Comments on: Q&A with RitaSue Siegel http://designdroplets.com/articles/ritasue-siegel/ Industrial Design Magazine for Australasia Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:17:55 +1100 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Undrln http://designdroplets.com/articles/ritasue-siegel/comment-page-1/#comment-450 Undrln Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:57:28 +0000 http://designdroplets.com/?p=740#comment-450 <strong>Story added...</strong> Your story was featured in Undrln! Here is the link to vote it up and promote it: http://www.undrln.com/All/Q-A-with-Rita-Sue-Siegel-Creative-Recruiter... Story added…

Your story was featured in Undrln! Here is the link to vote it up and promote it: http://www.undrln.com/All/Q-A-with-Rita-Sue-Siegel-Creative-Recruiter...

]]> By: Design Bump http://designdroplets.com/articles/ritasue-siegel/comment-page-1/#comment-440 Design Bump Sun, 12 Apr 2009 11:42:02 +0000 http://designdroplets.com/?p=740#comment-440 <strong>Story on DesignBump.com...</strong> Your story was featured in Design Bump! Here is the link to vote it up and promote it: http://designbump.com/General/Q_A_with_RitaSue_Siegel... Story on DesignBump.com…

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]]> By: csven http://designdroplets.com/articles/ritasue-siegel/comment-page-1/#comment-405 csven Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:52:47 +0000 http://designdroplets.com/?p=740#comment-405 "While many of the individuals may not be able to articulate the value, or even say what design is all about, in the US we are now blessed. We do not have to explain these things anymore. It is a given that any company developing a product, communicating a message, or moving to a new space, needs a designer." There are a few things I'd dispute, but in particular this idea that "in the US we are now blessed" with companies that truly understand the industrial design profession is, as far as I'm concerned, completely off-base; a perspective which likely comes from working with a relatively small percentage of exceptional organizations. I could name large companies with recognizable brands which would *seem* to understand what industrial design offers because they give it lip-service, but their ID group (usually all one of them) isn't led by a trained professional Industrial Designer. Their ID manager is the CAD person with a two-year technical degree who likes to doodle or who, because they're amiable and enthusiastic, occupies a role the company won't pay a professional to fill. - Would these U.S.-based manufacturers put a mail room sorter in charge of corporate public relations? - Would these U.S.-based companies offer warehouse tow operators a position overseeing their national distribution system? - Would these industrial design-savvy corporations put the shopaholic administrative assistant in charge of Sales & Marketing? No. While I respect RitaSue's experience, it is not, in my opinion, experience that offers her an unbiased view of the state of the profession. This is just another "Design Has Won" assertion (reference: http://blog.rebang.com/?p=363 ). The companies to which I'm referring most likely wouldn't come up on her radar because - among other things - they're not in the market for her services and they don't have people within their organization who travel in her circles (like Nussbaum) where Industrial Designers no longer have to explain the value they add to a company's offerings. I only wish her assertion were true, but I'm not spending time in the rarefied air of Davos. I'm in the trenches. “While many of the individuals may not be able to articulate the value, or even say what design is all about, in the US we are now blessed. We do not have to explain these things anymore. It is a given that any company developing a product, communicating a message, or moving to a new space, needs a designer.”

There are a few things I’d dispute, but in particular this idea that “in the US we are now blessed” with companies that truly understand the industrial design profession is, as far as I’m concerned, completely off-base; a perspective which likely comes from working with a relatively small percentage of exceptional organizations.

I could name large companies with recognizable brands which would *seem* to understand what industrial design offers because they give it lip-service, but their ID group (usually all one of them) isn’t led by a trained professional Industrial Designer. Their ID manager is the CAD person with a two-year technical degree who likes to doodle or who, because they’re amiable and enthusiastic, occupies a role the company won’t pay a professional to fill.

- Would these U.S.-based manufacturers put a mail room sorter in charge of corporate public relations?
- Would these U.S.-based companies offer warehouse tow operators a position overseeing their national distribution system?
- Would these industrial design-savvy corporations put the shopaholic administrative assistant in charge of Sales & Marketing?

No.

While I respect RitaSue’s experience, it is not, in my opinion, experience that offers her an unbiased view of the state of the profession. This is just another “Design Has Won” assertion (reference: http://blog.rebang.com/?p=363 ). The companies to which I’m referring most likely wouldn’t come up on her radar because – among other things – they’re not in the market for her services and they don’t have people within their organization who travel in her circles (like Nussbaum) where Industrial Designers no longer have to explain the value they add to a company’s offerings.

I only wish her assertion were true, but I’m not spending time in the rarefied air of Davos. I’m in the trenches.

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