Behind every major product lies teamwork

Referring to Howard Biddle’s letter (DW 9 January), I do share his view that there are many team members behind the scenes who seldom get praise, particularly engineers. I believe this is partly due to the specialised nature of such disciplines which tend to appeal only to those with similar interests or experience. This is partly due to most engineers’ inability to explain what they do enthusiastically in everyday terms, and also because design press journalists, for obvious reasons, tend to be interested in the visual aspect of design.

I have long believed that if it were possible to measure creativity in calories, you would find no difference between a brilliant bit of scoring by Igor Stravinsky and a brilliant bit of problem-solving by a mathematician. However, the former would inevitably appeal to a wider audience.

Behind every major product there is a team, supreme examples of which fly into Heathrow every two minutes. It is sobering to realise that no designer would live long enough to totally design a Jumbo jet on her/his own.

David Crisp

London E8