What is the big deal about industrial design?
Professors Philippe Lalande and Daniel Spooner, from the University of Montreal’s School of Industrial Design, will be in Sudbury for the Lighting Up Design and Innovation for Business Success, Nov. 25 at the Living with Lakes Centre.
The event starts with a free public introduction on “Shaping Sudbury’s Future by Design: opportunities for business and education,” from 10 a.m. to noon. Space is limited.
An afternoon workshop, “Bringing Together Design and Business — An Interactive Exploration,” will be led by Lalande and Spooner.
The workshop runs from 1-4 p.m. at a cost of $200 per person.
To register, contact Albert at. salbert@laurentian.ca. For more information, contact Robinson at 705-675-1151-3212 or drobinson@laurentian.ca.
Commentary
In the 1950s IBM CEO Tom Watson made the claim, that ‘Good design is Good Business’.
Today, the Dean of the Rotman School of Business says, “Business people don’t just need to understand designers better – they need to become designers.”
Companies such as Apple and SONY have scooped their markets with design. They design both the product form and the system that supports it. Apple even designs the markets that the product will operate in.
Books like ‘Winning by Design,’ and magazines like Business Week and newspapers such as the Financial Times claim that investment in design as well as simply using good design enhances the competitiveness of firms.
The reason is that products are differentiated in the domestic and international market not so much by the technology that goes into them, but how they employ that technology.
Only recently has design been spotlighted by business leaders and policymakers. Apple’s iPod and other electronics show how design can be a strategic management tool giving firms an edge in the global marketplace. Firms, clusters of technology, and regions now compete on design. (Vinodrai)
“Real value creation now comes from using the designer’s foremost competitive weapon, his imagination” (Richard Martin quoted by Breen 2005, 69).
Industrial Design closes the gap between the scientist\inventor who conceives the device and the salesman who must sell it at a price the market will bear.
The Industrial Designer traditionally has been labeled as a stylist with a basic insight into mechanics. The modern Industrial Designer is the link between art and engineering.
So how is industrial design related to what we do in Sudbury and SAMSSA Members?
In Sudbury we make trucks, loaders, utility vehicles, drills, pneumatic cylinders and many other products in just one sector of the mining industry. Some companies plan mines. We do all these things not only for Sudbury, but for the world market.
So where does design come in? Internationally, we are competing with companies that employ designers and compete on the quality of their designs as much as they compete on the basis of raw technological function. We do design competitive products in Sudbury. We need to do it better than they do.
We need to have designers who can do it better. We need to be recognized as an outstanding design culture. We need design courses at Laurentian and Cambrian and Boreal. We need to teach the importance of design in our business schools and faculty of management so that managers understand it and can use it to compete on the world stage.