Here’s a blog posting by Roger van Oech over which I’ve recently stumbled across. I let it sort of uncommented from my side for now as I might be currently biased given my previous posting about the DME Award ;-).
I would however be interested in your opinions or experiences and in particular for your evaluations on the phenomenon. Feel free to drop a comment :-)
Mike Wagner Says:
December 20th, 2007 at 21:10Visit Mike Wagner
Roger von Oech has been a favorite author and thinker of mine for a long time so I am likely a bit biased.
My sense of the “designer/design prize” world is that it doesn’t ask enough of design at times. For that reason is becomes one dimensional and ultimately selfishly focused on winning the award.
Enlarging how successful design is described and defined would be a step in the right direction.
I believe design can “walk and chew gum at the same time”; which is to say, beauty of form and meaningful function can and should co-exist.
Keep creating…a daring adventure,
Mike
Mark Fenwick Says:
January 10th, 2008 at 16:19Visit Mark Fenwick
As Roger highlighted the quality of the decision making is only as good the jury and their experience of the design and as anyone knows who has been part of jury time is not always on your side.
There are design effectiveness awards which look at the impact of design and its acceptance by the market. The Design Business Association in the UK runs one of these.
I think that competitions are very important to the business development of any design business or creative career. Look at the impact that winning an Oscar, the Tate prize or being highlighted as ‘one to watch’ has on your business. Or does it can it become a distraction and how should you respond to this type of success?
I recently proposed to some members of the faculty of Newcastle business school that they should conduct research on the impact of being a successful winner of a prize on the subsequent development of their business. They seemed quite taken with the idea so maybe we will end up with some evidence that prizes are a good thing to pursue.
Mark