Knowing Your Client is Knowing Successful Design

Kevin Salwen, Martin Flaherty, and Paulette Thomas (Design Leveraged)

For this week’s current event, I decided to investigate why interior design is so important to the functionality and productivity of corporate America. This article gave some important insight on how, as a designer, to achieve design that benefits specific companies.

Design Leveraged, a new research team put together by the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) and IIDA has begun a series of studies to report on why design is the most underutilized business tool. The report starts off by stating: “the smartest players in corporate America are parlaying their work spaces into a competitive advantage.” How companies are doing this is answered by former Wall Street Journal reporter Kevin Salwen, who is one third of the Design Leveraged collaboration, with partners Paulette Thomas (WSJ alum) and Pencilbox founder Martin Flaherty. Salwen’s statements on this matter are seen in the first report of a line of case studies, which was released this year during NeoCon in Chicago. Interior Design sat down with Salwen to hear some of his study findings first hand.

The study starts off by expressing the importance of design for all smart businesses who wish to convey their over-all message. Salwen says that “the demand for innovation amid global competition is acute,” and that the solution for this lies in the workplace, where there is too often a miscommunication between the ideas of designers and how a business functions. In order for a business to run comfortably and efficiently, the overall goal and mission for getting work done must be communicated with the designer.

In order to make sure that this close relationship is made between the client and the designer, Salwen suggests an “immersion and a deep understanding of the culture of the company [by the designer]. You have to understand it in a way that is a little backdoor.” By investigating that culture of a company, a designer is able to realize three “universal truths”:

1. The most powerful designs reflect your organization’s culture
2. Today’s knowledge workers require variety and agility to get a job done
3. Savvy design can reduce real estate costs

An example of incorporating a companies culture in the design can be seen at Pirch corporate headquarters, where there is an espresso bar that is almost identical to the one found in its shops. This espresso bar is embedded in the company’s culture, as has pleased shoppers, clients, and employees.

Salwen admits that he was surprised by how open most companies were in conveying their intimate struggles and inner workings of their offices. He has found that “when people talk about how design fails, it’s not personal. It’s a structural failing”.

In conclusion, the most important message to take away from this study in Salwen’s opinion is that “design can’t move forward unless it has a business rational…but manufacturers and designers can be successful if they focus on what the people in the corporate tower need”. Design Leveraged is currently working on its next report, dated to be released at NeoCon 2015.

Article: http://www.interiordesign.net/articles/detail/36274-why-design-is-the-most-underutilized-business-tool/