Welcome to the December issue of Thinkaboutit. We have to start by recognising the fact that our newsletter, Thinkaboutit, had fallen in to disrepair. In fact, if we’re honest, it had pretty much kicked the bucket, but we’ve revived it, reshaped it, and rebooted it – and it’s back, better than ever.
The format is a little different, and might well change over the coming months, but there will be a monthly issue, which will contain the perfect amount of thought provoking, chewy stuff for you to enjoy over a nice cup of tea, your breakfast, your commute, your bath – you get the idea. We hope you like it, and please remember – feedback is welcomed with open arms.
So - to begin. It’s been a busy year for Designit, and we hope it’ll be just the same next year. Although we waved farewell to our Paris studio, we gained studios in both Barcelona and Madrid.
Our merger with dnx (now Designit Madrid) meant that we became Europe’s largest design consultancy, and fully geared for global growth.
“Strategic design competencies are becoming increasingly important to clients. This merger makes us the strongest European partner for the world’s leading companies and we can now do even more for them,” says Designit CEO, David Fellah.
Geography did play an important role. The Spanish market is vast, and Designit is now an even more obvious choice for clients throughout Europe. The growth economies in South America haven’t gone unnoticed either.
“We already have strong relations with the South American market, thanks to our cooperation with the largest Spanish banks and financial companies. Now we can establish ourselves as an independent and very strong partner for companies in some markets that are experiencing incredibly rapid development,” says Joaquín Guirao Sagi-Vela, CEO of Designit Madrid.
We’re really excited about making an entrance in the Spanish speaking market, and have no doubt that things will flourish. We went to Madrid for our annual Inspiration Trip – it seemed only logical – and met all our new friends and co-workers face-to-face, and got a peek at their local surroundings as well as their new studio (which, by the way, is gorgeous).
Internally we’ve seen roles change dramatically, as processes and studios have adapted to the growth. We’re stronger and more focused than ever before. New positions have emerged with the growth, and they have helped us cope and seek out new business.
We launched ourselves in to the world of social media, and have gathered a good following on Facebook and Twitter. A massive thank you to all our fans and followers – it’s exhilarating to see the feedback we get both on news and on projects, but also in terms of us; the way we work, the people we are, and the idiosyncratic energy that flows through each and every Designit studio. In the coming year, we’ll be launching individual accounts for our studios. We’ll be keeping the corporate accounts, of course, but more relevant team news and general mirth will be shared on individual profiles. It’s something we’re really looking forward to doing as it’ll give us even more ability to show you who we are, what we get up to, and what we do. Stayed tuned for the launch, and thank you once again.
We’ve had some superb projects come through the doors over 2011. We won’t dwell on them here, suffice to say we’ve embraced mobile apps fully, with award-winning banking apps, and have taken on some extremely interesting (and challenging) strategic projects that have really let us show what we’re made of. From our continuing partnership with Novo Nordisk, to speakers being sold in the Apple Store, we’ve reached both strategic and design goals that we’re proud of.
Externally, 2011 has been yet another year of incredible technological changes. The pace of change isn’t slowing. As a very famous teenager once said, ‘life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.’ It’s more relevant with every year that passes. This year we’ve seen the Arab Spring, a monumental moment in history including Tunisia, Egypt, Libya (the death of Gaddafi), Yemen, and Syria; the shocking earthquake off Japan that sparked a nuclear emergency; Will and Kate getting hitched; Osama being killed; South Sudan being born; severe floods in Bangkok; an Israeli/Palestinian prisoner swap; an earthquake in Turkey; and the population of the world reaching a whopping 7 billion people. And that’s just scratching the surface.
In terms of tech, 2011 turned the world upside down. It was the year mobile IT was born – something that goes hand-in-hand with the Arab Spring. “It was the year the IT industry figured out mobile, and it’s the year that mobile figured out IT.” Steve Jobs died after a long battle, leaving very big shoes behind, but before he passed, he got to introduce the iPad 2, an event that you might have noticed.
Tim Cook, the new CEO of Apple, went on to reveal Siri, the first step in voice recognition – something we’re bound to see much, much more of over the next 12 months. Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft – aka the tech giants – went on the rampage with operating systems, tablets and phones being launched or rumoured all over the place, and Amazon’s Kindle Fire really brought the Cloud to the tablet. Countless other technological marvels made us smile, wonder and sometimes just stare in disbelief, but what does the future hold? What will we see in 2012? Will the coming 12 months finally be the year of video? Will we see a greater focus on sustainability? Will voice recognition become the norm? What about Natural User Interfaces? Or the future of materials and surfaces?
To whet your appetite we asked some Designits to talk to us, and tell us what was on their minds, whether it be reflection on the past year, a coming major trend, or something just around the corner that had sparked their interest.
The next big thing for 2012
Jim Dawton, Partner Designit London
From London’s perspective, the next big thing for 2012 has to be the Olympics. Interestingly, from a design perspective, the journey so far has exposed some home truths about the UK design industry, and the role of design more generally.
Having won the bid, the first tangible experience of the Games was the public revelation of the logo and branding. It shocked the nation! Whilst the strategy behind it is undoubtedly world class – possibly changing the paradigm of Olympic branding forever – the execution is, at best, naïve. Unfortunately, this separation of the thinking and doing is an increasing trend within the UK design industry.
Design success has been bubbling away behind the scenes. A communication campaign around safety has, quite literally, saved lives – just one person has died (falling off a wet ladder) compared with the five or ten (depending who you believe) in Beijing. Despite the trend for online and mobile communication, we forget classic print material at our peril.
Innovative products, both for use in training and competition, are driving sporting success. Speedo’s design for the new FastSkin3 swimsuit is pushing the boundaries of production and materials, at the same time as satisfying the athletes’ vanity! Without a doubt an accelerating trend in physical product design is this exploitation of technological advances – just look at what Apple have been up to for the past 10 years.
Finally, a piece on future trends can’t be complete without the inclusion of mobile applications. We Londoners have just been given an app (Love Clean London) to clean up the city prior to the games! Take a picture of a dumped mattress, or unsightly graffiti, and send this with some details to the local council, they’ll then deal with it – you can even check to see if they’ve clean it up. This trend for companies and governments to involve their ‘customers’ is beginning to mature, and add value – it costs a council £1.50 to handle a litter report by app, £4.10 by web, and £5.10 over the phone! Our job is to design products and services that people want to use.
Digital Immortality
David Fellah, CEO Designit
Will it be possible to create a virtual self made up from all our digital data we leave online? From Siri and voicemail to our uploaded photos and comments – will our personality be replicated?
The blurring of lines
Humberto Matas, Partner Designit Madrid
The future of service design?
Charlotte Schoeffler, Design Consultant, Madrid
Are we there yet?
Per Juul Poulsen, Senior Communication Designer, Designit Munich
The world is moving ever faster and there’s no limit to what we can do. All our premium mobile devices have almost magical touch interfaces, or even multi touch interfaces that gives us the power of the internet at the command of our fingertips. But we can only touch the device. Not the content. The content has no weight other than the weight of the device itself. It has no texture and no scale. The device has a visual interface and a physical controller (your finger), but the content isn’t really there. It’s just displayed and all you touch is glass.
Touch is amazing. Our somatosensory system is by design engineered to give us a wide array of feedback from both external and internal sensors. Our whole body continuously gives us feedback concerning texture, temperature, moisture, weight, motion, balance, shape, elasticity, pliability and pain levels.
The feedback we get from our hands and fingers lets us know if the cookies from yesterday went hard overnight. It lets us know if our children are cold. It helps us avoid danger on slippery surfaces, or around sharp objects. It gives us the possibility to grab a stem of a tree and a paper star in different ways. We mould the marzipan, put wood in the fireplace and test the sharpness of our kitchen knife before we cut the goose.
Touch your mobile device.
What do you feel?
Start the browser.
Does it feel different now?
Products to Services
Mikal Hallstrup, Chief Visionary Officer, Designit
Are we yet to see the full potential of service design? Will services continue to be the key point of differentiation? What does our social data mean for the future individualisation of services and products?
From scandalous logos to digital immortality – a perfect combination of traditional and contemporary media. We’d love to hear your views on these matters. How do you think apps will develop in the future? Would you be willing to have your online data turned into a virtual you? Would you pay for it? Are we only just touching the surface of touch and interaction? Will lines between user and employee become even more blurred next year?
So here’s to another spectacular year. From all of the Designit zoo, no matter where you are, who you are, or what you do – have a wonderful holiday. Make the most of it, stay creative, and please, be unusual.
Roll on 2012!