I’m reading a book called A Fine Line: how design strategies are shaping the future of business, written by Hartmut Esslinger, founder of frog design. A fantastic break-down of four schools of design are given on pages 51-53, which I typed here:
“Not all designers share the same goals, nor should they. Part of my goal with this book, for example, is to show how design can be combined with strategic goals and tactical implementation to create a much more potent and relevant tool for business. That said, design can exist without strategy. In fact, the strength of the link between design and strategy is directly related to the school of design in question. To fully appreciate the potential impact of design on business strategy, it’s important to understand the four schools of design — and types of designers — an organization might be working with.
The first school is represented by “classic designers”, such as my friends Dieter Rams and Kenji Ekuan, the late Ettore Sottsass, Jr., Mario Bellini, and Jonathan Ives. These designers can run their own studios or be corporate stars. Ten or fifteen years ago, I would have included myself in this group. This school’s approach to design is both logical and visceral. In other words, designers in this school generate individualistic-artistic statements that balance an appeal to the heart with an appeal to the mind. This school of design addresses the bigger goal of making products more usable, enjoyable, and safe.
The second school of design is represented by “artistic desginers” who rely on visceral methods to create products with spectacular visual appeal. This group includes designers such as Philippe Starck, Karim Rashid, and Ross Lovegrove — a man who, many years ago, was frog employee number 18, and who remains a good friend of mine. (He still is thankful that I encouraged him to design what we jokingly referred to as his “Italian shit”.) The work of these designers draws the attention of a significant portion of the popular media (consider, for example, the Style section in The New York Times), but it often isn’t suitable for sizable organizations interested in scalability. Artistic designs can be difficult to replicate and apply. The work of artistic designers often isn’t easily replicated and can rarely be applied in industries with complex challenges of usability, technology, and logistics (for example, software or consumer tech). Nevertheless, these designers inspire the world on a broad scale and their work offers a prototypical approach that others can use to create derivative products requiring lower levels of technical complexity.
The third school is made up of those who work in anonymity in corporate design departments — and includes the majority of designers working today. Some companies use their internal design teams very effectively. Olivetti set a great example about forty-five years ago, when it arranged the collaboration of internal designers such as Hans von Klier with outside consultants, including Mario Bellini and Ettore Sottsass. The results were stunning and resulted in products that inspire us to this very day. But, more often, corporate design departments fall prey to a lack of strategy and identity within the company. The story is sadly common: Internal designers often are mismanaged and under-appreciated. They work in organizations that have no consistent approach to incorporating design into their strategic plans or processes, and they report to marketing or engineering managers who have a minimal understanding of the potential of design.
And this brings us to the fourth school of design, which is made up of highly creative, strategic designers who are fluent in convergent technologies, social and ecological needs, and business. That’s the school of design we have been developing at frog today, and one I’m hoping all of my students at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria, will represent when they enter the workforce. Our mission as holistic designers — and the mission that all business leaders should adopt for their organizations’ design efforts — is to create physical and virtual objects that are inspirational in their usefulness, beauty, and social/environmental responsibility, while at the same time supporting the business’s strategic goals. This mission forms the foundation for any organization’s creative strategy and drives its tactical implementation. For business leaders pursuing an innovation-driven business model, strategic designers are essential partners.”
