DEANO DESIGNS
CRAIG WHITTET
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The purpose of Craig's talk was to provoke us as designers to ask ourselves, "What would we and others be willing to pay for?". This was done through multiple examples. I have explained some of the most insightful of these below and given my opinions on them.
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Relevance and Cultural Significance
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His first point focused on the impact of relevance and culture on the cost of an item. He used the example of Sex and the City's impact on the cost of Manolo Blahnik shoes. The appearance of the shoes on the show skyrocketed the price of the shoes. This led to the price of the shoes increasing accordingly. As designers, we are entrusted to see through this and design for what we believe is right. This is the point I believe Craig was making here and it led back to the initial question "How much are we willing to pay?". In the case of Manolo Blahnik people didn't care about the design, they just wanted to wear the same shows as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City. That's where the value of the product came from.
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I have listed some examples below of cases of external (non-design) related pop-culture influences affecting the success of a product.
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Tom Cruise and his Top Gun Ray Ban's
Adele and her Stanley water cup
Taylor Swift and her red New Balance 550's
Quality
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The next point Craig made, which I thought was very insightful, centred around if consumers are willing to pay for a quality long-lasting product. Craig used the example of Tricker's shoes to show this. His shoes cost over £300; however, he has had them for over 10 years. In his opinion this has made them a valuable product, saving him money over the years. However, I tried to imagine myself owning any pair of shoes for over 10 years and couldn't. This is because I am guilty of falling into the trap of material consumerism and fast fashion. In my opinion, the world changes so much and as consumers, we are forced to keep up with it and follow the trends (especially in terms of footwear!). While I understand the concerns with fast fashion, I place more value on having new clothing regularly (even if they are low-quality items) than something high quality for a long time. I believe this is the opinion of many people my age.
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Environmental Consequences
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The final point I want to pick up on is focused on the environmental questions we as designers must answer. This ended up becoming a moral discussion of how far we would be willing to go to impact the environment when designing. Craig talked about how if you placed every iPhone 7 box next to each other it would cover the entire Glasgow city centre.
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Now is this necessary? I believe it is. iPhone packaging is some of the most well-designed and quality packaging ever produced. If, as a company, they decided to stop packaging their phones in their iconic boxes their sales would tank. However, for some other companies, I believe their material usage is beyond what is necessary. These are shown below.
Amazon using an unecessary about of packaging for sending products
Duracel and Energizer produce non-rechargable batteries
Companies that still send junk mail letters