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By John Berry, Director
Design West Michigan

When considering how design may play a role in the future of our region, it’s useful to have some perspective from the past. Design has been a main thrust of economic growth in several regionally based companies who lived the axiom of Peter Drucker, who said, “Design thinking converts need into demand.”

Products that were once only ideas borne from interest and curiosity to improve how we live and work became new markets spawning a myriad of suppliers. Open office systems, ergonomic seating, military shoes, vacuum cleaners, cereals, self-adjusting rear-view mirrors, front-loading washers and driers and more, all had their beginnings in West Michigan. Through research, problem discovery and design-based thinking, new markets were created by identifying and focusing on unmet needs. Those markets were then grown globally.

It takes a certain kind of belief in the art of the possible versus a confirmed outcome to invest in ideas that don’t have an existing market. Many West Michigan companies have gotten comfortable with my favorite adage, “It is easier to put feasibility into an exciting idea than it is to put excitement into a feasible idea.”

Major companies, while reducing some production staff, were building design capabilities to investigate and reach into the future needs. Most of the major companies I have a chance to know all have significant and exciting new products in development or ready to introduce. Design firms and independent design consultants in the industrial, graphic, architectural and interiors fields are beginning to get busier serving regional customers and organizations outside of the area and even the country. And package designers, of which West Michigan has a large number, are pursuing meeting the ever-changing needs of consumer packaging that recognizes the limitations of aging hands while maintaining consumer safety.

It is this continual pursuit to find and meet the ever-changing problems in our environment that provides a rich field of opportunities. Charles Eames, recognized as the most significant designer in the 20th century, when asked about the boundaries of design answered with, “What are the boundaries of problems?” More and more, businesses that have not had experience with design thinking are recognizing that design can be a strategic tool and more than just styling at the end of a process.

Unique regional educational activities are helping connect design thinking and design disciplines to shifting business needs. New North Center for Design in Business and Kendall College of Art and Design’s MBA on design and innovation management serve existing managers and companies recognizing the need to refocus. A new undergraduate program, the BFA in Design Collaboration, is in process at Kendall that will serve to build a new generation of design thinkers. All these efforts demonstrate the growing interaction of design and business.

And then there are numerous new books that speak to the importance of design and creative thinking in business, such as “Change by Design” by Tim Brown, “The Design of Business” by Roger Martin, and “Cracking The Whip” by Ralph Caplan. Numerous seminars, panels and conferences all give evidence and opportunity to build stronger bridges between design and business.

While partly driven by economic necessity/survival, there is more than ever a coming together of business and design. Charles Eames once answered the question, “What do you feel is the primary condition for the practice of design and for its propagation?” with, “The recognition of need.”

So my view on the future of design in West Michigan is that while design results have been significant in the past, they will become even stronger in our future and sooner than we might think. Design is an optimistic profession. I’ve never heard a designer say, “I can’t wait to make something worse.”

The impounded energy and talent that exists in West Michigan will be able to serve as an economic building block and the multiple disciplines, design and others will come together to resolve common problems, and grow new markets.