The document argues that designers should take ownership of the outcomes and impacts of their work in order to become leaders [SENTENCE 1]. By claiming responsibility for success or failure and being rewarded or punished based on results, designers would gain authority to pursue goals beyond aesthetics and have measurable effects on business and society [SENTENCE 2]. Traditionally, designers were seen as technicians responsible only for appearance, but the document suggests they could design systems and architectures with accountability for consequences [SENTENCE 3].
2. Problem
Designers promote and amplify a client's
message without accountability for the affect it
has or is supposed to have.
3. Hypothesis
By claiming ownership of the outcomes of
their work, designers can become leaders who
demonstrably impact business and society
through measurable results.
4. Hypothesis
In contrast to the role of mere aesthetic
technician, when designers shoulder the risk
of success or failure, and stand to receive the
resulting reward or punishment, they gain the
authority to pursue goals non-designers often
lack the imagination to understand.
5. Creative References
Jonathan Ive
Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple, Inc.
“Today, Apple represents the most successful and
faithful marriage of business and design, as $32 billion
in sales last year attest. And Ive has been the company's
lodestar in its journey to global trendsetter.”
— Chuck Salter, Fast Company
6. Creative References
David Plouffe
Chief Campaign Manager for Barack Obama’s 2008
presidential campaign
“ The story of Mr. Obama’s journey to the pinnacle of
American politics is the story of a campaign that was,
even in the view of many rivals, almost flawless. Mr.
Plouffe [was] known for his mathematic invocation of
data in making decisions. When Mr. Obama decided to
run for the presidency, Mr. Plouffe and a half-dozen
staff members began plotting out a strategy.”
— Adam Nagourney, Jim Rutenberg and Jeff Zeleny,
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/us/politics/05recon.html
7. Creative References
Paul Rand
Designer of Enron Logo
“ You couldn't take a picture of Enron's crime: it all
happened in the world of numbers and spreadsheets,
of financial reports and affidavits. But there was
something you could take a picture of, and that was
Rand's logo. A company with a made-up name,
incomprehensible business practices, and largely
intangible assets suddenly had a vivid manifestation, a
logo that once might have stood for nimbleness,
balance and connectivity, now given new life as 'the
crooked E.'”
— Michael Bierut, Design Observer
8. From the
Valorized Designer
"What we need in the next century are
independently-minded, creative, constructive
designers who are not just 'capitalist lackeys,'
ideologues,' or 'technical whiz-kids.'"
— Nigel Whiteley
9. From the
Valorized Designer
Indeed, tomorrow's designer must not create
mere graphic artifact and ephemera, but instead
design larger architectures employing these
artifacts to profound and noticeable
consequence, with accountability for
the results.
10. Content Outline
I. The Paul Rand Problem
A. Paul Rand and Enron
B. The Designer's Role: from Craftspeople to
Consultants
C. The "Consumerized" Designer Today
D. The Outsourcing of Design
11. Content Outline
II. Hypothesis
A. Designer as Author// Entrepreneur
B. What Makes a Good Leader?
C. Design and Leading: A Natural Pair?
D. Measurable Results
E. The Changed Nature of Design
F. Overcoming Barriers
12. Content Outline
III. Possibilities
A. Design's Importance in a Complex Society/
Economy
B. Jonathan Ive
C. David Plouffe
D. Nike's Mark Parker
E. What a Designer-led World Could Look Like
13. Sources
Sources may include interviews, TED lectures,
Fast Company, Wired, Good, Chip and Dan
Heath’s Switch and Made to Stick, and Philip
Kotler’s On Marketing, Malcolm Gladwell’s
Tipping Point
