Design management facts for kids

"Simply put, design management is the business side of design. Design management encompasses the ongoing processes, business decisions, and strategies that enable innovation and create effectively-designed products, services, communications, environments, and brands that enhance our quality of life and provide organizational success." This means that design management is not limited on a single design discipline. In his 'Classification of Design' (1976), Gorb divided design into three different classes; design management operates in and across all three categories:

• Product (e.g. industrial design, packaging design, service design)
• Information (e.g. graphic design, branding, media design, web design)
• Environment (e.g. retail design, exhibition design, interior design)

Design management is not independent from the organization and product context, and plays three integrative key roles in the interface of design, organisation and market:

1. align design strategy with corporate and/or brand strategy
2. manage quality and consistency of design outcomes across and within different design disciplines (design classes)
3. enhance new ways of user experience and differentiation from competitors

Supportive activities are used in design management to manage design more efficient ('doing the things right') and effectively ('doing the right things'). Depending on a multitude of factors (such as industry, company size, design focus, market situation and the position / role of design within the company), design managers have a broad range of job profiles, with very different roles, activities and responsibilities.

Historical development

It is difficult to exactly trace the history of design management. Even though design management as an expression is first mentioned in literature in 1964, earlier contributions created the context in which design management could arise. Throughout its history design management was influenced by a number of different disciplines (e.g. architecture, industrial design, management, software development, engineering) and movements (e.g. system theory, design methodologies) and in its understanding it can be attributed neither directly to design nor to management.

Historical development of design management:

PERIOD	MAIN PERSPECTIVE	DESIGN ROLE	DESIGN MANAGEMENT FOCUS	MAIN ACTORS
1940s to 1950s	Design as style	Quality communication	Project management	Alessi, Braun
1960s to 1970s	Design as process	Innovation	NPD innovation management	Philips, Sony
1980s to 1990s	Design as leadership	Creativity strategy	Brand	Apple
2000s to 2010s	Design thinking	New business model	Creative organisation	IDEO

Design Management Hierarchy

Design management can be divided by its different fields of application into the three different levels:

1. operational design management
   Operational design management is concerned with the management of individual design projects and design teams.
2. tactical design management
   Tactical design management addressed the organisation of design resources and design processes.
3. strategic design management
   Strategic design management involves the creation of the strategic, long-term vision & planning for design and deals with defining the role of design within the company.

Related pages

• Design
• Innovation
• Marketing

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Images for kids

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  Design management is the business side of design. Design managers need to speak the language of the business and the language of design.

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  Peter Behrens, around 1913 in his office in Berlin, was one of the first contributors to design management.

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  The British Design Council was founded in 1944 to promote design in the British industry.

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  The 15th European International Design Management Conference organized by the Design Management Institute

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  The Royal Society of Arts in London is one of the first institutions supporting design management.

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  Product design management helps to create a distinctive design. The Saab hockey stick is an automotive design feature.

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  Service design management deals with the newly emerging discipline of service design. An example is the Car2Go concept from Daimler AG, as seen in Austin, Texas.

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  Business design management is used in the development of business models. The business model canvas by Alexander Osterwalder.

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  Urban design management contributes to the development of urban districts. The newly built HafenCity, Hamburg, Germany.

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  Architectural design management contributed to the development of Heathrow Terminal 5 and Heathrow Express by managing the design development and applying visionary leadership.

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  Operational design management deals, among other things, with individual design projects and teams. Standing by the scale model's left front fender is Dick Teague, a design manager at American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1961.

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  Tactical design management deals, among other things, with creating awareness for design issues in the company. Training meeting in an eco-design stainless steel company in Brazil.

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  Strategic design management deals, among other things, with envisioning the future. Visionary automotive concept BMW GINA, BMW Museum, Munich, Germany.

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  Design management was first taught at the London Business School, in 1976.