It is easy to differentiate yourself from others. Wearing ‘different’ clothes is one way, speaking using a significant number of outragous words is another, covering yourself in tatoos is yet another, however, these are more forms of individualism rather than real differentiation and in most circumstances do little for you professionaly.
The best way to differentiate your self from others is through doing. It is amazing the effect doing things can have on your life. If your the person who did something, people will listen to you what you say about it, and perhaps will pay you for the pleasure.
I can’t claim to be an expert here, as I don’t consider myself to have done a huge amount however, slowly, I am working on it.
Apparently we are in trouble. Two trillion national debt, which works out as 33k for each us (they can just add that to the tab along with my student loan).
When a recession like this comes along, it a good time to appreciate employers and especially, as the majority of people in the UK are employed by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), its time to appreciate how important the people who start these companies are to our lives and how important it is that they continue to be able to do so.
We need to create jobs and by creating jobs we have more people with disposable income, and more people to buy products, use services or invest themselves.
This is one of the double whammies of a recession, because read more…
Last week I had an email from someone with a CV attached which stated that they wanted to change the world and, every so often you do come across design graduates who say they want to change the world, and full of good intention they really do. The core questions for these people are; what are you going to change? And, how are you going to do it?
Of course, for every person there is a different definition of what would count as ‘changing the world’ – and this is something they also need to figure out. Personally, my definition of changing the world would have to be changing something on a global level or perhaps having significant impact on societies, countries, entire industries or macro environments.
Designers, not being scientists developing new materials or technologies (that are quite often world changing) must rely on what they do best – understanding people and solving their problems while applying technologies, materials etc.. as appropriate.
If you are serious about changing the world in a non-microscopic way; how are you going to do it through design? Do you realise that you are probably going to have to move away from read more…
As this Blog has a few readers with similar interests, I thought the following breakdown of methods that, at the time of writing, seem like the core ways to get a company going.
This list is not exhaustive so if you have any other inspired ideas add them as a comment.
Self funded
Quite simple, but of course not easy to save the cash required and you shouldn’t expect to take too many holidays in the first year. The practicality of this greatly depends on the type of business you are starting.
If possible, a soft launch can really help, working a few days a week (or full time) somewhere else, although restrictive can enable you to figure out what you are doing, make a few mistakes when it doesn’t matter too much. You might also find that business meetings tend to have a similar notice and duration as a dentist appointment.
Alloyfish was self funded with a soft launch. I continued to read more…
Firstly I must point out that I can not yet talk from personal experience of making a lot of money.
Secondly, there is no easy way to make a lot of money. It’s easy to make enough to live but these jobs wont take you much further then that.
How much ‘a lot of money’ is -is subjective and is different for different people, personally, ten million is a happy ‘get-out’ point; you have enough to do what ever you want, invest in to companies or schemes as you wish. Other people might classify 1m as rich, but that really wont get you all that far (especially after you have bought a house and perhaps raised some children).
Money - you gotta love it - remember money won't judge you....
The following ways are the mainstream methods to attain serious wealth;
Re-branding Product & Industrial Design for differentiation and to create opportunity
Creating beautiful chairs or furniture although often feted as the pinnacle of design, obviously this is partly for marketing and advertising reasons, but it poorly represents what design is and what it can achieve.
Despite their grandeur claims of making peoples lives better; this relatively useless end of design brands the entire discapline as an over priced novelty. This, in-turn, causes significant damage to the ability design has to create real change.
The world needs good design but if the world thinks good design is ostentatious furniture then few governments or companies are going to give it the serious consideration required.
Pretty, but a poor representation of what design can achieve
The question is; how can we differentiate the sort of design that can make a real difference from the design that doesn’t and, brand our profession in a way that it is taken seriously by those who do not have a great understanding of the design industry?
There can never be a logo to define what we do as a professional body, the thought is ridiculous, which leaves us to examine the words we use to describe ourselves; Product Designers and Industrial Designers.
‘Product designer’ is read more…
University Product/Industrial Design education – why some students should ask for a refund
I have a bone to pick with university lecturers and course leaders.
Not those who not so long ago taught me, who, although not totally perfect, were actually very good at what they did, and often with very high levels of commitment.
I have a bone to pick with lecturers and course leaders who run seriously sub-par courses. I am talking about the sort of course where at the end of 3 or 4 years students don’t have a chance in hell of getting the job they envisaged when they joined.
Of course, students will have various ideas of what they will be doing, with varying degrees of naivety and ignorance – but these ideas should change and become more realistic throughout their education. The most desired jobs are often working for a design consultancy or an in-house design team, however, lets face it, these design environments require people with abilities at a certain standard and read more…
Ryanair is undoubtedly the cheapest airline in the UK, perhaps the world. Unfortunately they are cheap in a bad way, being the best value airline would be far better descriptor despite bullish management thinking.
The reason Ryanair is the wrong kind of cheap is because Ryanair sells experiences in the same way one would sell standardsised products. For illustration purposes; if a car dealer selling new VW Golfs were selling them for half the price of its competitors a customer may describe the dealer as ‘cheap’ and it would be meant in a positive way – this is how it works with standardised products. It is VW who spend their time ensuring that the product’s user experience is good. Conversely; if someone bought a holiday and upon return they described it as ‘cheap’ it would almost certainly be a negative comment.
The whole experience of Ryanair is cheap in a bad way and is marred with bad sentiment and there really is no need.
To illustrate this I will take you through the full customer experience of a Ryanair customer. I am well placed to do this because as I write I am sitting on a Ryanair flight from London to Frankfurt. Ryanair’s route to Frankfurt is convenient for me, however if one of Ryanairs competitors flew there at a similar price unfortunately I would almost certainly use the competitor.
To start with when you arrive at the Ryanair website, you are bombarded with a cacophony of gaudily coloured adverts for a great many services, most have nothing to do with flying itself and immediately the brand looks rather cheap. Apart from poorly matching colours, things that flash and a general unpleasant aesthetic there is little brand continuity, and it seems, little order.
Upon starting to book all seems pretty good, I can buy a flight each way for a penny – an advantage of booking early. Sadly from here-on-in inevitably the process is a disappointment marred by a strong feeling that I am being ripped off.
After choosing your flights you have the additional airport taxes and charges, which are the bulk of the payment and you have to spend a little while removing the extra purchase add-ons like insurance and making sure you are not buying anything unnecessary. The flight costs in the region of read more…
- By profession I am a designer not a writer
- I consider myself to be a design-centred innovation consultant, although this may change over time
- I am not particularly interested in designing luxury items or novelty products, although this doesn’t mean I haven’t
- I am passionate about the positive contribution design can have to society and I believe that good design can make a real difference. This said in reality it is not so much design, but design approach, and this, when applied to a plethora of areas has the ability to have a large impact on society
- All articles are copyright, but feel free to link to them if you so wish
This Blog is to share my views on design. It is not intended to appease anyone but I am open to constructive criticism and intelligent debate.
