The crisis of success in design/innovation
Bruce Nussbaum was the opening speaker at the IDSA Award Ceremony during the Connecting ’07 World Design Congress, co-organised by ICSID and IDSA.
In his speech, Nussbaum says that design seems to provide a lot of value in a society of massive change and asks what the consequences of this success might be.
“Should designers become managers? Is design innovation? Will managers take over design? Does beauty trump strategy? Are blondes better than smarty-pants design thinkers? Should industrial design become international design? Is design education failing? Are B-Schools taking over the field of design? What the heck is design thinking anyway? Is the media hyping design or reflecting its growing influence in business and society? Is design and innovation just a fad? Is a backlash underway?”
Small detail – Bruce spoke at the end of the conference, not the beginning.
Michael Beirut in September made the counter-argument — that design is getting too big for its britches: “You’re so intelligent,” Design Observer.”