Modern forms of organization design activity

1. Types of design. The specificity of the organization of the modern designer

1. In today’s world there are several hundred large and small companies and offices, selling design as such as a specialized high-paid labor and several thousand of design departments at industrial enterprises of the largest firms. Thus, there are two main forms of commercial design. The first of them is so-called a stuff design. Inside stuff design at the same time there are many forms of the organization of design activity from the design department in the face of existing single designer to complex bureaucratic systems with hundreds of experts. These differ in the number of employees of the department stuff design significantly different way of organizing and solving problems and process for their production. Types of design services in the enterprise depend on the kind of activity of the firms themselves. They can be divided into the following categories.

Companies that are made the extraction and processing of industrial raw materials. The most typical representative of this type of stuff is service design firm “aluminum company of America”, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers of all types and purposes. Management of this company has organized its own design department when all other manufacturers of semi-finished products for the industry considered it unnecessary luxury. The design department is small and reports directly to the vice president of the company which emphasizes its importance within its hierarchy.

Companies that produce their products almost exclusively for the mass consumer. It should be noted that the number of large companies, working only on the mass market, is gradually reduced - industrial companies tend to insure themselves against accidents mass market production of special “non-consumptive” products. Yet, though not in its pure form, this type is quite common if the company attributed to him, the lion’s share of which is designed for the mass market.

That company “Westinghouse” is one of the largest US manufacturers of household appliances: refrigerator, kitchen equipment, radio and television equipment. For several decades all the designs for “Westinghouse” conducted by independent design firms through long-term contracts. In the 1960s several enterprises of the company were organized groups of Design - more than forty professionals who provided considerable freedom of action. However, the company “Westinghouse” is not limited to the development of their own design stuff and strives to maximize the opportunities of independent design firms.

Firms producing for a special customer representing the commercial, industrial, scientific, military or bureaucratic organization. Industrial companies operating almost entirely on specific consumer usually not interested in the general advertising. Design development for this type of firms performed mostly independent design firms. Sometimes a company has a full-time designer, whose tasks include the artistic product design, packaging, industrial graphics and supporting documentation, design exhibitions and in some cases the choice of an independent design firm to carry out a special order.

It can be seen that the design of service companies is the third group, as a rule, a small number of specialists, which immediately increases their individual professional capabilities and their personal status. At the same time in the company of this kind of activity of a professional designer rather strictly limited by the uniformity of design tasks, clearly focused on several kinds of homogeneous products.

Finally, we must highlight the most common type of company is now serving as the mass and specific consumers. Naturally, the union within one business organization fundamentally different industries put the administration of a particular firm is extremely complex problems to be solved in different ways.

“Eastman Kodak” is one of the few companies who first appealed to designers to solve business problems. Dorvin Walter Teague the first official designer of the world from 1928 to 1941 was the main consultant of the company and his office to perform the full scope of design engineering for the “Kodak”.

Having considered the various types and forms of organization of design activity in various enterprises we can draw some conclusions. Character of design activities in the design stuff is always concrete in the concrete conditions and is largely determined by the organizational structure of industrial firms. The attitude of the company to the consumer, the policy of its leadership is largely dictated by the shape of the designer: current or future design work, the division of the project work with independent design firms or independent performance of all types of design work, the relative freedom of creativity or performance of private jobs, the universal nature of the designer or specialization.

Simultaneously with powerful stuff design exists in the world and developed a system of “independent” design is a design firm or smaller size Design Bureau which carry out all kinds of design engineering at your own risk themselves to win the clientele and themselves for keeping it.

Currently, independent design firms are making strenuous efforts to master the entire artificial environment created by man rather than the design of individual elements of the environment. It is obvious that the environment is not just the sum of these elements make up its complex systems and relationships between the elements and the design of relations is significantly different from the design elements.

It is necessary to state the obvious fact that at the present stage of qualified designers high-end operating system independent design firms that have significant experience in solving problems of the “classic” design acquire sufficient experience, professional enough funds to meet the new, specific tasks which is impossible solved by traditional means.

It is important to note that between the independent design and design stuff goes very definite dividing line on the question of corporate style: with rare exceptions, the task of designing corporate identity perform independent design firm. It’s clear. Corporate identity, commodity individual firms should be built in accordance with the general trends of the world market. Staff designer is less able to solve such a problem already by the very fact of belonging to the company because of the inability to reach the level of professional thinking of the company.

An even more significant difference between independent and stuff design is as follows. Included in the organizational structure of the company departments stuff design must (often with conflict, but should) be considered as the results of market research conducted by the relevant departments of the enterprise, regardless of whether they agree with the results or the methods for their production or not - that is the structure of modern Corporation. On the contrary the independent design firms act as examination offsetting the limitations of its own service market research of the market of corporation they are most often relying solely on professional art and design tools, and often win, to win the corresponding right in the eyes of Industrial Administration.

Control questions

1. What the main forms of organization of design activity do you know?

2. What’s “design stuff”? What advantages and disadvantages are in “design stuff”?

3. What’s “independent design”? What advantages and disadvantages are in “independent design”?