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Innovative Products Designed for the TimesThe tenuous state of design can be discerned from the cover of the current Business Week. The annual Industrial Design Excellence Awards, which the magazine sponsors, are normally a "hot" summer cover story. This time around, design's greatest hits were reduced to a reference line over a photo of Fed chairman Alan Greenspan and a headline about "High Stakes."
With rare exceptions, companies invest in design in good economic times. When quarterly profits cannot be assured, taking a flying leap with a newfangled product can seem imprudent, unless the CEO is Steve Jobs. Business Week tries to be upbeat by noting that "design is playing a critical role" as corporations "turn away from cost-cutting survival tactics to return to strategies of growth." But these winners are the product of several soft years.
The IDEAs, as the awards are known, are judged by the Industrial Designers Society of America. For the first time in the contest's 24-year history, an Asian corporation won more awards than any U.S. or European company. (Samsung took five awards, compared to Apple Computer's four.)
There was little argument about the year's gold-plated industrial design firm. IDEO of Palo Alto, Calif., gained popular notice years ago by designing a novel grocery cart for a segment of ABC's Nightline. This year, the firm won 10 awards, inc
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7/7/2004 | Viewed 5,711 time(s)
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