Loewy worked on Skylab) is supposedly still the most complex and
powerful product ever produced by man. Old discussions are invariably the
ones still not resolved and the ones often of most value.
The design hero ranges of Target products to me lack a sensitivity to
scale, function and human interaction....They are using designers as a form
of co-branding because they feel that their own brand is not as strong as
it could be.
Design has not hurt Target's bottom line:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=TGT&d=c&k=c1&a=v&p=s&t=6m&l=on&z=m&q=l Would
your successful commercial alternative be Walmart? (which is World No.1)
Designers like Stark and Newson follow more of a renaissance model but
most products are designed by anonymous designers working internally at
companies like Motorola or Samsung. I think that the removal of fame and
ego from the equation results in a better design. Manufacturing companies
tend to spend more time and money and follow a more rigorous process
internally than they do when they use famous external renaissance type
designers.
The total of a team of good specialists is better than the efforts of one
good generalist.
Don't agree with the premise that inhouse designers are best. They are
often swamped with the knowledge of why things cannot be done.
We have just finished working with Newson on the new seat for Qantas.
http://www.qantas.com.au/info/flying/travelClasses/businessSeat
His attention to detail and perfection are astounding (he's a jeweller by
training), streets ahead of standard inhouse competency,
(yep - people like me).
(PS. p135 of this month's ID is what we do in-house)
Glenn Johnson
Industrial Design Manager
Industrial Design Studio, B/E Aerospace Inc.
1455 Fairchild Rd. Winston-Salem NC 27105-4588 USA
Tel. (1) 336 744 3143 Fax. (1) 336 744 3207
B/E Industrial Design Studio
"Rob Curedale"
<rcuredale@ccscad To: <[log in to unmask]>, <[log in to unmask]>
.edu> cc:
Subject: Re: Design Chasm
07/10/2003 10:25
AM
"Glenn Johnson wrote:"
Mark Breitenberg of Art Center, USA in his most recent ICSID publication
(June 2003?) relates to the holistic way in which early designers worked -
particularly referencing Loewy, Dreyfus, Teague, etc. and how design and
technology should be merged. He even goes as far to say that this is how he
thinks design should be taught - not the specialisations that we have
today.
______________________________
R o b C u r e d a l e
Chair Product Design
College for Creative Studies Detroit
201 East Kirby
Detroit MI 48202-4034
Phone: 313 664 7625
Fax: 313 664 7620
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.ccscad.edu
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