Designers Are The Enemy of Design

Stop what you're doing and go read this.

Bruce Nussbaum of BusinessWeek has written what I consider to be a near-manifesto which challenges our assumptions of what design is, who designers are—and how this all impacts the business world as we move into the next generation (and yes, it's relevant to brands).  The piece is a bold form of communication, and I think comes from the heart.  Bruce shares a bit of personal experience in how he is trying to shape his own teams and working process.  He's also a little "politically incorrect" calling out Al Gore for his own hefty carbon footprint.  And Bruce uses Mink fur coats to illustrate the idea of sustainability—a risky analogy, but when you read it in context, makes perfect sense.  Personally for me—this is one of the more refreshing reads I've seen from a mainstream business journalist in a while.  He almost sounds like a "blogger".  You got a problem with that?  :)

Check out the post and do so with an open mind.  Let it simmer a bit.  Then think about it as you start your day on Monday morning.  Below are some choice bits—I added some of my own visuals where it seemed like there was a fit.  Enjoy.

"Are Designers The Enemy of Design?

In the name of provocation, let me start by saying that DESIGNERS SUCK. I’m sorry. It’s true. DESIGNERS SUCK. There’s a big backlash against design going on today and it’s because designers suck.

So let me tell you why. Designers suck because they are arrogant. The blogs and websites are full of designers shouting how awful it is that now, thanks to Macs, Web 2.0, even YouTube, EVERYONE is a designer. Core 77 recently ran an article on this backlash and so did we on our Innovation & Design site. Designers are saying that Design is everywhere, done by everyone. So Design is debased, eroded, insulted. The subtext, of course, is that Real design can only be done by great star designers."

"This is simply not true.  Design Democracy is the wave of the future."

"But the design of our music experiences, the design of our MySpace pages, the design of our blogs, the design of our clothes, the design of our online community chats, the design of our Class of ’95 brochures, the design of our screens, the design of the designs on our bodies—We are all designing more of our lives. And with more and more tools, we, the masses, want to design anything that touches us on the journey, the big journey through life. People want to participate in the design of their lives. They insist on being part of the conversation about their lives."

"Egos and silos are coming down, participation is expanding, tools are widespread and everyone wants to play. People want to be in the design sandbox so you have to figure out how to get them in and do design with them."

"Today, I kind of coach a team of about 8 people, 6 women in their early 30’s, one guy in his thirties, and a women in her twenties (she’s Canadian and a generation ahead of the 30-something sisters in technology). Our process is totally different from the hierarchical way of writing and editing we had just a few years ago. We all write for both platforms—online and print, and do a little TV on the side. Our job today as journalists is to curate conversations among groups within our audience"

"Business men and women don’t like the term “design.” I think they think it implies drapes or dresses. Even top CEOs who embrace design don’t want to call it that. They want to call it “Innovation.” That has a manly right to it. It’s strong, techie."

"But how do people who’ve spent a lifetime using their left-brain, suddenly shift to using both their left and their right? How do people used to deconstructing old problems into their parts and squeezing answers out of each of them then learn to see problems with fresh eyes and integrate parts of many solutions into one new one."

"Over the past decade, design has evolved to become an articulated, formalized method of solving problems that can be widely used in business—and in civil society. Design’s focus on observing consumer/patient/student—human behavior, it’s emphasis on iteration and speed, its ability to construct, not destruct, its search for new options and opportunities, its ability to connect to powerful emotions, its optimism, made converts out of tough CEOs."

"We design stories with our audience. As John Battelle said recently, the conversation now is the content. It’s not about the finished story but about the ongoing story. It’s the conversation. And since most conversations don’t have a conclusion, they are ongoing. We live a life in beta."

We live life in beta.  That's a nice way to summarize the spirit of the essay.  You can look at BusinessWeek critically and poke all kinds of holes in what they do if you want.  Same with any organization.  But I believe Bruce and his staff are genuinely grappling with the changes we're witnessing and trying to make sense of it—even in the context of how it applies to a big mainstream publication like BusinessWeek.  They're out there.  Looking.  Learning. Taking it in.  Prior to my mentions in BusinessWeek, it was Jessi Hempel who found me—I didn't find her.

Lastly, another reason that I relate to Bruce's essay is that I think we may be witnessing a gradual but real change in how we create.  The ego-driven top down, traditional style of management will continue to be challenged in the years to come.  Innovation will continue to come from anywhere—in places we least expect it.  Designers may still have the stigma of being stylists—but that won't matter, because at the end of the day good experiences which lead to relationships will rule.  Relationships between people and brands and with each other.  And that, my friends is by design.

Comments

[Valeria Maltoni]

We could say the same for business people as the enemies of business -- because the experience we want to design needs to remain the exclusive enjoyment of a few. This elitist view of the world is what got us this far.

We think that accessibility = cheapness, somehow. Our whole economic model is driven by the fact that scarcity demands a premium for a product and service... or we get commoditization. And who wants that?

I've written about it before: we should expand into a mindset of abundance. Then we have abundant resources *and* diversity. Many sellers and many buyers. More people appreciate the evolution and design of conversation who participate -- and the conversations become more meaningful *because* of the participation.

Barrier to entry is only advantageous for the first entrant. There are no more firsts today. We're all second. Shouldn't we want to be in it together?

[Roger von Oech]

David,

Thanks for the link to Bruce's post. I like what he had to say a lot. Especially about the arrogance of designers, and their narrow focus.

Have a good week!

[Mark McGuinness]

Thanks - great read! Interesting to see how he's out to puncture artistic egos as well as the 'ego-driven top down, traditional style of management'.

When people start trying to own bits of the creative/production process, the whole process gets stuck. Expertise and specialisms are still valuable, but the experts and specialists also need to be good collaborators.

[Cam Beck]

David - Very interesting synopsis. Innovation may come from anywhere. What odds will you give that we will be listening when we need to be?

[Justin Ricaurte]

Hey David, Great find! I really liked the added touch of the visuals and the points that you highlighted are highly relevant to all aspects of life and business.

I think Valeria brought up a good point in how we need to focus on the abundance in life and less on the scarcity. The designers that continue to thrive will be those, such as yourself, that embrace these changes and find ways to create greater value. But a lot of people just like to flow with the inertia and think change hurts too much.

Maybe we should add "Beta" as a subscript to everyone's name on their birth certificate. :)

[Doug Meacham]

I just forwarded this to all of the people on our "Innovation" team. Most of them mistakenly believe that they can create great (read "profitable") innovations FOR our customers without ever really interacting WITH out customers to really understand their needs/desires much less actually asking them to participate in the process.

In about 8 months, David will start asking for input for the 2007 In Your Own Words piece. I'm going to place my bet on it being the Year of Collaboration. Those organizations that embrace that now may do well. For others, the Weapons of Mass Collaboration may be their undoing.

Thanks, David, for passing on this great article and your embellishments make it all the more meaningful.

[Raimo van der Klein]

What a treasure your blog is. Design Deflation..Have you read the quote from P. Starck?

http://contributionmarketing.wordpress.com/2007/01/05/designworld-we-are-ashamed-back-to-contributing/

[Senia Positive Psychology Coaching]

David, my favorite post that I've read on your site so far. Thank you. S.

[DA]

Great comments. Valeria, I especially like your broader points about business.

Bruce has take some flack for his post like this:

"Wow, big headline, lot's of blabbering with no real point, except a plug for your new magazine. Kind of disappointing. I was really hoping to find out why I suck."

No real point? I disagree. I think many have made the same points Bruce makes here but in different ways. Bruce helped articulate some key thoughts in compelling fashion. In other words, it stuck.

[Eric Benson]

Thanks for posting this. I recently read Mr. Nussbaum's article and am personally thankful he wrote it for a Businessweek. Blaming designers is fine, since we contribute packaging waste to our municipal landfills (32% of our landfills are packaging waste), choose paper that isn't recycled to "save money", choose plastic that is not recyclable etc. However, designers aren't all to blame as Nussbaum began to point out. Typically we serve as a service industry to big business/marketing. They make decisions, we act on them. This needs to change at a much higher level. Designers need to be more a part of the decision making process, and both business and design need to know more about the impacts of our actions.

My site www.re-nourish.com begins to educate the graphic designer on ways to be sustainable in their craft. Everyday I read of great new "green" projects coming from design and architecture. I believe the tide is turning. You as well can be a part of leading this green movement. Educate yourselves and others! There is really no alternative.

[Francis Anderson]

This article is excellent. And sorry but I am totally stealing those charts! ;-)

[Sivam Krish]

Great post. The future of design is in the hands of the consumer. Web 2.0 is bound to accelerate this. There are many initiatives in this direction. Intelligent CAD modeling will enable customers to tweak designs and create significant variations, or genetic variations. The natural world is full of examples where the anatomical stature of mammals have been varied to create rich diversity. Same thing is happening in computer games, you can create complex design variations in most online games now. SecondLife is a magnificent example where people have created an entire planet full of objects. So this is not futuristic it is happening now in the virtual world. Soon the virtual world and the real world will connect through the common medium of computer graphics and modeling. Design is heading for interesting times.

[Sean Moffitt]

David,

Long time fan of your blog and I love your stream of consciousness here.

Although I am a staunch advocate of user collaboration and the elimination of business sacred cows and top-down organization and business models, I don't buy fully into the argument that design has or will become democratic.

Yes, everybody can do it...and thus hopefully appreciate it when it's done well...this is a good thing.

However, with cultural industries and particularly design, the cream rises to the top and for reasons not entirely tangible or rational. We just recognize some people do it better than everybody else and certainly better than our amateur selves.

It's why people lineup to buy Karim Rashid fashion pieces, Frank Gehry architecture and one could argue, a big factor why people like to visit your blog (great visuals)...

Unlike a science, tech or operations development where there is a clear separation between right and wrong, forward and backward, breakthrough and hurdle, and the conditions where masses of people can typically build a better solution by the weight of their collective opinions - design has much more complexity and is much more reliant on individual creative genious.

There was a great article on Creating Passionate Users awhile back on this distinction titled the Wisdom of Crowds vs. Collective Intelligence. Kathy Sierra's thesis was that in some areas - web 2.0, community building, CGM and user collaboration is ideally used when you can collect and aggregate the absolute best shining voices and contributions but not when you ask them to work together. Her point is the latter approach typically leads to innovation compromise and more of the same old.

And before people brand me a Wallpaper-loving, black turtleneck-wearing designer disgruntled designer for saying design merits some exclusion to the trend toward collaboration--- I'm saying this as a marketing "suit" who has had to deal with way too many high-maintenance egos in my work lifetime.

Food and design for thought...

[rishi desai]

are they enemy? no.. they just understand it at a higher level than once anticipated. i swear...

[Poltergeist]

LOL
sean Moffit is right, so u just jealous, cuz u cant design at the lvl as they can

so, dude
buy a life or something
is a lot of crap just to say
"i hate designers" lol

keep workin on it
and maybe one day u'll b right
... i hope no xD

[Gemma]

Everyone can do anything, but a true designer can see into the future and only 10% of people in this world have true imagination if designers were not needed you would find the world dull and you could say the same about writters or any subject so i feel u should reconsider your opinon or at least reseach before you write

[avnuzti]

big brazilian butt