Voxpop

What should be the design industry’s New Year’s resolution?

Listen to the advice you give your clients and apply it to your own practice. Believe in the process of design more than the outcome. Learn to say ‘no’ more often and when a client asks for speculative work, walk away, buy a nice bottle of something and share it with a few friends instead – it will be cheaper and more enjoyable. And get behind the Chartered Society of Designers initiative to achieve chartered designer status, to put us on a par with other professions.

Frank Peters, Chief executive, Chartered Society of Designers

Clients will be wrestling with how they push on as we come out the other side of this recession. They will be looking for different, more innovative and measurable solutions to their brand problems. And with that, brand experience will take centre stage like never before. The branding and design industry has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own that space before the advertising agencies work out how to do it. It won’t take long, and we have no time to waste. The alternative? Another generation of playing second fiddle.

Cheryl Giovannoni, European president, Landor Associates

Around 72dpi. Sorry, couldn’t resist that. The thing we designers need to accept this year, more than ever, is that we’re in the service of the story or journey. The world just got ten times more complex in the blink of an eye, so we need to grasp and render the essential and drop the frills and fluff. We must also accept the growing importance of words – not only as navigators, but also as containers and vehicles in their own right.

Nik Roope, Founder, Poke London

For design consultancies: keep your offer simple, your costs down and invest in new media skills; provide at least one graduate internship and support the Good Design Practice campaign; undertake a major sustainability project. For industry bodies: use the economic conditions to extend your influence with introductory membership packages for start-ups. For Government: recognise that the creative and cultural businesses are the largest UK industry and a key driver post-recession. For me: take the time to enjoy what’s going to prove an exciting and productive year.

David Worthington, Chairman, Lloyd Northover Group

 

Start the discussionStart the discussion
  • Post a comment

Latest articles