Business-Design is pushing forward …

Posted on October 29, 2007 by Christian Drehkopf

At the World Design Congress, the profession imagined how to bring designers and managers together on issues such as production and sustainability.

Speaking the Language of Business

A problem, of course, is that not all designers have the status or persuasive capabilities of a Seymour or an Esslinger, nor a client that understands the power of good design as deeply as Muji. Academic figures Patrick Whitney, director of the Institute of Design at IIT and Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management in Toronto, were on hand to elucidate how designers can learn to speak the language of business. In quite possibly the highlight of the conference—certainly the only keynote to provoke a spontaneous standing ovation—British academic adviser and creative ambassador Sir Ken Robinson outlined the need for all members of an organization to be encouraged to think creatively, to bridge the divide between the “creatives” and the “suits.”

Not surprisingly, sustainability was another constant theme of the weekend. Alex Steffen of worldchanging.com bemoaned what he termed the privatization of responsibility, pointing out that consumers trading a Hummer for a Prius are no solution for a much larger problem. He pointed to numerous businesses (such as Freecycle.com and Wastematch.org) that are converting waste from garbage to resources.

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