Design and the Creation of Value

Table of Contents:
Clive Dilnot: Introduction to Design & the Creation of Value Cameron Weber: A note on John Heskett's economics Sabine Junginger: Design as an economic necessity for governments and organisations Clive Dilnot: Notes on editing the manuscript Design and the Creation of Value Preface §1: Design in Economic Life? Part One: Economic Theory & Design §2: Neo-Classical Theory §3: Austrian Theory §4: Institutional Theory §5: New Growth Theory §6: The National System Part Two: Design & the Creation of Value §7: Design from Standpoint of Economics §8: Economics from the Standpoint of Design §9: Design and Value from the Standpoint of Practice Appendix 1: Socialist Theory Appendix 2: Value and Values in Design Sharon Helmer Poggenpohl: Afterword

About the Author :
John Heskett (1937-2014) was a prolific and pioneering design academic. He worked as chair and professor of design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, spent fifteen years as professor of design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and was also a visiting professor at universities in Denmark, Turkey, Chile, Germany, Japan, and Finland. He authored many classic design texts, including 'Industrial Design' (1980), 'German Design 1870-1918' (1987), and 'Philips: A Study in Corporate Design' (1989). A large part of his research focused on business applications for design. He was especially interested in exploring how design creates economic value, and the role of this in the design policy of governments and corporations. Clive Dilnot is Professor of Design Studies at the School of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons, New York. He has taught in Hong Kong and at Harvard University, and served as director of design initiatives at the Art Institute in Chicago. He has written extensively on the history and theory of design, and his most recent work is on design ethics. Suzan Boztepe is Senior Lecturer at Malmö University, Sweden. Her research focuses on how design creates user and economic value, drives organizational and societal transformation, and catalyzes innovation. She has published widely on strategic design and human-centered methodologies. She completed her doctorate under John Heskett at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, where he originally taught the groundbreaking seminar on design and economic value on which this book is based.

Review :
Heskett provides us the most comprehensive set of ideas about how organizations can use design to create economic value. These essays are the best source for linking design theory with policies that organizations can adopt and act upon. Clive Dilnot and Suzan Boztepe are two of the finest scholars in the design field. This judicious selection brings Heskett's always lively work to a new generation of readers – while gathering Heskett's work on economics and public policy for readers who already know the historian. We should care passionately about the relationship between design and economic value. If good design has no or little obvious economic value then we are doomed to live in a world where everything from the built environment in which we live to the smart phone in our hand will be created without thought to its beauty, functionality and impact on us as users. Fortunately that is not the case and we all know intuitively that good design has value. This book helps us to move beyond intuition and gives us the language to explore design in economic terms. In doing so it can help us to convince key decision-makers, whether in business or in public life, about this key and eternal relationship. Too often they seem programmed to forget! We know the actual value of designs much better than we understand how designing creates value. John Heskett's ground-breaking work and this book's commentaries on it let us look more deeply at Design Thinking through various lenses from Economics, which in turn are refocused in the light of Design. Design is often described as 'mystical', by proponents who see this as a positive creative quality, or 'nebulous', by those frustrated with its struggle to establish a firm disciplinary foundation. This book provides an important challenge to this by addressing the affirming relationship between design and economic value, articulating its reciprocal nature in terms of both theory and practice. As to the value of Design and the Creation of Value, it is profoundly pronounced and plentiful. For practitioners, the book lends substance to long-standing contentions. There is potential for designers to become conversant in the language of economics and to understand the derivation of its ideas. Greater still is the potential for design to transform the practice of its major patron. Design and the Creation of Value presents Heskett's heavy lifting. He opens a door between the mutual isolation of economics and design ... In these volatile times, the changing context in which design operates leaves us much to do. John Heskett's book is a beginning-we must continue his work.