Design Goes Critical
Author: David Walker | Category: General
INNOVATIONZ hosted a DINZ event AFTER THE CRASH at the University of Auckland Business school on the evening of 19 November . The turn out was really good and ended up in a free ranging debate with some shafts of lighting and some romantic mistiness.
As an organizer and participant I have a completely subjective view. I thought David Howell was again outstanding in his thought and clarity. Logan Wait show a brilliant understanding of design management issues, the visualization tool is exactly right not just for Adept but many businesses. Richard Cross was informed , personable and right on the mark in his thinking about the customer interface. Manuel Seidel too was clear and obviously a huge success at Criterion. David Walker, immodesty allows me to say, was pretty damn good too.
I have a similar attitude to David Howell in his overview remarks about working within a tight discipline like five minute slide shows. Another healthy constraint last night was the boundary around content...that is we all attempted to stick within the realm of one set of issues….in this case the economic crisis and its impact on design.We need the big picture. We need more power to designers. We need the overlapping and orthogonal perspectives.
But I did feel there was an alignment in what we were saying last night. And a lot of convincing detail. We should do more of this...within constraints..with more booze and triple decker sandwiches.
I enjoyed the hectic noisy discussion. Someone accused me of being too 'Anglo Saxon ' in my views.
As it happens I am half Welsh... I am from the Celtic fringe. This is how I opt out of all that tiresome English snobbery and deviousness. No Perfidious Albion for me that is the other lot. But they had a point. My views are generated in another far away European context , within a deep history and may not be quite applicable here. Although I do believe they are applicable.
My response roughly is that all this stuff about design and innovation is at root about humankind in its struggles and evolutionary history. Major civilisations have different routines and ambitions, and they come and go. New Zealand is no exception to that. But this tiny nation likes to place itself as beyond the norms, on the fringe. I am not sure that this is that healthy.
Last night, rather than the usual Kiwi response of silence and deference, at least we had a good old Anglo Saxon Celtic Scottish Teutonic Pictish Puckish, Frankish, and frank debate...heated but genial and to me funny and exciting. This is what audiences are supposed to be like- noisy and quarrelsome.
My usual experience of NZ audiences is a deathly rigor mortis brought about by those two frightening words…”any questions?” We discovered earlier in the day that some expert advisors are also paralyzed when put on the spot. Oh the terror of the question “ What do you think?” When you think nothing at all I suppose the question opens a black hole of nerves and looming incompetence. Moreover , many Kiwis are so nervous of being incorrect they can barely speak.
At the DINZ DIB awards a month or so ago, the great brand design included a big yellow dot on the floor...representing the spotlight.
But no one stood on the paper yellow dot.
In my talk I said ' There they all are …..Kiwi businesses nervously backing into the global spotlight'.
It is true. You cannot have global ambitions and simultaneously be shy, deferential, and speechless.
It does not make sense to be shy global leaders. Being dumb is really dumb.
Note
One or two people asked about giraffe innovation uk. Go to our consultancy site in the UK http://www.giraffeinnovation.com
For a major project read this Time article.
Also you probably know this BBD entry.
Posted on 6 July 2009, 01:42 p.m.
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