navel gazing + bad rock & roll analogy

Well, it seems that while I was stuck in design ennui, so were a bunch of other folks. I read Bruce Nussbaum's design blog on business week for the first time in a while, and it seems I'm just another designer stuck in navel-gazing mode. Maybe its the holdays.


Interesting, the whole thing seems to have stemmed from a blog entry by Design Observer, who Nussbaum knows as Michael Bierut of Pentgram Design. That blog got passed around the local intranet here a couple weeks ago, so we must have all been drinking from the same glass of frowney punch.


Design? Innovation? Design thinking? I dont know, it's all shades of the same color to me these days. I'm blessed that my work takes me from brand strategy to first shots and everywhere in between. I'm blessed that I have the opportunity not just to let loose beauty and goodness, but also make them have a positive financial impact for my clients, who are increasingly knowledgable about the power of design. But, part of me does pine for the naivete of design's garage-band days, when it wasnt all about business.

Maybe another way to rephrase the existential dilemma is this: If design is becoming corporate rock, what is the new design punk?


Not that I'm a capital-D Designer. Or maybe I am. After all, a product of mine has made it to the MOMA. OK, only as far as the MOMA store. But still, just let me have that, huh?








previous posts on design:

What design isn't
Target getting it
Nussbaum on design
flux in the design biz
Talking About Design
Simplicity, Design, and Corn
Totally Chaotic!
Premium vs Luxury
Is Innovation Finished Or Isn't It?
Design Lust at Target's Pharmacy
Millenium Challenge 2002 and Design Thinking
Losing The Conversation, Taking It back