

The Rapidly Disappearing Business of Design - saturdayplace
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/disappearing-business-of-design/

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aaronbrethorst
This is less an op-ed piece than it is an advertorial. No substance that I can
detect, and lots of meaningless platitudes and cliches.

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RobertKerans
I was just about to post the same comment.

~~~
RobertKerans
> Page one of the New York Times on the day these paragraphs are written
> contains eight important news stories. Four of them, or one-half, are
> propaganda. The casual reader accepts them as accounts of spontaneous
> happenings. But are they? Here are the headlines which announce them:
> "TWELVE NATIONS WARN CHINA REAL REFORM MUST COME BEFORE THEY GIVE RELIEF,"
> "PRITCHETT REPORTS ZIONISM WILL FAIL," "REALTY MEN DEMAND A TRANSIT
> INQUIRY," and "OUR LIVING STANDARD HIGHEST IN HISTORY, SAYS HOOVER REPORT."

> Take them in order: the article on China explains the joint report of the
> Commission on Extraterritoriality in China, presenting an exposition of the
> Powers' stand in the Chinese muddle. What it says is less important than
> what it is. It was "made public by the State Department to-day" with the
> purpose of presenting to the American public a picture of the State
> Department's position. Its source gives it authority, and the American
> public tends to accept and support the State Department view.

> The report of Dr. Pritchett, a trustee of the Carnegie Foundation for
> International Peace, is an attempt to find the facts about this Jewish
> colony in the midst of a restless Arab world. When Dr. Pritchett's survey
> convinced him that in the long run Zionism would "bring more bitterness and
> more unhappiness both for the Jew and for the Arab," this point of view was
> broadcast with all the authority of the Carnegie Foundation, so that the
> public would hear and believe. The statement by the president of the Real
> Estate Board of New York, and Secretary Hoover's report, are similar
> attempts to influence the public toward an opinion.

> These examples are not given to create the impression that there is anything
> sinister about propaganda. They are set down rather to illustrate how
> conscious direction is given to events, and how the men behind these events
> influence public opinion.

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kadavy
Synopsis: Design agencies are disappearing. The industry of design has evolved
from independent experimenters, to being a core skill of successful founders,
and now established enterprises are investing in design talent. But, Human
Centered Design has the potential to solve big problems, so that's why the
author is starting a design firm in the social sector.

\----

That's interesting, but I think there's another layer happening (admittedly
outside the scope of this article). The very skill of design is becoming
democratized, and that's bringing the era of the design studio to an end,
while people who wouldn't otherwise call themselves "designers" are learning
design, and applying those skills in their day-to-day jobs.

The design industry used to survive through the complexities of the craft.
Pasting up layouts and setting type took more resources, training, and
investment than most companies could reasonably take on themselves.

Now, the tools are so widely available, everyone is a "designer." If I say
"Helvetica" or "Times New Roman," most people will have images pop into their
heads of what those typefaces look like. That wouldn't have been the case 20
years ago.

People who wouldn't otherwise call themselves "designers" are already learning
design, and they're using those skills across all levels of all professions to
create presentations, websites, etc..

Of course, there's much more to design than just being able to use the tools.
There are visual communications components such as typography, colors, and
shapes.

Many people think of design as something that someone is "just wired for," but
it's a skill that can be learned, is being learned, and will increasingly be
learned by more people – just so they can do their jobs better.

Source: I used to win fancy-pants design awards, but quit that to write a book
called "Design for Hackers"
([http://designforhackers.com](http://designforhackers.com) ). I teach
non-"designers" about design. I have doctors, scientists, business
consultants, software developers – even a chef – taking my courses.

~~~
jamesdelaneyie
Design studios are not coming to an end anytime soon, no matter how well
domain knowledge is packaged up and sold off as competency. We've given people
better tools and guidelines to improve their day to day presentational
communication skills, not "made them designers" – it's like saying that buying
a new plug-and-play faucet for your shower and installing it yourself has made
you a plumber, to use a cliche'd comparison. Years of study, work and research
has made this a relatively simple thing to do, so let the layman handle it.
Let them pick a style, it's a small job, who cares?

This production work is coming to an end, the value of a design agency in
their years of experience working in the field in practises too many mention
here is not being given the shoulder in favour of inexperienced word
processors, unless it's Ralph from accounting making a so-so boilerplate
christmas card for a law firm. When you want to reposition your firm as a
leader in immigration rights cases and communicate that effectively, who you
gonna call?

Classically trained designers and alums from design masters courses offer a
skill set outside of basic production. Take a look the design maturity scale
[0] to see what I'm taking about. Valued designers have moved on to (like the
OP article mentioned) applying design principles and design viewpoints to
affect structural, organisational, long-term change across a wide number of
industries and social endeavours. Choosing a nice grotesque for your h1 is not
on the same level as designing a conceptual poster to rouse the heartfelt
concern for audiences you're trying to make take action on a social issue.

I'm sorry David, but for you to come here and ply you're wares of "Top 20
Typefaces To Use" and herald it as the downfall of the independent design
industry is shortsighted, ignorant and quiet frankly insulting. You're
marketing here, so by all means work away – but I'll not have that spiel stand
un-countered, where design skills are the equivalent to a new swish suit some
wall-street head is showing off to his friends, pointing out the finer details
of his cuffs. Jesus wept. /rant

[0] [http://www.sjef.nu/wp-
content/uploads/2013/07/design_maturit...](http://www.sjef.nu/wp-
content/uploads/2013/07/design_maturity.png)

~~~
kadavy
James, you may want to read my comment again. I said nothing about "the
downfall of the independent design industry." Independent designers aren't
going anywhere, but there will be far fewer of them.

~~~
jamesdelaneyie
David, I meant independent as in non-inhouse companies, which you do mention
(design studies/consultancies). There will be less people who do production
work, similar to how there are very few people tilling fields at the moment.

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kylelibra
Interesting takeaway for me is that a possible "exit" for a consulting company
is becoming the in-house group for large corporation. Hadn't considered that
before, but it makes perfect sense.

~~~
RobertKerans
Surely this would be the same situation faced by any number of small
businesses at any point in history, just with different jargon (small
specialised business is subsumed by big rich business that wants that
specialisation).

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pcurve
It's unfortunate that the article ended with advertisement for the author's
venture, but I don't think that should take away from substance of the article
because a lot of it is valid.

One thing the author neglected to mention:

UX is becoming a function and domain of IT.

That's why you're seeing IBM hire UX people in drove, because IBM wants to
make UX bigger part of its IT services offering.

And it makes sense. Whether you like it or not, IT can make or break success
of UX.

I manage a small ux team in a fortune 50 and I've come to conclusion that it's
basically impossible to instill design centric thinking to business and
product owners on consistent basis, which is something that agencies have
tried to do in the past.

But with the right IT people, I've had great success in building the best
products.

my 2 cents.

~~~
jamesdelaneyie
A great deal of UX knowledge and practises come from HCI studies, it has
almost always been in the realm of IT. It's borders with service design is
when it starts to pick up some concerns with identity, marketing, and a few
others.

Design thinking was the big one years ago in trying to get alternative, yet
profitable viewpoints in the boardroom. UX has done much better with this as
it's much closer tied to the business lingo with things like conversion rate,
A/B, etc.

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andyidsinga
A couple things I wish these types of articles would address :

1) the nuances around how the various employees of the design firm benefit
when it is bought/merged.

2) the nuances of the people at the bigco leading the buying activity. Who are
they, what are their motives and rewards? Are they former designers who know
the value of design and its processes? Are they executives who have reached a
level where the next career development item is "buy another company"?

Just like other mergers : will be interesting to see if the pendulum swings
back in a couple years to see if new design firms are created ...and the cycle
starts anew

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SixSigma
1908 Adolf Loos: Ornament and crime.

[http://www2.gwu.edu/~art/Temporary_SL/177/pdfs/Loos.pdf](http://www2.gwu.edu/~art/Temporary_SL/177/pdfs/Loos.pdf)

~~~
RobertKerans
Ouch. I like gingerbread men over plain gingerbread, but then I'm a designer,
and I spend many of days polishing turds to make them saleable.

