This feels familiar…

We’ve been through this before. Haven’t we? Recessions, slumps and economic boom and dot com busts. And I’ll say it…design has helped us survive it all. I am not only talking about the aesthetic part of design (the visual forms it often results in), what I am concerned with today is the thinking and ideas part. Design, its thinking and ideas, has come to our rescue more than once in mans sordid past. The industrial revolution itself was an effort of design thinking. Man realized he needed to to develop faster more productive ways for the creation of goods for the exploding population of the time. A few major wars forced design to rethink technology and communication. The great depression made design really look at how to make more, or at least the same, with less. I could go on.

OK, so history has had ups and downs. I would dare to say that design and its thinking can be found at the upslope of every period in history as a return to “normal” was resumed. Ford, in the industrial revolution gave us the affordable automobile, the car itself was remarkable…but the thinking which allowed it to be built (and everything else from here on) for the masses was the real gem. Lester Beall helped our country emerge from the great depression creating engaging communication that rallied a nation into service. The period after the second world war, gave us Ray and Charles Eames designed beautiful, useful things with a bit of whimsy out of materials we would have never consider had we not been forced to. All in an effort to help us feel better about a horrible war that we were leaving behind.

So why should now be any different. Everywhere you read about companies of all types scaling back. Investors are recommending that cuts be made. CEO’s want more return with less. Marketers are being forced to stop marketing. The crisis were all facing is making some businesses close for good or temporarily shut down their avenues for discussion by eliminating marketing and design initiatives, as they are often thought of as extraneous or non-critical. Nothing could be further from the truth.

So when you’re drowning…are you going to stop calling out for help or letting folks at least know you’re there? No. Are you going to stop thinking about ways to save yourself? No. This is the time for design to be leveraged heavily. Design is the most affordable way to solve a problem. Design can improve or simplify your product itself and or the way it is made. Design can help you innovate on how it’s sold and how it’s marketed. In times of hardship the first thing to go out the window should be doing what’s considered “traditional”, not innovative thinking. The commonality between today and all the periods in the past is that to speed the return to “normal” requires new thinking. That is why NOW is the time to invest in design. Because design is thinking…sure it can also be pictures that result in brochures, new websites, widgets or packaging. But deep down it’s really about figuring out how to achieve a goal within a set of confined requirements. And if this economy isn’t a requirement I don’t know what is. All that takes is thinking and new ideas. That’s what we as design thinkers get hired to do: to produce thinking and the ideas that get you heard while others drown silently because they have shut off their avenues for discussion.

Determining the right solution for you to be heard is design…is that a giant community website? It may be. But it could also be a short film to create engagement. Or a speaking tour to that communicates your unique approach. It could be a new piece of technology, explained simply and clearly so that sales increase. It could be User Interface that makes your product easier to use. Whatever the situation, whatever the political environment, whatever the economic climate… design really is a good idea. Especially now.