Volume 15, Number 3, Summer 2004

In branding and marketing and as the centerpiece of product development and innovation, design is an essential resource. Here we examine how this aspect of business can be managed most effectively and efficiently. Contributors propose research strategies that more precisely define user needs and that expand and fine tune design options. Authors articulate the many ways design enhances corporate success. They share case studies on identity and on refining new product ideas and business models, and they present alternatives for collaborating with designers as consultants and as in-house experts.

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Creating and Communicating Value(s)
Roger Sametz, President/Founder, Sametz Blackstone Associates; Andrew Maydoney, Vice President, Sametz Blackstone Associates
Most people agree that design, communication design in particular, can be valuable to organizations of all kinds. Unfortunately, however, neither practitioners nor clients are used to thinking about communication design in terms of value, say Roger...

Design as First Aid: The Wallace Cameron Company
Bruce Wood, Director, Centre of Creative Industries, Glasgow Caledonian University
For half a century, the Wallace Cameron Company was a presence in the city center of Glasgow, Scotland, manufacturing first aid kits for industry and the retail sector. By 1994, however, the company's building was more than 30 years old and its...

Design: Strategic Partner with a Point of View
Adam Richardson, Strategy Director, Frog Design; Jojo Roy, Vice President of Strategy, Frog Design
Even though design awareness appears to be at an all-time high in the popular press and the general public, designers, especially consultancies, are still fighting to communicate their message to the top of client organizations-to gain a voice in...

From Three Breads to One Brand
Pat Kinsley, Director, Neworld Group
The Irish Pride bread company has been in business for 11 years and is one of the largest bakeries in Ireland. As part of its long-term strategy, it had been acquiring smaller, regional bakeries, but now it was time to consolidate them into the...

Joining People and Brands
Michael Eckersley, Principal, HumanCentered; William O’Connor, President, Source/Inc.
Causes of brand failure," writes Michael Eckersley, "are always more complicated and varied than are the reasons for success." Eckersley, principal of HumanCentered, a design consultancy in Salt Lake City, thinks of brands as a variety of...

Leveraging Design's Core Competencies
Chris Conley, Associate Professor and Track Lead, Product Design, Institute of Design
Though design is recognized more and more often as having a distinct effect on the success of products and services, there is still a barrier that exists between "design" and "business." It's a barrier that is evident whether one is a design...

Managing Design to Leverage Organizational Objectives
Thomas Walton, Editor, Design Management Review
Editor’s Notes for Volume 15, Number 3.

Sharing Life on the Go
Doug Beaudet, Manager of Corporate Design and Usability Research, Eastman Kodak Company; Carolyn Zack, Senior User-Experience Engineer, Eastman Kodak Company
Once upon a time, photos were what you used to capture and preserve your most cherished moments-"Kodak moments," as they were known. But many of us would argue that we are now on the brink of a technological era that will value spontaneous images...

Storytelling as a Critical Success Factor in Design Processes and Outcomes
Craig A DeLarge, MBA, University of Westminster
Writers and educators from Tom Peters to Howard Gardner have extolled the benefits of storytelling from a management and leadership point of view. But storytelling is rarely thought of as a design tool, and Craig DeLarge aims to change that. A...

System Logics: Organizing Your Offerings to Solve People's Big Needs
Dev Patnaik, Founder and Principal, Jump Associates
Consider, if you will, the plight of Tom the bachelor, who invites Sally out for coffee and, instead of taking her to a nice café with hanging plants and baristas, buys her a Styrofoam cup o' joe at the local 7-Eleven and is surprised when she...