Hasta La Ideas

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pJust before the New Year, Helen Walters, Editor of Innovation and Design at Bloomberg BusinessWeek, wrote A HREF=”http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/archives/2009/12/come_on_designe.html” a blog post/A criticizing a (UK) ITimes/I piece which was in turn criticizing certain government-funded design projects as being a waste of bread. Walters’ central take was that the blame for this misconception was the fault of the designers themselves: “Designers need to step up and fight back and prove their craft is not a 20th century anachronism,” she wrote. This then sparked a bit of a debate:/p

blockquoteThe response was swift, spirited, and fell mainly into two camps. Some thought I was being deliberately incendiary and borderline irresponsible; others agreed that perhaps the design industry has an issue. Many quite rightly pointed out that “design” is a much larger proposition than the graphic design of this particular rebranding exercise, while there were numerous lively and articulate defenses of design as a process, not a style or an artifact. Companies such as Apple, Procter Gamble and BMW were cited as corporate leaders that clearly understand the worth of good design./blockquote

pPrompted by this, and in an effort to promote a better understanding of the design industry, Walters then rounded up IDEO partner Diego Rodriguez, RKS Design’s Ravi Sawhney and Deepa Prahalad, Angel investor Dave McClure, and pediatrician/preventive medicine specialist Dr. Jay Parkinson to collaborate on a list of “The 27 most influential designers and design thinkers making an impact on business today.” With some names you’ll recognize and others you’re seeing for the first time, the report is well worth a read and A HREF=”http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/02/0201_worlds_most_influential_designers/1.htm” accessible here/A.br /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/online_design_debate_prompts_businessweek_list_of_27_most_influential_designers_16267.asp”(more…)/a
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