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Creative business - Product design
Resources
Global ideas on drawing board
As designers from around the world descend on London for the capital’s annual design festival over the next two weeks, one theme that will weigh heavily in seminars, speeches and debates is the increasing importance of design to manufacturers of consumer products.
Overview: Design key to cleaning up in world market
Lessons from one unlikely product category have a wider resonance. When Procter Gamble set out to revitalise its Mr Clean brand, the US consumer products giant dispatched teams of researchers across the US to watch housewives clean their bathrooms.
Dylan Jones: The beauty at Apple’s core
The GQ editor waxes poetic about the iPod’s synthesis of aesthetics and functionality.
Interview: Frank Nuovo of Nokia
Nokia’s ability to cross cultural boundaries with handset designs that appeal across the globe has been attributed to the international make-up of its designers. The Finnish group’s chief designer says it has plenty to be proud of.
Italian design: ‘La dolce vita’ translates well anywhere
Exporting aesthetics and good taste is no problem for one country.
Constraints on design: Fighting limitations with innovation
Unless there is no alternative, product designers refuse to be constrained by the dimensions or other parameters of components.
Car industry: Producers build platforms for growth
The industry is driving plans to vary designs for different markets while sharing key components under the bonnet.
Book design: Market opens new chapter for covers
The influence of retailers is growing but publishers’ art directors say there is still plenty of scope for innovation.
Domestic appliances: Smart designs hit home
Attractive products are appreciated worldwide.
Retailing: Stores check out new look for selling space
With competition increasing, high-end shop design is no longer the preserve of the designer labels.
