In 1999, Management Guru, Tom Peters, wrote a series of books called theBrand You 50. Great stuff. And Tom, by no means a designer, went on a rant back then (he often does that) about the importance of design and why we ALL NEED TO BE DESIGN MINDFUL. Tom's right, very right. Design is a big, big deal. As professionals, we all have a responsibility, I believe, to understand it's power. You do not need to be a designer — you do need to become more design sensitive or design mindful in this century.
Personally, having degrees only in philosophy, communications, and business, I am most certainly not a designer. But I am design mindful. At least I try to be. Since I got my first Mac way back when, the world of graphic design, and then multimedia, were opened up to me. It was at that time that I went to town reading book after book on design. I was inspired. I then joined Apple Computer and hung out with design folks whenever I could. Designers can be weird, quirky people, no question. But I learned a lot by associating with these people and asking a lot of questions. For example, "why does that poster 'work' for me?" or "what do you think about this cool, new office chair I was thinking of buying for $2000 — is it worth it?" The answers were often eye-opening, to say the least. Why should design matter to us? Knowledge workers (accountants, teachers, engineers, doctors, retailers, front office staff, whatever) — are all designers. OK, not designers in the strict sense; not "real designers" certainly. "Designer" may not appear on our business card, but our personal design sense and acuity shows through everyday in our presentations, our documents, our meetings, our emails, the way we dress, and on and on. Design matters. Design matters a lot. So it is in our interest as professionals to up our design IQ and become far more knowledgeable about design. Design should not be left to the creative department only. Design is strategic, and impeccably designed systems, products, and services are really all that separate one organization from another these days. Quality alone is not enough — a lot of people have good quality, right? Instead, the overall DESIGN of the "thing" must be so compelling that it serves as a key differentiator. Companies, then, are beginning to preach design internally and demand great design, not just of the product-development teams, but of all departments. If an organization's true brand is actually inside the company, then we sure as heck better make sure we have an internal climate that preaches great design and lives incredible design everyday. Why does this matter to you or me? Because moving forward, the business world will appreciate intelligent, creative, design-mindful professionals who both understand the strategic role of design for a company and who also have a commitment themselves to doing wonderfully designed projects, creating creative systems that amaze customers, or developing useful, unexpectedly cool products that change people. There is not one clear answer. To me, design is about humans creating great works that help or improve the lives of other humans, often in profound ways, and often in ways that are quite small and go unnoticed. When we design, we need to be concerned with how other people will interpret our design message. Designers are different from artists in this way in that artists really can simply (more or less) follow their creative impulses, and frankly, create whatever they feel like creating. But a designer works in a business environment and has to ask questions of herself such as "can people afford this?" "Is their a genuine need?" "Is this superfluous?" "Although beautiful, can my design be understood easily?" and on and on. Designers need to be aware, then, of the end user. If no one can (or wants to) benefit from our design — no matter how compelling or beautiful or cool — then what good is it? We certainly would not want to say such a thing about a work of art. Art is good (or bad) in and of itself. Good art may move people, it may change their lives. If so, wonderful. But good design must necessarily, in my opinion, have an impact on people's lives, no matter how seemingly small. Good design changes things.
