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By Joe Boomgaard | Knowledge
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WEST MICHIGAN – Design influences the way we build our buildings, sit in our offices, drive in our vehicles and wash our clothes. But all too often, practitioners say, design takes a backseat in the minds of business leaders, many of whom pass off design as something pretty or affecting aesthetics, not the bottom line.

Design West Michigan, part of the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) Innovation Works initiative, aims to put some weight – as in dollar signs – behind the impact of design in the local economy, but the group also wants to get area business leaders to buy into design’s importance in growing successful, profitable companies.

After all, West Michigan, with its roots in the office furniture industry, is home to myriad designers and one of the most recognized design schools in the nation, Kendall College of Art and Design. The region has also been on the forefront of championing sustainable design, whether in products or in buildings.

John Berry, chair of Design West Michigan and a former furniture designer, dreams of getting the business community to recognize the great design capability that exists right in their backyards and to realize what incorporating design into business can achieve.

"I want to demystify design," Berry told Knowledge. "It’s hard to define – it’s a noun, it’s a verb, it’s a process. Any opportunity to help educate people that design is problem solving is a good thing."

Educating the masses

On the front end, Kendall College serves as a local hub for design education for students entering the workforce (See related story, page 6).

But teaching designers that they’re problem solvers might be preaching to the wrong crowd. Therefore, Kendall is trying to marry business and design in its MBA program offered with Ferris State University. The school offers four courses in design and innovation management. The program, which started about a year ago, has been "doing fairly well," according to Oliver Evans, president of Kendall College. About 10-15 students have been enrolled in the program.

"We’re very happy with that," he told Knowledge.

Typical students range from college-age men and women to people from the business world who are returning for the graduate degree. The courses were added to broaden students’ – non-designers – perspectives about the role of design and innovation in business.

"I think, increasingly, you’ll see design for non-designers included in business programs," Evans said. "You already see that in a number of places, and I think you’ll find that they’re going to be increasingly popular."

Academy bound

To facilitate that sort of knowledge transfer for professionals, Design West Michigan has put together the Business Academy of Design West Michigan, a two-day immersion in design aimed at decision makers and executives.

The pilot academy will be held July 17 and 18 at Kendall College. Cost to attend is $495, but those who register before June 28 are eligible for a partial scholarship provided by Ottawa County Michigan Works!.

"Part of the whole effort of the Business Academy is to provide education experience in design for non-designers and to provide a catalyst for companies who do use design and designers to begin to value the work they do," Berry said.

The academy is structured to give attendees case studies of how design had positive economic impact for local businesses. Presenters, including Whirlpool, Progressive AE, People Design and Spectrum Hospital, will quantify how design worked to save and make money for their companies.

"Years ago, problem solving was not design," Berry said. "It was aesthetics or form following function. That thinking got in the way of realizing design is about solving problems. Design is heuristic, and what that really means is that we get at the end result through trial and error. It’s a non-linear process."

Kendall will offer more than just a site for the academy. Several faculty members are involved in the academy’s opening session, and Evans said the college may offer a continuing education credit for academy attendance at some point in the future.

Real-world trial

Veteran international industrial designer Tom Newhouse, owner of Thomas J. Newhouse Design, will be part of the Business Academy of Design West Michigan’s early focus on a hypothetical business situation.

Participants will be given a brief about a hypothetical design-centered initiative for which they will have to develop planning and processes, all of which will be revisited at the end of the academy after the participants have heard the case studies. Berry said the exercise should help participants learn how to apply what they’ve learned from the case studies to an actual situation.

"At the end of the session, I’ll describe how it actually happened," Newhouse told Knowledge.

The goal, he said, is for the business leaders to see how design can have true economic impact on a project and to compare how they would have done the project to the real processes used.

Newhouse, who cut his teeth at Herman Miller and went on to start an independent design studio, said he’s realized in his 35 years in the business that design innovation requires management awareness.

"You can’t design without (recognition) from senior management," Newhouse said. "Management has to buy in. It costs money up front to be innovative. If management doesn’t recognize that cost is relevant, they probably won’t do it."

Some companies in West Michigan, mostly in the furniture industry, understand how design fits into business, according to Newhouse, but many smaller companies think it’s too cost prohibitive.

Elevating the profile

President Evans sees the academy as an important step toward raising the awareness of such an integral part of the region’s economy.

"People have spoken about the importance of design, but the ability to connect design and business and to do that in a way that ties it to economic development and ties to an educational institution says a lot," Evans said.

Newhouse sees design as a way for companies to stay relevant.

"In the third millennium, stuff has largely been invented," he said. "We can make the stuff lower priced…but how many more chairs or desks can we invent? Design is the differentiator."

The role of the academy, in Newhouse’s view, is to turn out executives that know how to speak to designers and understand the connection between design and innovation.

"We need to learn how to do this and repeat it (to) beef up West Michigan’s awareness of design as an integral strategic tool," he said.

The past president of the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum, Newhouse especially sees opportunities for real economic impact with sustainable design. For years, he’s been bringing sustainable designs to companies, as have many other West Michigan designers.

"Sustaina;bility is a common thread through all design thinking," Berry said. "We have the unique advantage. (The design community’s embracing of) sustainability is a differentiator to the rest of the country. We’ve gone way above recognizing issues of sustainability and design."

Creating an impact

Still, experts don’t have any methods in place to analyze design’s impact on the region.

"There is no existing formula that provides a clean look at the soft asset of design, to quantify designers adding benefit," Barry said.

Design West Michigan has explored working with the W.E. Upjohn Institute to get some sort of indicator or methodology to put numbers behind the notions, but Berry said his group doesn’t currently have the funding to help execute such a program.

He’s also quick to stress that the academy is a pilot project.

"If this indeed demonstrates that we’re meeting a real need for West Michigan and the economy and helps in encouraging the creative community, it will be good for West Michigan," Berry said.

For Evans, like Berry, the academy means raising awareness.

"There are a lot of people that are connected with design and the college," Evans said.

"We expect (the academy) to grow and we’re optimistic that it will. Right now, we’re just kind of exploring, but we’ve had a good deal of responsiveness to it."

Berry added that the academy, while focused on West Michigan, has a broader, unintended audience.

"Others in the country are watching how it works for us," he said. "(I’d like to see attendees’) advanced decision making allow the organizations they represent to accomplish their business plans through design."

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