Designstrategy.nl updated the blog with some important features. On the homepage, every post will show the headline and the first sentences. You want to dive into the article? Go ahead and click on “read the rest of this entry”.

Be part of our core fanbase, and use email subscription from now on! Find the link at the right bottom corner, below the weblinks. Or click here: Subscribe to Design Strategy by Email

Ciao,

Designstrategy.nl Blog team

By Simon Frans de Vries

Late 2008, as the credit crunch came crashing down, product expert Claire Nuttall said: “Brands that offer comfort and nostalgia thrive in a tough climate as well as brands that have humour.” (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2008/12/23/top-brands-beat-crunch-115875-20990963/)

It could be a Britisch cultural thing, it could be gender-specific, it could be a rural vs. urban issue or a matter of wealth, but whatever the causalities may be: Brands have character.They grow through their lives’ stages, they get to travel, to experience different cultures and people, they learn, try new things and have their ups and downs through seasons of success and failure. And through these seasons, it is a matter of character whether they press on and remain a pleasure to those around them; those they hang around with, their friends and family that remain faithful – whatever the circumstances may be.

Alright, but why bother those that shape, mould, bring up and grow brands with this perspective? We know already, right? Well, try this; design strategists, brand managers, business creatives – all SPD graduates: We need to have character as well. We need to be the better brands ourselves. Our names should bring those that know us – our faithful friends and family (and the strangers in the streets..!?) – joy and pleasure, a sense of belonging and a fulfillment of needs like love, respect, and encouragement. I almost wish it was Christmas soon with all this emotional talk (luckily Easter is coming soon..) but seriously, as we’re about to graduate and enter the arena of crunch causers, we better build our characters.

So, are we trustworthy, reliable and ‘good’ people? What are good people anyways? And how did or does our education shape our character? Did and do we take the chances and responsibilities we get? And what do we have to add to that?
These first couple of weeks of my graduation project I find myself facing these kinds of questions more – albeit on the background – than the hardcore analytic and cool creative challenges I brush up against. Life is life as we’ve been given it and we better live it good as long as it lasts. Let’s do what it takes to be the better brands and no crisis will crush us.

Design for life,

—

All the best,

Simon Frans

 General Motors, the example of global brand management, is falling apart. Years of mismanagement in making and designing new cars have come to an end. General Motors is bankrupt. And with this bankruptcy of GM its brands are unleashed. It is now a matter of time which brand will survive or better which brand wants to survive. The ‘real’ European brands of GM (Opel and Saab) are already trying to shake off their loosened GM ropes that kept them in place for a long time. Now they are free to do their own thing, no concessions in design, a brand that is free to do what it wants without listening to its mother brand GM. But how free do they want to be. Already Opel has declared that they want to be break from GM, but still want to participate in the technology of GM. With their new design philosophy ‘Dynaverse’, Opel is able to set itself a new brand image to the outside world. Already this has been much appreciated by the public with nominating the new Insignia as car of the year 2008, after being a silent witness for over 20 years in the automobile industry. So personally I believe Opel will survive this worldwide depression with the right attention/money, the public has already embraced this brand as “our’ brand. As for Saab this is a total different story. Saab has always been a brand with a very distinctive brand appeal, a design that was different, and one that could be liked or disliked. It was a brand with a lot of safety ideas however Volvo ran away with this value and concerning their design it has been poor these last few years. With a production volume of little more than 150.000 you are small in the automotive landscape and with a mother brand like GM you will not the get the respect you deserve. Also the people or public are not embracing the brand. With only 2 models, the people do not have a lot to choose from and to be honest they are not bad in design but do not resemble of which the brand Saab stands for, so the public speaks, no rising sales. Saab is trying to make the change, are they too late? New models are on the way. The 9-4x was announced to see its production in 2010. Based on the Aero X-Concept this model and future models will be introduced to make a shift in Saab its brand image. For now people will say that they are too late and it will be very hard to survive in these hard conditions we are in now, especially in the automotive industry. In the end people will judge which brand will survive, which brand has still a fire burning in someone’s heart or is just satisfactory to it’s needs. In both ways it needs fuel, care and time to burn or to satisfy. This is not done by the people itself, but by the people who manage, think about and design the brand. The fire is weak and people are getting cold, now it is the time to put some care into this fire to warm everybody up. First to feel warm about it again and secondly to get the brand party starting again. Let’s care about our brands again as they cared for us.

By Fabricio Astua

I stumbled accross this post on belgian blog “A thousand tomorrows” .

In view of the major challenges the world and humanity as a whole are facing, many of the world’s bigger companies are turning to storytelling or more open platforms in order to share with their (and new) audiences the ways in which they see, prepare for and involve others in the creation of/steering towards a better future. Hitachi is sharing ‘true stories’, Shell shows their future/innovation oriented endeavours on RealEnergy, Volkswagen takes us to 2028, Philips Design has its probes, Xerox has its Future of Documents blog etc. Now also Toyota launched an interactive website to show and let people explore the ways in which they see and prepare for the future.

All featured example are real cool ways these companies transmit how they view the context their brands will be reaching customers and delivering brand promises. The examples recently presented for the final presentation in the Design Strategy Course are relevant and valuable exercises and strategic branding approaches! It shows that the work developed during the course is highly relevant and up to date. Take a look at the Toyota website and see how they shape and tell stakeholders where they want Toyota to be. Take the time to explore the website, stroll around the future college (lots of cool and inspiring stuff), “your street” and see how they communicate a user centered message and its context. It’s a fun way of communicating values, directions and a brand experience.

By Fabricio Astua

Design and the crisis: where do we stand?

Economical crisis, depression, downturn, credit crunch. All different names, but the same reality and prospects for the future. Soon enough, we will all have to deal with this reality. It may be by looking for a job, working with or for a company facing tough decisions. Which future awaits a year from now is not certain at this point, but we will all contribute to some extent to what is going to happen. As strategic designers, we will be called to be more innovative and creative, to be drivers of change and to enable new solutions, products, services for a new reality. It is important for all of us to understand the potential of design in such times and how each one of us can contribute to a better future. We would like to share with all of you a little of what has been written recently on the topic on the web and offer some food for your thoughts. Agree, disagree, react, contribute! This blog is a space for us to use, learn and grow together. Hopefully, this will be the first of many relevant topics dealt with in this blog! Enjoy!

Check the links below to see what is out there. These same links can also be found on the sidebar of the blog, under “Special: Design in recession times”:

Recession? What recession?

Designs to overcome a downturn

Design through the Recession

Bright Ideas for dark days

Recessionary Design: A boom time for creative

Fishing in a storm

By Erik Roscam Abbing and Jan Buijs

Dear students of Strategic Product Design and designstrategy.nl readers worldwide,

The Design Strategy Project (DSP) is the kick-off of the Strategic Product Design Master program at the school for Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. It is the practical sister course to the theory course Brand & Product Strategy. 100 students from at least 10 different nationalities embark on a 3 month project to help a real company deal with very real challenges through the use of strategic design.

What is so very great about this course is that it opens the students’ eyes to the value and applicability of their own skills. Most students start the master with a bachelor background in some form of (product) design. When we challenge our students with a strategic business issue as we do in DSP, we ask them to use their skill-set the best they can. Not to design products, but to design strategies that solve the client’s issues. The results are not only inspiring and out-of-the-box, they are also very applicable, and concrete. Our vision as teachers is that Design Strategy has two sides: it is about solving design issues in a strategic way, and at the same time, it is about solving strategic issues in a designerly way. The course is about applying strategic thinking to design and design thinking to strategy. To coach and inspire a group of students in the process of coming to grips with this two sided coin is a challenge, an honour and a pleasure.

For the first time in the 7 year history of the Design Strategy Project, this great course is concluded with an official booklet and a blog. We, the teachers / coordinators / coaches of the course  are very proud to see how this student initiative evolved from a nice idea over coffees to that which you are reading now –  without any effort from our side. It is exemplary of the current generation of Strategic Product Design students: you are guided by optimism, a can-do attitude, a hunger for knowledge and insights, and a sense of direction and purpose. You are young, and there’s a lot to learn still, but boy are we looking forward to seeing you 5 years from now!

To cope with the challenges our master is facing (increasing student numbers, limited resources, broadening content, combining academic rigour with a strong connection to the market) we have to learn from you like you learn from us. And you have to help us to teach the best we can, like we help you to learn the best you can. You can’t sit back and be educated by us. You have to get up and educate yourselves. We think the Design Strategy Project 2008-2009 was a great example of this student-teacher-client co-creation, or co-education if you wish. It proves that this master program is as much dependent on your efforts as it is on ours. And it proves that with a bunch of students like you are, we can become the best Strategic Design Master in the world.

We loved this years DSP and we are looking forward to working with you in the future. All the best for the rest of your master, you deserve it!

Cheers!

Erik Roscam Abbing and Jan Buijs

Designstrategy.nl is a Delft based blog on Strategic Product Design. Born from the Master program Strategic Product Design, we aim to create a platform that fosters inspiration, education and collaboration among strategic product designers worldwide. With the heart at the Industrial Design Faculty from Delft University of Technology, we bring our ideas and inspiration.