a few weeks ago the news about german design graduate students having re-designed the corporate and packaging design of ALDI made into the press. a professor and his students at the university of applied sciences in bielefeld/germany thought it might be a good idea to open an exhibition showing their proposals for a new corporate design for the ALDI stores. certainly it has been planned that ALDI champagne should have been served at the event sponsored by ALDI.
well you’ve guessed it: ALDI ignored the CI/CD proposal and wasn’t even willing to donate some (high quality/low price) champagne for the reception. after all a controversial discussion in several online forums resulted from this initiative discussing the pros and cons of the visual positioning of a food discounter which ALDI is no longer at all (sidenote: in the meantime ALDI belongs to the top 5 of germany’s clothing retailers!).
the dilemma of the whole initiative is somehow symptomatic for the “classic” design education. true interdisciplinary thinking between design and management still is hardly realised in german design and management (!) curricula. while in the UK several bachelor and master degree programmes in design management are on the market for some years now, german universities (namely cologne, potsdam and berlin) are just starting to consider investing in the domain.
the ALDI project definitively would have benefitted from a more holistic approach. however this is not the fault of the students rather than the lack of input from the instructor’s side: design as being the driver to make this world a better place regardless if people want/like/need it or not.
consequently none of the students has analysed the industry or business segment ALDI is competing in. questions like: what are customers actually looking for at ALDI and the likes? what does “billig” (german term for: cheap, low-budget or bargain) mean for the customers? what financial impacts (positive or negative) does this re-design have? the questions go far beyond the common sense “positioning” approach which sees a position as favorable as long as it is different from the competitors’ one.
if you’re interested in the (german) discussion have a look at the following links. if you’re interested in the visual proposals (universal ;-) visit the project website at: http://www.gruppe116.com/aldi
some information IN ENGLISH about ALDI >>>
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