Compare DESIGN in Many Industries
Assist Designers Series January 1, 2024, that continues my great desire to help others through my own experiences.
For a new 2024, I have a more expansive direction, to assist young designers in all industries, not just fashion. The foundation knowledge is similar in most industries, as I was surprised to learn doing a workshop in 2004 at MIT.
I was honored to represent the fashion industry as one of four “expert witnesses” and presenters of various industries at MIT. The other three were automobiles (with the VP of Ford), architecture (a woman who owns her own firm) and a software engineer (from Microsoft). It is an extension of workshops that took place at Cambridge University in England in 2002. There were six researchers: three academics from the English workshop, and three engineering and architecture professors from MIT.
My paper, “Fashion Industry Design Issues & Practices” was presented as a guide for the others in the workshop, and for those who need more knowledge of how the fashion industry works. The information is divided into four basic divisions that involve design practice, in order to simply accommodate all the myriad existing divisions, with less confusion. Do my readers see how these four design divisions applies in many industries?
I mentioned a talk at MassArt with Fashion design students, when I asked about computer technologies hurting creativity, and the students said yes. The VP of Ford responded with: Yes, computers are hurting creativity in automobiles.
Point of Design Databases
My brother, Donald Willett, was a Quality Assurance manager over software engineers, and did much work on database development. Together, we developed the P.O.D. Databases graphic for the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) conference in 1990. My paper was: “Syntax & Semantics of an Image Communication Language for Design Management.” The concept is that all information for every section of an industry must be maintained at the Point of Design database: Customers/retail — Resources, Material & Equipment — Production, Labor & Machine skills. Again, one can see that this applies to many industries.
In fact, at the ASME conference, Kodak, photography, and Caterpillar, farming machines, asked for a printout of the P.O.D databases, because it applied to their industries.
Architecture:
Two definitions: “1. the art or practice of designing and constructing buildings. 2. the complex or carefully designed structure of something: as: the conceptual structure and logical organization of a computer or computer-based system”. It seems design and architecture have very similar meanings.
Dr Mehmet Yildiz, in his book on Enterprise Architecture, writes: ”Modernise enterprise with pragmatic architecture, powerful technologies, innovative agility, and fusion … The key point is using an incrementally progressing iterative approach to every aspect of modernisation initiatives including people, processes, tools, and technologies as a whole — as symbolized in our P.O.D. graphic.
It would be great to hear if you share any of these ideas on Design. I hope to continue sharing my experiences with my readers. Happy Holidays and a Happy New 2024.
