Michael Roller

Aero vs. Auto: Futures Without Design?

Re*Move’s Joe Simpson posted an interesting piece about the Airbus A380’s ability to help airlines differentiate through design. Air travel has slowly been moving away from enjoyable, luxurious experiences, but the A380 could signal an inflection point back in the other direction. What’s most interesting to me about the article is the comparison between the design evolution of automobiles and aeroplanes:

…Modern aeroplane design walks a fine line in balancing efficiency, carrying capacity and cost – and the long, thin tube sitting on a central wing box seems to have won out as the design pattern of choice. Airlines therefore don’t advertise, or differentiate on the types of aircraft they fly… Compare this to the auto industry, conversely – where the minor detail differentiation of cars from competitor to competitor is the subject of millions – no makes that billions – of dollars of advertising money, not to mention design and development funds.

Now here is a major difference in the business strategies of two different forms of transportation. Planes and cars both get people from point A to point B, but cars generally compete on aesthetics and planes generally don’t.This point made me wonder what cars would look like if the industry stopped differentiating on design. Below are a few possibilities, what do you think cars would look like without aesthetics?

Aerodynamic

We’ve seen the Prius and now the Insight take on this aerodynamic, one-box silhouette. With fuel efficiency growing in importance, will all cars take on this same shape?

Child’s Play

When you drew a car as a kid, what did it look like? The collective conscious of young boys could result in the 021C or a Countache.

My Pick

I love the Saab 9X concept. It feels attractively efficient in it’s styling and so I wouldn’t mind seeing hundreds more like it.

Tags: strategic aesthetics, transportation

Thing One: Trek’s New Design Studio

Trek recently opened Thing One, a new studio space dedicated to inspiring great design work. The press release focuses on the surprisingly rural location for Trek’s new space.

Over 20 miles from the nearest Starbucks, the unassuming town of Waterloo, Wisconsin—yes, Waterloo, Wisconsin—is now home to what is arguably the world’s most comprehensive design studio for all things bicycles.

As the press release states, it’s interesting that Trek has invested so much into a stylish space to inspire design. In the past, style had little value to companies who were differentiating based on price, performance, or features. In part, traditional brands like to avoid differentiating in this way because it’s hard to measure the value of a style. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value. Trek President John Burke talks about the value of design. (In fact, I like how he’s broken design down into the specific elements.)

Today, best‐in‐class function is no longer enough to make best‐in‐class products. Shape, form, color, and presentation are integral to making products that can be global leaders. This new design center is Trek’s commitment to leading the future of cycling.

Check out more on Thing One here.

Tags: interior design

Define Strategic

I recently left a comment over at Design Sojourn that forced me to better consider the definition of “strategic.” I typically associate something strategic with something that has long term value, but the truth is it doesn’t have to. After considering this, I realized that there’s no point in creating my own definition when Michael Porter has done such an excellent job. Here is his definition:

Strategy is choosing to perform activities differently than rivals.

As Finn McKenty summarizes, Porter highlights three specific elements of strategy. First, strategy is about purposely choosing to do things differently than your competition. Second, strategy is about actions, not just statements. Finally, strategy should be unique. Finn puts it best: That means that operational excellence is not strategy unless you implement it in a way that is better than all rivals (Wal-Mart). If you want to read more about Porter, check out his work at the Harvard Business Review.

So for design to be strategic, businesses need to use it in thoughtful, actionable, and unique ways to beat their competition. With this definition in mind, what businesses best use design strategically? I’ll give you Apple, now name another one!

Tags: definitions, strategy

Expressionist Series: Altec Lansing’s new look

Altec Lansing (now a part of Plantronics) released two great new products earlier this year. The Expressionist Series epitomizes strategic aesthetics through a distinct look that will clearly help them differentiate their brand from the competition. It seems to me that the market for the Expressionist series is more focused than that of most computer speakers, which are clean and modern but also tend to blend in with their environment.

Their tall proportion and primitive details make me think they’re aimed at hardcore gamers or young audiophiles with huge digital music libraries. Regardless of who Altec Lansing is targeting, the market for desktop speakers has slowly become more homogenous since the introduction of the Creatures. The Expressionist BASS speakers use attention-grabbing aesthetics to cut through the clutter while delivering new functionality in a 2.2 speaker system.

My only criticism is that while these products make a great impression in person, they lose some of that impact online. While the products themselves are very lifestyle-oriented, their website persists with traditional elements like price, performance, and features.

Hate it or love it, the Expressionist series was clearly developed by a focused group of individuals and strong design leadership. Congrats on winning six awards at CES! I’d like to learn more about what inspired this work. Can anyone offer any additional information on the Expressionist Series?

Tags: strategic aesthetics, technology

Innovation: Not the Only Way to Survive a Recession

Amidst this recession, the design blogosphere is calling for innovation as the (only) way to save our economy. I definitely see the value in innovative products and processes, but I found myself wondering what else there might be. Thanks to someone on Twitter (I couldn’t find the original tweet), I was pointed to Dion Hinchcliffe’s blog on Web 2.0. He’s starting a series of posts entitled How to Survive and Thrive in Business Today with Web 2.0. Check out his graphic, in which innovation, along with growth, transformation, and cost reduction are listed as the four key areas.

The point I’m trying to make is that even though it’s currently popular in business, design isn’t just about innovation. Right now, I’m working on a cost-reduction project and a growth project. As a designer, I can see ways to provide value in all four of these areas, which will be very important to our function in the coming year.

Tags: business, social media

Sydney’s Vulcan Hotel

I recently heard that during this recession people will be mainly concerned with cost and convenience. This may be true with some categories, but I view it as a challenge to design a better consumer experience without adding cost. So often, we think that adding some element of design adds cost, but it doesn’t have to.

Now that I’ve tied this post to a common theme on this blog, I’d like to plug the Vulcan Hotel in Sydney, where we stayed during our recent trip to Australia. The Vulcan, while very nice aesthetically, didn’t offer the bells and whistles of major hotel chains. I’m not too particular about my lodging experience, but my wife (the interior designer) is. Here’s what she has to say about our stay at the Vulcan:

It was simple but fulfilling, everything we needed and nothing we didn’t. Excellent service, comfortable bed, and a good, central location. There was no pompous attitude or expensive price tag. The receptionist’s attention to small details made our stay that much better, like giving us a couple of spare bus tickets. As much as I like to stay in different and interesting hotels, I would absolutely stay there again.

Tags: architecture, australia

The Making of Orange22’s Botanist Blank Canvas Project

My friends over at Orange22 collaborated with white canvas to create a “Making of” video for their Botanist Blank Canvas Project. It’s a nice combination of manufacturing clips, beauty shots, and interview with founder Dario Antonioni. I saw the benches at last year’s ICFF and was really impressed with how they were able to turn a simple, beautiful piece of furniture into a much bigger idea. I also love how Dario figured out a way for industrial designers to collaborate much in the same way the fashion and music industries do. It’s very interesting to see how well-known designers will solve such a tightly constrained problem.

Click here to watch the video.

via Contemporist, photo via Inhabitat

Tags: video

Understanding the Value of Social Media

I generally understand Twitter’s popularity. I set up an account about 6 months ago, but couldn’t commit to regular tweets and lost interest. I even interviewed Twitter founder Biz Stone for The Greener Grass to learn more about Twitter’s value. Everyone is talking about the power of social media in business, but I didn’t really get it until recently. In a couple posts over at Experience Curve, Karl Long has done a great job explaining the value of social media to business. Much better than I could ever put it, here is Karl’s take on many of the current social media companies:

…I think there are several social media companies who are valued primarily due to their amazing growth, and it’s obscuring what the real value is that they create. The problem in social media is that it amplifies network effects so brilliantly that growth drives more growth, now this is great if you have a business model that creates and captures tremendous value, but if it doesn’t your burn rate goes up and revenue is always just round the corner… until you stop growing and then it collapses. In the end this is the definition of a bubble, everyone wants to join in as long as it’s growing.

I started to understand the value of having a big network with this story. Karl created and promoted a Threadless giveaway through Twitter and here’s his account of what happened:

Now I only had 1,800 followers at the time and the result was nothing short of extraordinary. That message got retweeted or rebroadcast over 500 times, that means well over 25% the size of my network took an action to rebroadcast my message to their networks. The very first person to RT was @Coryobrien and he had 1200 people following him so I almost doubled my ‘impressions’ on the first hop. I also added 250 people to my twitter network…To be quite honest I think personal networks are the future of advertising, so forget the ‘controversy’ and focus on the revolution people.

Personal networks are the future advertising. That resonated with me. Ultimately, we’re (businesses and individuals) all in the business of creating content that enough people want to access enough times. When you’ve achieved that, you’ve built a powerful network that you can use to your benefit.

I’m nowhere close to being an expert, but I’m starting to understand the value of social media in business. Thanks, Karl.

Tags: social media

Four Rules: Graphic Design For Industrial Designers

Simple bottle concepts require graphics to feel complete.

Helping my students with a consumer packaging product, I explained to them that simple, appropriate bottle designs will look unfinished without some graphic design. The challenge lies in fact that industrial designers can be notoriously bad 2D designers. So working with Finn McKenty, we came up with four principles to help my students be adequate graphic designers when necessary.

1. You know less about graphic design than you probably think.

2. Keep it simple. Less is more.

3. Use a classic font. Start with Helvetica, Futura, Bodoni, Clarendon, Avant Garde, or Optima

4. Ask a graphic designer for a critique of your work.

I recently revisited this list and found it to be as useful as ever, so I thought I’d share it. What other advice would you give industrial designers about graphic design?

Tags: design tools, strategic aesthetics

New Febreze Bottle

My friends at Kaleidoscope recently published a new case study for their website. A couple years ago, we began development on a new bottle and spray head for Procter & Gamble’s Febreze Fabric Refresher. For more information, read the full report.

What I specifically like about this bottle is how much restraint was used in its execution. I’ve never seen a symmetrical spray bottle at mass retail, and this really stands out as a result. Historically, it has been a very useful but very ugly household object. With this offering, Febreze elevates the spray bottle into new territory. I’m also told the spray head scores well on ergonomics, making it great in terms of both look and feel.

Tags: febreze, kaleidoscope, p&g