Hasta La Ideas

Strategy is the roadmap to success, says Lorraine Justice our Jury Captain for Strategy and Research. She’s the Dean of the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology and spent six years directing the School of Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She tells us why she picked her jury members and what the future holds for this very integral and growing area of design practice.

Core77: Tell us a bit about your jury and why you chose these individuals.

Lorraine Justice: I chose these individuals because of their extensive personal knowledge of design research and strategy, as well as their experience with education and industry. It was also important to gender balance the committee as we don’t often do this with our juries. Tim Fletcher has a wealth of experience with his many years in product design across several industries. He is also adept at manufacturing and international relations. Katherine Bennett has been teaching research and strategy at Art Center for years and I consider her one of the top scholars and practitioners in this area. Katherine also has significant work experience with some of the top people in the design field before joining Art Center. Don Carr also has practice and education experience and has taken the design process to a new level. He has turned out many successfully trained designers who are now making an impact in the field. In addition to their professional practice and education positions, they are individuals who have the kind of integrity we want to see in the field of design. I respect their work and ethics.

Why is it important to recognize this strategy and research in a design awards program?

Strategy and research in the design process often go hand in hand and can make or break a design product, service or experience. There are now countless instances where design research has allowed significant breakthroughs in the conceptual and evaluative stages of the design process. Strategy is key as well. Does the strategy support or alter the brand? Is it sound and insightful? Strategy gives us a roadmap for success and is integral to the design process as well.

What kinds of people or projects do you imagine entering your category?

I think corporations doing strategy and research for their new or existing projects could enter and share their insights. Small startups could also explain their strategy and research as well. I believe there are excellent firms just doing design research. Company strategy is difficult to pin down sometimes because of the team work and evolution of the design process, but sometimes one emerges that is clearly one to champion.

What qualities will you be considering when evaluating each entry?

We will be looking for robust answers to the questions along with supporting evidence. We will want to see what their implementation process was in relation to the strategy. In other words, having a good strategy is not enough. We might want to see how it would be implemented. For the research aspects, we will look at the fit of the research methods to the information gleaned, and then how that information was used. Research methods and processes are often designed to fit the question at hand, and so each situation will be different.

Where do you see the future of this field heading?

I believe more strategy and research is in the future. Strategy is required because the success of products is required. I see a huge increase internationally in the area of design research. As we start to sell to other parts of the world, we will want to understand those cultures and design for them. Also, research helps us to learn about the need for potential new products and so precious new concepts can emerge during the inquiry phase. Smart companies will reap the rewards of design research.

Visit the Strategy and Research category of the Core77 Design Awards and enter your best projects from 2011 by April 10.

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