Design is a big industry
It should be said that the platinum age, because the design industry has become a business with great value. No one can say exactly how big it is, but the United States alone spent $600 million last year to buy goods and services, of which about one-fifth is used to buy household goods. In recent years, innovative products have emerged in an endless stream. The colorful iMac computers not only brought Apple back to life, but also inspired Dell, Gateway, and Compaq to produce a large number of low-priced and unique computers. The "New Beetle" car not only saved Volkswagen's image two years ago, but also became a catalyst for the transformation of the auto industry. Automotive manufacturers from Detroit to Tokyo are now starting to pay attention to the design of products because they know that otherwise products will be purchased.
This is also true for manufacturers of almost all other products. Gersky said: "When the price and function of the product are the same, the design will be the only important difference." His remarks followed the words of Raymond Loy, one of the founders of industrial design, in the 30s. creed. Lloyd gave the world a lucky cigarette box and an elegant gray dog ​​car. When he changed the appearance of the "Cold Point" brand fridge slightly more smoothly than other products in 1934, the refrigerator rose slightly at Sears Mall.
Loe once said that the most beautiful curve is the rising sales curve. In the early days of his career, this concept has become the driving force of design. During the Great Depression, good design began to marry with business, and Loyce’s career began to take off. At the time no one was willing to spend money to buy things, but Loy's designed products had the charm that people had to buy. In the 1950s, Charles and Ray Eames led a group of Californians who used the post-war production capabilities to create an elegant and easy-to-live home environment for people. However, by the 1960s, industrial design seemed to have lost its way, and fell into the mud of thinking of consumers who wanted to spend less and buy more things. It was only in the 1990s that this way of thinking began to change.
In the past, there was only one design master Raymond Lloyd in the design world. Nowadays, this field is full of managers and entrepreneurs who hope to make money by making beautiful products. Competing in this area are Sony, Ford and Philips, as well as young talents such as Paris’s Philippe Stark and Tokyo’s Hiroshi Akio’s architectural and design masters and London’s Mark Newson. .
Economic prosperity is the foundation
Terence Conran, a British design manager, believes that the public is increasingly demanding. Conland opened his first furniture store in London in 1964. In the late 1970s he reported that the business expanded to North America, but eventually came back. Now he is back, determined to seize this new wave. Last December, he opened a 2,100-square-meter store in Manhattan. Like the Conland stores in London, Paris and Tokyo, the Manhattan store also brings together a variety of design items, such as electronic watch watches, which are treasured at $7, and dollar chairs. Conran said: "I still haven't figured out why design was not popular in the United States before." He was very cautiously optimistic this time. He said: “Now there is indeed a climate of change. The United States is a technologically advanced country. People are proud to have achieved such great achievements and miss a culture that reflects this achievement.â€
Americans’ demand for design increases, at least in part because the United States is in a period of prosperity. At present, the heat of housing purchase has reached the highest point in history. People need to decorate their new home with something that reflects their own characteristics. In the past, elegantly designed and expensive sofas were able to raise the owner's worth; now it is important to have personalized things, whether they come from a flea market or a boutique, such as a mosquito table shaped like a wing, or by Brab Ibu Conrad chair made of bark. Bill Stalinford, manager of Fitch Design Consultants, said: “In this economic boom, people are eager to express their own personalities.†The company has no branch offices in Columbus, Ohio, and Osaka, Japan. Of course, just as with many popular cultural trends, the design boom has not originated in the United States. The center of furniture design is Italy, and since the 60s, many excellent product designs have come from Japan. Now, it is the U.S. entrepreneurs who are using their enthusiasm to report that their business is getting more and more prosperous. The clothes on the customer's body may have been retrospective, but he took the iBook, a Sony VAIO with a magnesium alloy case, or a chic black Apple G3 laptop. The tools he uses are also unique. Is he using the new Haskvina lawn mower? Take a look at his bathroom, which contains the most popular stainless steel toilets (including seat cushions) that were formerly designed for prisons.
In Soho, New York City, retailer Murray Moss built a small, profitable small country that specializes in design excellence. When working in the Italian fashion industry a few years ago, he noticed that there were many designers of hot products in Europe. So he founded the Moss store, which is like a museum, but its purpose is not to show merchandise. There are soft leather vases, milk bottles, and $385 worth of zinc-steel ironing boards that can be folded into pancakes.
This Moss store has been a success. The store’s size has tripled during the year at home, and he said that last year’s cargo turnover reached 11% (most retailers are satisfied with 4%). Most of Moss's customers are not stylish Manhattan people, but those outside the city.