Tom Inns - GSA Director

The new director of GSA came down to visit us this week. A brief introduction of his experiences was very insightful especially relating to the impact of the designer on innovation in small businesses. It was unusual to think of how the skills and abilities we have as designers can have such an impact in other fields. The ability to look to the future and play with things that do not currently exist is a skill I think most designers will see as commonplace.

 Tom Inns at GSA 

Realising the impact these transferable skills can have in various environments led me to see how unrestricted designers are in the work they can do. There was a self-reflection session in an attempt to understand the meaning of various corporate terms and what they really represented.

Strategies of various brands were analysed. Alessi, a very well-known design company seems to have one of the most interesting – creating random and crazy plastic shapes which are really highly finished and fulfil simple functions. These products sell as high end quality product but as essentially made from plastic, a relatively cheap material. They make so much money simply because people like owning them and they are fun. Working for Alessi would be ideal as their products can become iconic and they are the essence of playful design.

These quirky bottle tops and egg cup are a small selection of typical Alessi products. Personally, I really like the simplicity and character of them.

These brand strategies are key in how the business operates – but does it have any impact on how good the designs produced are? It probably has a negative impact due to the tendency for businesses to want to maximise profit margins. With many measurements of success resting on whether a product delivers financially, risk management may also play a role in why some great products are never brought to the general market.