Design as Intangible: Changes At The Intersection Of Design And Business

As Seattle celebrates design in September by way of the Design in Public second annual Seattle Design Festival, it is a good time to note the remarkable expansion that has occurred in the relationship between design and business, as design has moved beyond that which we can touch and feel to increasingly intangible contributions.

Brand Experience Design

Brand development is a core practice area for many design firms and todays smart brand designers define this work not as a collection of graphically aligned artifacts but instead as a tightly crafted set of attributes, attitudes and voice that permeate a company at every level and that customers experience at every interaction. Brand designers whose role was once limited to logo design and its applications are now helping clients express their brand values in the form of services, experiences and behaviors. Easy example: the offerings, staffing and attitude apparent in every Apple Store are intangible but powerful brand expressions, and unmistakably Apple.

At Starbucks there is a seamless attention to what customers experience when they walk in the store the visual experience is inseparable from customer service, ambience, product. Like for many other large brands (Target, Nike, Etc.) Starbucks considers its in-house design team a big advantage in insuring that the transition between how the business is created and how the business is expressed to consumers is as seamless as possible.

Design Thinking

A parallel phenomenon is the migration of design thinking from the design studio to the client sphere. Seeing things differently, framing problems, visualization, creating multiple solutions, prototyping, creating againthe constellation of non-linear, collaborative, free associating methods that designers use is being found to add value beyond the design department. Corporations and nonprofits are learning to harness the tools and behaviors of design to develop not just new products but new services, new business models, new solutions. Stanfords D-School (D for Design) makes classes in Design Thinking available to students from every discipline. Companies like Proctor & Gamble try to replicate the innovation and entrepreneurial energy of a start up by incorporating design thinking incubators, like their P&G Clay Street Project, where teams use design tactics to solve important business problems. And The Wall Street Journal reports that companies like Procter & Gamble, Google, Nike and Fidelity Investments are recruiting heavily for students with a design-thinking background.

Design from Inside Out

Reflecting this expanding role of design, innovation-driven organizations are turning to designers as trusted collaborators more than simply vendors. Designer and creative director John Rousseau of the international design consultancy frog, which has a Seattle office, says at frog, we are often designing the business itself as much as its tangible artifacts. Increasingly, our clients expect higher levels of collaboration and engagement. They want more than the final solutionthey want to be in the project room. In some ways, we’re most successful when they no longer need us.

Erina Malarkey, Director, Marketing & Communications at Unico Properties, a Seattle-based real estate investor and operator, says we like to have our brand design team involved from the start of a property development project the ideas that come from these early concept meetings help inform the name, the architecture style, and the programs and services that will differentiate our properties and differentiation is the critical element in real estate marketing. Methodologie, the brand and design firm where I was a partner, worked closely and early with the Unico team on Asa Flats + Lofts, a multifamily project in Portlands coveted Pearl District, arriving at insights about the competitive environment and the opportunity for a better tenant experience. The idea of a warm inviting home (home sweet Asa), albeit with an edgy twist, was expressed in a blog-style web site, neighborhood outdoor movie nights, happy hour in the lobby, the Leasing Lounge and bold ideas for building artworks. Asa leased up ahead of schedule in a seriously down market, and the lively brand continues to deliver a competitive advantage to the project.

What Does this Mean for Your Business?

The opportunity for entrepreneurs, marketers and communications directors: instead of bringing in design to give form to an idea at the end of the development chain, bring design talent to bear at square one, draw on design tactics for innovation and problem solving in areas not generally classified as design-related, and do more to integrate your design resources, both in-house or consultants into the lifeblood of your organization. And reap the greater rewards design can deliver.

Anne Traver is an independent brand and design consultant AND former co-owner and chief creative officer at Methodologie. She is a part-time faculty member at the University of Washington Division of Design and leads the division’s Professional Advisory Council