How can one verbalise what it is one does when working with design? And how can one explain and describe the various types of design activity that take place in companies, whether or not they have acknowledged that they are using design? Irene Lønne, architect and designer, has developed the tool ‘the design landscape’ as part of her ongoing Ph.D. project at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture. The design landscape is not only useful as a means of mapping out a company’s use of design; it can also translate a strategic ambition into a concrete solution and thus be used to explain why the company needs design.

By Mads Nygaard Folkmann

With the design landscape Irene Lønne wanted to develop a model for describing companies’ design work holistically. She uses the landscape as an image to make companies aware of their use of design and to assess specifically what the individual company needs. Thanks to its clear focus on companies the model has already left the researcher’s desk and begun to draw attention, most recently, for example, in the Danish financial newspaper Børsen (31 Oct 2007).

Strategy with a Concrete Expression

The design landscape anchors design on a strategic level in the companies – design should not be about adding the finishing touches, as when the director’s wife adds some colour at the end of the process. However, design should have a specific expression, a certain form, in the company. The strength of the model is the exchange between abstract and concrete. It includes three areas that are used to map the extent of design in the company, and which interact in various ways: communication, product and room, the latter referring to the company’s physical appearance.

In a step-by-step process, the model serves to illustrate and clarify the company’s use of design and discover where an effort would be beneficial. Phase 1 describes the current status of the three areas in the company. Phase 2 describes points (marked in black) where the areas overlap and interact fields. Within the black field there should be a coherent use of design. Hence, the red, inner circle in Phase 3 illustrates where there is a potential for a strategic approach to the design effort. Phase 4 indicates an implementation of the strategy.

Once the design landscape has been mapped out the company can define a design strategy, which subsequently impacts the entire company through room, product and communication.

All Companies Have a Design Landscape

Irene Lønne sees an untapped strategic design potential in many companies. “My point of departure is strategic design, that is, a method where design is integrated strategically on many levels in the company, and where there is a dual focus on the design process and the outcome,” Irene Lønne explains.

“In this context, the design landscape is a method for assessing company’s approach to design. Here, design should be understood in a broad sense of the word, both as a process and as all the actual expressions that the company presents to the environment. In my mind, all companies have a design landscape, whether they are aware of it or not – there are many design processes in companies that usually aren’t recognised as design processes,” she says and refers to the main case example in her dissertation, an annual report from Danisco. Danisco is not essentially a design-driven company, but nevertheless there is a large number of design processes involved in the development of the company’s annual report. The annual report reflects both a strategic consideration within the company and a concrete design product. “In this sense, companies often use design much more than they realise. But as long as they’re not aware of their use of design they won’t be able to realise the potential in addressing it strategically,” says Irene Lønne.

Rooms and spaces that invite and encourage exploration and creativity can be part of an overall design-based communication. Here, Ordrup School, design: Bosch & Fjord. Photo: Anders Sune Berg.

Design Should be Based on Objective Reasons

In Irene Lønne’s opinion, it is a major benefit for both designer and company when design is used strategically. “As I see it, the benefit in considering design in a strategic context is that it raises the discussion to a higher level. It simply makes for a more objective basis for design and for the design choices that a company faces,” says Irene Lønne.

Irene Lønne’s motivation for this research project was closely related to her own practice experiences as a designer and head of design in Banestyrelsen (Rail Net Denmark). “Here I often felt that it was difficult to communicate precisely about design, both in relation to the ongoing justification for the use of design and in relation to the specific choices of design solutions. It can be very difficult to explain why a design should be exactly the way one has chosen. So, I had a perceived problem, which I chose to address by embarking on a research project,” she says.

The research project can be viewed as a contribution to the ongoing effort to develop a language for describing design and designers’ particular competence as well as a research language specifically for design. “With my background as a practitioner I bring the particular design angle to the project that I see strategy as something that has to be given concrete shape in a range of design expressions, that is, in the dimensions of room, product and communication that make up the design landscape. I use the model to articulate these dimensions. I attempt to clarify the qualities in the company’s design processes, especially the ones that are not in focus, and which hold a major potential if they are brought into the light and utilised,” says Irene Lønne.

In relation to this effort, she characterises the designer as someone who takes a holistic approach by addressing processes with a view to achieving a solution. Someone with a focus on solutions as well as the larger context that the solutions are going to enter into; who thinks ahead and takes a concrete approach – and who is able to combine the abstract and the concrete.

The Design Landscape as a Research Perspective

This makes the landscape a useful metaphor for the use of design in a company, for several reasons: It acts as a framework for mapping the use of design in a company and, by extension, for working strategically with design. With its concrete spatial character, it offers that degree of translation between the abstract and the concrete that Irene Lønne considers so essential. “In terms of research, the design landscape provides a broad framework that is capable of reconciling and combining various research perspectives,” Irene Lønne explains. “Of course, with the landscape model I also draw on other people’s work, but my particular point of view lies in the application of a design perspective.”
 

Irene Lønne, Architect MAA, strategic director at Pleks and a Ph.D. scholar at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture.

On the one hand, Irene Lønne considers the strategic perspective, where there is already a body of research into corporate identity and marketing, for example Borja de Mozota (2003), Wally Olins (1995) and Majken Schulz (2000). These perspectives often lead to a somewhat instrumental dictate of rules and manuals.
On the other hand, there is the current research into cognition, which addresses the difficult topic of sensuousness. This has to with the constant interactions and mutual effects of the body and the environment (Clark 1999) and with emotions, as described by Norman (2004). This marks an important design topic: How can design be communicated to the senses, and what types of tactile and visual approaches are available?

To Irene Lønne, the design landscape model is an operative tool that manages to connect these two angles. “Thus, the new knowledge that I acquire in my research project offers a new framework for viewing and applying design strategically. To me, the design landscape as a model is more general and broader in scope than, for example, branding which has long been a dominant perspective in discussions about the companies’ way of presenting themselves. The design landscape offers an overarching framework that can be used to focus on specific differences in design use and on the sensuous elements of design,” says Irene Lønne.

References:

• Borja de Mozota, Brigitte: Design Management, Using Design to Build Brand Value and Corporate Innovation. Allworth Press, 2003. 
• Schultz, Majken, Hatch, Mary Joe and Larsen, Mogens Holten (ed): The Expressive Organisation. Linking Identity, Reputation, and the Corporate Brand. Oxford University Press, 2000.
• Olins Wolf: The New Guide to Identity. The Design Council, 1995.
• Clark, Andy: An Embodied Cognitive Science? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 3:9:1999
• Donald Norman: Emotional Design, Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. Basis Books, New York, 2004  

Mind Design #3, 2007