Design, Innovation and Ecology
Posted on October 1, 2008
Filed Under What's New |
I have a couple of articles coming up in next week’s Innovation magazine. Both are exciting pieces for me, and I hope readers like them too of course. I will post some excerpts here once they are published but I also wanted to preview the subjects.
The subjects are closely related. One is on art and its impact on business; the other is about designing workspaces. One link between design and innovation explored in the second article is ecology (well the global warming part of it).
Here’s a shortlist of the lessons I’m taking from the people I interviewed.
1. The first is that a new generation of employees is forcing change onto employers. Young employees are seeking workspaces that take seriously the environmental challenges we all face. Companies that don’t walk the talk are being shunned by talented young people. Who would have thought that workspace design was a recruiting issue? But once you stop to think about it, the value of good workspace design becomes obvious.
2. Workslace design can be and should be about excitment. This is from Edmunds.com’s HQ. Edmunds is an online auto pricing and information site and having moved into this new office their staff turnover is next to nil.
3. Great design can be a money saver. In fact many of the clients who listen to their employees’ environmental concerns go out and get good energy reducing designs that look good and work truly well. Here’s one from the experts at Morgan Lovell. 
4. Creative companies, or companies with creative leaders, need workplace design that inspires. They need to align themselves with inspirational creative people - particularly I believe with artists who have a strong conceptual capability. Many of the ways companies relate to art are superficial and offer no real commercial pull through, Yes you can sponsor an art event but really you want to prosper from dealing with people whose conceptual strengths can inspire staff or provoke leaders into thinking in new ways.
Finally for some great workplace photography see Benny Chan’s work at www.fotoworks.cc
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