23
INNOVATION AND DESIGN,
2006
| Editorial
INNOVATION AND DESIGNThis issue of Temes de Disseny, in line with its programme to
cover themes of remarkable interest within the area of design and culture as
thoroughly as possible, is dedicated to disseminating what today may be said
about design as an instrument aimed at developing and implementing creativity,
the indispensable driving force behind innovation. At present, everyone agrees
that the economies of advanced countries depend to a large extent on the added
value they are capable of introducing into their products, services and
communication systems. In today's world, manufacturing is no problem and
neither is it a problem to manufacture cheaply. What is truly difficult is
being able to sell. In other words, it's no longer a question of producing a
lot of cheap products, but producing expensive and attractive products, or new
and exclusive products. Knowledge and creativity have therefore become
instruments of great strategic importance because they are the indispensable
seeds of innovation, which, in turn, is one of the main weapons held by
developed economies. That's why design is gradually becoming an activity that
forms part of this evolutionary trend in markets and consumption. This
situation could be summarised by saying that developed countries have given
themselves the task of creating new knowledge, the synthesis of new forms, the
invention of increasingly more effective technologies, although also the
manufacture of products that enjoy great added value. On the other hand,
manufacturing that requires the use of intensive labour at the service of
simple technology is left for emerging countries, who work cheaply and with few
social costs. This is the background to all current economic movements and also
the impetus that motivates advanced economies to strive to try to do things
differently, if possible to be innovative or at least to seem so.
All this, and the themes deriving from it, is what we are dealing with
in the articles before you. They are all written by prestigious specialists in
our country, France, Canada and the United States. All endorse what we have
just stated, namely that creativity and the corresponding innovation have
gradually become the dimensions of design that are increasingly valued. In any
case, and without wishing to enter into any contradiction with the reasoning
expressed here, we believe it is useful to remember that saying one of the
basic aims of design is innovation is not actually saying anything new. And
this is the case because our activity, since the very beginnings of its
conscious existence, has always borne this in mind and has put it into
practice. Designers and architects decided to provide everything that was being
manufactured by industrial society with the most suitable forms of the time;
using the most appropriate materials and the best manufacturing techniques at
their disposal. Accordingly, they designed products that had to be consumed by
the masses; in the same way that, years later, when it was necessary, they got
to work on renewing the appearance of what they had designed in order to make
it obsolete in the short term. What was all this if not innovation and
creativity, as understood by most within our discipline? It is because of this
tradition of always finding what is most appropriate for each circumstance that
design can now re-discover its youth. Therefore, what we can state, clearly and
plainly, is that, although innovation has always been seen in a positive light
in the area of design, perhaps now as never before it is being seen as a highly
strategic element within the new economy.
As we may confirm via the content of the writings below, most of the
time innovation originated by design is different from that provided by
scientific research or even technology. But one author tells us that this may
seem to be the case if we look very closely at how the different disciplines
work. On the other hand, if we distance ourselves and take a better look at the
fundamentals, we can see that the fundamentals of creativity are the same as
for art, literature and all cultural activities. He cites the cases of
Shakespeare and Beethoven, comparing them with the work of designers. His
defence is that creativity is not an idea that comes from nothing, generated by
genius inspiration, but rather the result of interaction between the individual
and society. Creative processes are carried out based on pre-existing ideas but
combined in a new way. It is not a question of simple copies or the mechanical
articulation of ideas, forms and volumes, but of what is called "cultural
creativity", consisting of knowing how to use the different culture models
at our disposal in an appropriate way. It's a question of being good at
building synoptic thought processes based on intuition and also on the
knowledge of the cultural resources of the time. It's not difficult to see that
this conception of creativity could have applications in professional work but
could also form the basis for new ways of understanding the pedagogy of design.
In all the work published there is the idea, apparent in some cases and
implicit in others, that designers must realise very clearly that they
ultimately work through companies for specific publics. Such a circumstance we
must bear in mind because, if a product, an artefact or any form does not reach
the market and is not taken on by those publics made into consumers, it is not
believed that innovation has taken place, or at least not innovation as
understood in the business sphere, of the creation of products and markets.
There is no desire at all for useful novelties to remain confined within
restricted sectors of society; if new products, services or applications do not
become, in principle, available for the whole population, we cannot speak of
true innovation within the sphere we are located in. Defending attitudes of
this kind, we may say that many of the writers for this issue are take a
pragmatic position, which is why they do not appreciate knowledge as an end in
itself, as appreciated by fundamental research, but knowledge applied to
resolving people's problems, to giving them satisfaction, to providing them
with symbolic and magical elements and, why not admit it, to serving companies.
Not to mention the fact that, over the last few years and in the field of the
tangible, innovation has changed in nature. When manufacturing industry
predominated amongst us, it may be said that innovation was focused on
technological improvement and the application of new mechanisms, such as more
efficient engines, changes in sources of power, simplifying structures and
other similar refinements. Now, however, it is considered vital for the
application of improvements offered by innovation to be extended to all
departments in a company: from administration and manufacturing to marketing,
naturally including engineering and design. Innovation has become global,
wide-ranging. And this is because companies do not limit themselves to
producing more and better, more beautiful and interesting. Now their aims are
extending towards the fields of ecology via savings in energy and raw materials
and towards perfection in their production processes, aiming to avoid accidents
at work. Furthermore, it is not a question of merely penetrating a market until
it is saturated but of opening up new markets. For all these reasons, a modern
company has to realise that it is a human group that must work in an organised
way if it wants to achieve the aforementioned objectives.
It is well established, in more than one article, that there is a need
to have sufficient knowledge of the social context in which consumption is
carried out. As designers want to do things that, in one way or another, will
be aimed at a more or less widespread consuming public, it is evident that one
of the aspects that becomes absolutely necessary is everything to do with the
knowledge of lacks, demands and desires of these publics that become consumers.
In line with this, design professionals must know, and the more the better, the
culture of their time and, specifically, that of the human group which is
supposed to receive their designs, something which is not easy at all, given
that markets are increasingly more knowledgeable. Moreover cultures, beyond any
coincidences they may currently have and whether we like it or not,, also have
significant differences that cannot be underestimated. The so-often mentioned
phenomenon of globalisation is still only a partial reality and everything
seems to suggest that it will not be complete, if such a thing ever happens,
until an indeterminate future date. But, on the other hand, design is seen as
an excellent way to discover opportunities given that it reliably shows us how
people interact with the objects and services in real contexts in their
everyday lives. These facts are strongly confirmed in some of the work we have
published, stating the need for sociological studies and also anthropological.
One of our contributors, in agreement with what we have just said, even states
that, in the spheres in which production and design are carried out, there is a
need for departments specialised in social studies that can help to improve the
functional and symbolic use of everything that is designed.
But there is more. Designers and their work are seen as halfway between
technology and industry, on the one hand, and the consuming public on the
other. It is stated that bridges are established between the logic of
industrial production and the needs of publics that also have a specific
culture, as we have mentioned before. For this reason it may be said that
designers are the active agent that introduces the appropriate symbols in the
forms they determine; symbols that must be understood by consumers. A design
professional is, therefore, half a creator of symbols; a cultural but at the
same time technological agent. In this respect we must say that things have a
functional structure that leads them perceptively towards a use, but also, and
maybe we should say principally, an appearance that conveys them towards the
emotional capacities of individuals.
Contemporary designers increasingly work in large firms or simply in
collaboration with other professionals. We need to replace the old image of the
design professional as a creator of forms in his or her studio, all alone or
with assistants, with the new reality of working in interdisciplinary teams.
That's why engineers, architects, advertising and all other kinds of
professionals must collaborate with designers to ensure their work is efficient
within the context of the current productive system. It is said that although
new ideas are individual mental processes, these very often occur more readily
in multidisciplinary environments. In some of the texts published it is
considered to be particularly suitable, within the overall context of teamwork,
for designers to collaborate with marketing professionals. And not only this
but, as societies of knowledge evolve, it is stated that special areas are
created known as "milieux of innovation". These are places where
there is a providential meeting of universities and research institutes,
dynamic firms and teams of professionals of all kinds. It goes without saying
that, within the milieux of innovation, the texts published here place emphasis
on designers, because it is believed they are precisely the best people to help
the desired fruitful collaboration to come about. It is in these milieux where
new objects and services are being created. These therefore emerge in
environments that are suitable for the application of all the innovation
capacity possessed by design today based on which we can already consider its
long history.
The reader will also find an aspect developed here that is quite
interesting, both from the point of view we may call practical as well as from
a theoretical point of view. I am referring to the use of the linguistic and
even literary concept of narrative in order to clarify some aspects of the
themes we are dealing with; of considering that social dynamics can be
assimilated to literary or ideological narratives, based on which it would be
possible to isolate what we may metaphorically call texts and to interpret them
as such. Products and services offered to people would be capable of reproducing
these social narratives that already exist or to offer them others as something
new. The advantages obtained by using such strategies would derive from the
possibility of offering products and services that can be perfectly assimilated
by their targets.
Within the world of design, we may also see that there is concern due to
fact that we may witness that not all companies are sufficiently sure about the
advantages that can be provided by investing effort and also resources in the
field of innovation and particularly that of design. Often many companies
clearly see the benefits that can be obtained by applying a new technology but
are, however, rather sceptical with regard to the formal and symbolic aspects
that design can introduce into objects; formal and symbolic aspects that we
know can bring production closer to people. In this respect, design
professionals believe they can be an effective instrument in making a company
more competitive but, although this all seems very clear, we repeat, there are still
too many companies that preserve a sceptical attitude and, in some cases, even
one of rejection.
All this strategic aspect, which relates design with the creation of new
forms and products, is based on the same notion, as well as on the basic psychological
and psycho-social principles of innovation. In this respect, we may see how our
authors analyse the concepts that concern us, namely those of creativity and
innovation, their respective semantic fields, coincidences with other similar
ones. However, we can also see that they are concerned about the phenomena per
se to which the concepts refer. From what they say, it may be deducted that
there is a strong sense of the term with regard to its meaning and application,
but also a weak sense. Innovation alone, or rather what we have just considered
it to be in the strong sense of the term, can involve risks for designers and
companies because there is the possibility of it being rejected because it is
not understood. In this case, the only possibility is to measure it out; to
plan a gradual introduction of the novelty in order to ensure that, over time,
the acceptance at first refused. But it seems that, in the field of the
production of goods and services in which design works, there are more attempts
at finding new forms, new applications of what is already possessed. It is
usual to adapt products to the trends of the time. In the same way, after a
true innovation, which also exist, it is very frequent for the theme to be
developed with applications in different fields. In this last way of
understanding innovations, examples are provided of firms that have worked with
schools, the Escola Elisava being mentioned specifically, in order to develop
some previously unknown technologies.
There are even more aspects dealt with that are of a more specific
nature but are nonetheless as interesting. Namely the practically universal use
of computer technologies among design professionals. Computers allow us to
create representations in three dimensions, projections of all kinds. Moreover,
the internet, which has been the revolution of the last ten years, offers great
possibilities, or so many believe, for offering information and promoting
products and services. On the other hand, there are some that believe that the
facility and ease offered by computer programs are undeniable but that they can
cause some problems. We are not sure these technologies go against creative
processes but neither do we have evidence that they favour them. The fact is
that, to date, in spite of the appropriate use of computers, many designers do
their initial rough sketches in the traditional way: or rather, by hand. In
this case, if this is true, creativity would be accompanied by the same old
procedures, while the marvellous new technologies would be instruments that
make work easier, would save time and energy but would not replace human
activity.
In short, and returning to the beginning, with the articles we have
provided here readers may go over some of the themes related to design and innovation
that currently concern professionals, educators and entrepreneurs.
Jordi Berrio |
Contents
23
INNOVATION AND DESIGN,
2006
XAVIER COSTA Design: research and innovation Throughout the last decade, the relationship between design research and the transfer resulting from this research in the form of innovation has been undergoing a process of change. The usual "cause-effect" relationship, which assumes a sequence in which research is produced first and is then applied, could give way to more integral experiences combining research and innovation in different formats. [...]23 INNOVATION AND DESIGN, 2006 TOMÁS DORTA Virtuality and creation? The emptiness of computers in conceptual design Computers have been incorporated into the practice of design disciplines without their impact on creativity and innovation having been evaluated first. The computer tools used in design have been and are still being taken from other disciplines where more precision and control are required, without taking into account the fact that the start of creative activity requires much more ambiguity, abstraction and imprecision. Ideas are then created with traditional manual tools, such as sketches and mock-ups, and computers are used mainly to present these ideas and not to design them. The advantages for design that can be provided by computers are diluted within complexity at the level of interface and a particular logic in the language required to communicate with computers. This article presents a new focus of the use of virtuality within the design process. Current computing is criticised and new methods are put forward to incorporate computers into design, enriching traditional manual tools without imitating or simulating them. [...]23 INNOVATION AND DESIGN, 2006 MARTA CARRIÓ SALA Common spaces of design and innovation In this article Marta Carrió identifies the common areas between design and innovation within the framework of product development and based on an analysis of the studies and writings available in this area. She also introduces the potential of incorporating design into the innovation process. She also attempts to place design within the framework of innovation by defining the different concepts associated with this and to determine the position of the designer in this process. This article proposes that designers, irrespective of their area of activity, share skills and methodologies, particularly with regard to observing and understanding the market, generating ideas and conceptualising and visualising these ideas, this giving designers a fundamental role in several of the phases of the innovation process. At the same time, it also points out that design, used in a strategic and coordinated way across disciplines, is an instrument that helps to promote the competitiveness of firms in different areas, among these being innovation. 23 INNOVATION AND DESIGN, 2006 MARK BREITENBERG Designing Innovation The growing prominence of design has brought increased attention to new methods and strategies for achieving innovation, both in the professional world as well as in design education. This article addresses three different approaches to design innovation: the practice of creativity by engaging with areas of knowledge outside design; interdisciplinary cross-pollination among different design fields; and a narrative approach to design. [...]23 INNOVATION AND DESIGN, 2006 JORDI PERICOT The designer in formalising and communicating values The constant demand for new products on the part of consumers has led to innovation becoming the driving force behind changes in market share among rival firms. With this objective, the process of innovation and design occupies a central place within companies in order to interrelate and coordinate all agents involved in production. Designers, aware of social and cultural values but also of the firm's technical possibilities, are involved in each of the phases of the innovation process and, through the product, are responsible for formalising and communicating the cultural values that activate the innovation process. 23 INNOVATION AND DESIGN, 2006 IGNACIO GERMADE Design transformation Innovation is necessary but not the only factor to ensure the success of a design. Great products and services need to be created that satisfy people's desires. We need to know what people want and to set up interdisciplinary teams that ensure the operation is successful. [...]23 INNOVATION AND DESIGN, 2006 CARLES FERREIRO The strategic ingredients of innovation Innovation has recently become a favourite buzzword in business and economics and has taken over as the centre of everything good and desirable. Any individual, organisation, government or country must be innovative in order to create value and sustain its competitiveness. Being so desirable, it is surprising how little is clearly stated about the nature of innovation. The point of this article is to analyse innovation as an integral strategic decision and process that encompasses many diverse skill sets inside and outside any organisation. [...]23 INNOVATION AND DESIGN, 2006 BRIGITTE BORJA DE MOZOTA The design of innovation, two challenges for the design profession The design of Innovation, two challenges for the design profession: the challenge of a design based on research and the challenge of the dynamic of transition from the model of the «industrial economy» to the model of the « individual economy ». Innovation is an organisational competence and not an individual affair. The key factors to the success of innovations must be learnt by heart and it must be studied how to make the company more innovating. [...] |