Discussion about the IDSA

Great point!

So if IDSA thinks it’s important to be able to say they “represent the largest group,” why not make it free?

Here’s IDSA’s Revenue vs. Expense from the 2008 annual report. This says a few things: IDSA is mostly about conferences (and is loosing money at it) and membership revenue is small and largely offset by “other.”
idsa.jpg

"IDSA is mostly about conferences (and is loosing [sic] money at it) and membership revenue is small and largely offset by “other.”

Well, you can’t learn everything from looking at a pretty Excel graph. There is no entity that has done more to sell “design” to the corporate boardroom (and the general public) than IDSA - ever. Mainly through the IDSA/BusinessWeek IDEA competition - arguably the most important design competition in the world and, incidentally, one of the cheapest to enter. The Catalyst program is also contributing to the business world’s understanding of the power of design and design thinking. With the demise of I(nternational D(esign) magazine IDSA’s quarterly magazine, Innovation, is the only (major) magazine published in the US that covers Industrial Design.

We can thank IDSA for a good share of the current buzz around design. Remember when even your parents didn’t know what you did? Not saying other forces haven’t been involved in our current status but let’s give some credit where credit is due.

Sorry, but I think a very clear graph published by IDSA itself says quite a lot more than anecdotal information.

Where the numbers to prove that ISDA has done more to sell design than anyone else? Not saying it hasn’t helped, but I think the attitude that IDSA is so great and infallible is part of the problem. IDSA does have it’s good things, but also a lot of weaknesses.

R

There is no entity that has done more to sell “design” to the corporate boardroom and the general public than IDSA - ever.

This is really true. I agree with it 100% and in my mind it should be the starting point for every conversation about the organization.

I take issue with that. I’ve been an IDSA member for 15 years, and here’s my story: I was the highest ranking designer for an $80 Billion Corporation (Cardinal Health) and was responsible for selling design to the corporate boardroom. IDSA played no role whatsoever, and is unknown to those executives. They were also unfamiliar with IDEA program (I doubt many executives are actually familiar with IDEA, subscribe to BusinessWeek or correlate the two.)

Here’s what did sell design:

  1. The new CEO of Cardinal Health was the #2 at P&G, and had experience working with IDEO on 50+ projects. He brought that experience with him and educated his peers and reports.

  2. Management guru’s like Seth Godin and Tom Peters, who wrote a book on Design that I gave to our executives.

  3. Alan Cooper, author of The Inmates are Running the Asylum which provided a clear path forward for the development organization, and was directly responsible for the creation of my role and hire.

  4. An executive presentation I created after being inspired by a 2005 Fast Company article on Chuck Jones at Whirlpool. In the deck I included case studies that I had to pull together myself, since IDSA didn’t have anything to offer. (Chuck had to create all his own case studies too.) Mine came from Business Week, the Corporate Design Foundation (@Issue magazine) and Harvard Business School. I actually purchased the IDSA “Corporate Design Group Study” that was published in 99 but found it to be worthless due to its impossibly small sample size (I’m guessing that’s why it was never re-done.)

  5. The UK’s Design Council, who has a Design Index that correlates design with shareholder value.

  6. Visits to top ID firms to hear about their case studies and process

  7. My own internal success stories

That’s my story. But I’d like to hear some stories of what IDSA has done to " sell design to the corporate boardroom and the general public," please elaborate!

I did not state that IDSA did everything for everyone at every position in every company but I still can’t think of an organization that has done more. Certainly lots and lots of other people (from Russell Wright to Starck) and other organizations (from APDF to DMI) have made great contributions but have any of them done MORE than IDSA? I don’t think so. I guess I’ll give some more thought.

Ok so i think i’m coming in from a new perspective on all of these, being a student (i believe no one else is, but sorry too many long posts for me to be reading at work). I’m actually the president of the student chapter of IDSA at The University of Cincinnati, so by no means do I represent that national organization. IDSA though has been both a blessing and a curse on me since i joined the student chapter my sophomore year and I’ve been to every Mideast District Conference since so this year will mark my third and have attended local IDSA Souther Ohio Chapter events which puts me as one of the most involved students in our chapter. Currently we’re boasting about 40-50 members which is actually one out of largest years. But in my experience, we as a student chapter run pretty much independently, money is funded by the school and if we don’t have enough we raise it ourselves, events are thought up and organized by about 8-10 of us and everything for our members is completely FREE, we even invite the professionals to our events free of charge. Which is especially sad when the professionals have an event the students have to paid, we even have to pay $50 as a chapter to even be recognized as a student chapter of IDSA. Notice that little blip on the chart under education? if that is meaning put towards events with and for students than there is one of your major problems with IDSA. Shouldn’t we be putting more to educating and nurturing better education in design? To the student chapter our biggest benefit from the national chapter is the ability to go to the conference for a “low” rate. These conferences have been an awesome time to meet and talk with…other students (If anyone was at last years IDSA Mideast Conference the DMZ networking which was suppose to be an event for students and professionals to meet, had about a 15-1 ratio of students/pros). By no means am I saying it’s a bad thing to interact with other students, in fact it’s a great thing. Actually last year at the Mideast Conference the best part was the social that the students organized after conference events at a bar near the hotel. Literally every student was there networking with one another, how much did this cost…nothing, at least for the organization lol. So i digress.

All i’m trying to say is the following…
IDSA is not a ol’ boys club, there is a lot of untapped potential in the younger generations that IDSA is losing once they graduate and lose the student chapter privileges. It’s just become too costly for some, mostly the young professionals. Especially when you then have to pay to attend events that your chapter puts on. Also the politics are ridiculous, why does Ohio have 3 chapters? This has bottled necked us into pretty much exclusively working with the Southern Ohio Chapter, leaving the Central and Northern untapped by my school. Maybe this would be a good opportunity to get the student chapters involved with professionals and make the entire community grow, from listening to what some of the student chapters put on there is a lot of potential to have IDSA grow as a whole.

I’m welcome to any comments or questions. I love my IDSA student chapter and with only a year left, I want to continue to have the awesome time that i’ve had as a student into my professional career with the organization. And thanks for reading and to core for allowing a huge place like this for the design community to communicate.

cg: First of all, thanks for the links and interesting books. I hadn’t heard of some of those. I’ll hit the 'net reading tonight.

Second, I know what you mean about selling design. Here in Canada, we have an association, ADIQ, and a corporate tax credit for hiring IDers. The only business-people I’ve met who were aware of either, already had design departments. They seem to do zero for creating new business.

On the other hand, pushy designers, personal relationships and stories seem to do the trick. How can IDSA learn from that? I don’t know.

I was SHOCKED to find that there wasn’t a resource for me to go to to sell my profession. It took an amazing amount of effort to pull together my presentation. I even contacted Chuck to ask if he could share his Whirlpool deck, and he politely declined due to it’s proprietary nature. Understandable, and exactly why a professional organization should be providing those types of tools to it’s members.

Here’s a little test to prove my point: Pick any great design case study that you’d use to sell your profession to management. Google it. What do the search results tell you about who’s really advocating our profession?

I know this discussion contains some touchy stuff, but I have to say the amount of information from both sides has been awesome.

CG, that is an awesome story.

Michelle Marco and Warren, thanks for continuing to be a part of this discussion. It wouldn’t be one without you.

a few key take aways I’m getting from this is that:

  1. it seems that most everyone is pretty passionate about there being a strong national design org. (that is good news for IDSA)
  2. the folks at the IDSA put a lot into the organization (without a doubt)
  3. IDSA has a huge relations problem with some of it’s core base demographic (is the surmountable?)


    Did I miss any of the other key points? Maybe we can recap a bit?

I’m feeling very emotional right now.

cg, have you ever asked yourself why others who went through exactly what you did never vounteered their results?
Did you ever consider offering your pitch to the IDSA?
Ever present it at a conference for others to benefit from?

this is the crux to why there’s no “meat” to their magazine or conferences. everything designers learn that gives them an advantage in the job market - they keep to themselves. Think back to the days of “Innovation” as a buzzword. Big name consultancies were selling lectures and books on the subject that were nothing more than sales pitches for thier service. right?

as has been repeated, the organization is only what the members contribute, and no-one is giving up the goods.

For reference to an institution that I think works very well and has a great reputation, you might want to check out The Design Exchange. It’s not a professional organization per se (though there is membership at various levels), but functions to represent design to both the public, business and designers. The DX to note is also a Charitable Organization and receives no grants instead relies on support from individuals and corporate partners.

http://www.dx.org

They do some really amazing programs which I have been fortunate to be a part of of.

What I think is the most interesting thing is that there is equal “ownership” of the institution by designs and the public alike. In this way it is even more effective at communicating the need for good design to industry.

Some of the interesting things they do-

  1. Designers in the Classroom. Brings designers into secondary schools to teach design to kids 3-10.
  2. High school design competitions (I will be a judge for the next one in April)
  3. March break and summer design camps for kids
  4. Canadian Business Hall of Fame in partnershp with Junior Achievement design Charettes for University level designers across all disciplines (again I participated in this)
  5. DX Awards which are done with a National Business Newspaper (sorta like the IDEA awards but even moreso focused on the resulting business success through good design)
  6. Many lectures, workshops, galas, etc.
  7. They have a physical space, so also are open to the public as a design museum
  8. They also administer the National Archives of Design (again, I’m a board member) which preserves the history of Design in Canada
  9. I believe they also have a direct connection to government and a stake in making design policy

To me, their model is what I think IDSA should become.

  1. By becoming more cross discipline, I think it does not water down ID, but rather makes it more relevant. As we know, ID today can include anything from traditional consumer products to footwear, fashion, UX, POP, graphics etc.

  2. By becoming an organization that the public, business or design advocates can join, it makes the case to relate design to business and the public all the more effective and relevant. It also helps subsidize professional activities since they bring in revenue from the general public.

  3. By being more involved with students at levels lower than university (let’s start in kindergarden!) it makes the education and promotion of design more ingrained in the public dialog and could generate a whole new generation of designers. Why wait until they are in university and already know they want to be a designer? Grab them when they are young and I guarantee you will see more and more youngsters want to be designers, earlier and earlier.

Ok, that’s my pitch. But seriously, check out the DX link. If they can do so much, not even being a national organization and having a physical exhibition space sure the IDSA can get some more traction if a different mandate and operating procedure where perhaps considered. The DX to note is also a Charitable Organization and receives no grants.

R

Their mandate -

What is design?
Design is an important component of our everyday lives. Product design, package design, brand and corporate identity, retail design, book and brochure design, interactive design (software, interactive information, interfaces), and design of buildings and environments represent the spheres of influence of design on our lives. The design disciplines of concentration for the DX include:


Architecture
Fashion Design
Urban Design
Industrial Design
Landscape Architecture
Environmental Design


Graphic Design and Visual Communications
Engineering Design
Theatre and Set Design
Interior Design
Interactive Media Design
Our mission
To promote the value of Canadian design, through engaging and enriching programs.

Our vision
“Canada by Design” to establish Canada as a design leader worldwide.

Our guiding principles

  1. Leveraging the Power of Design: Design has the power to create and sustain economic advantage for Canada and the role of the Design Exchange is to promote and leverage the value of design-led thinking to enable the business community to take full advantage of the opportunities that good design creates.

  2. Establishing a Cohesive Design Sector Workforce: The role of the Design Exchange is to encourage and create incentives for design professionals from all disciplines to work together, across disciplines, in order to more efficiently and more effectively serve the needs of our business and social communities and to create competitive advantage.

  3. Promoting Design Excellence: The concept of good design involves a strategic and creative process that integrates technical, functional, aesthetic, cultural and economic considerations. The Design Exchange facilitates new collaborative efforts to produce good Canadian design and promotes and celebrates Canadian design success stories.

  4. Showcasing Good Design: The Design Exchange is North America’s premier Design Centre with exhibition, presentation and meeting space to showcase the best in design and to host public and private forums on design issues.

  5. Connecting Through Networks: The Design Exchange builds links between education, business, designers, and the public through its programs, which outreach to national and international audiences.

DX goals
To be recognized internationally as a center of design excellence for Canada.

To build a Canadian brand identity, nationally and internationally.

To offer DX programs and services locally, provincially and nationally.

To operate efficiently and effectively with a stable financial platform.

Our values
We value design excellence for all segments of the Canadian population.

We value designers and the design process across every discipline.

We value the role and power of design in the Canadian economy.

We value design’s contribution to quality of life for Canadians.

We value collaboration and interactivity between the DX and all Canadians.

We value the contribution of youth education programs to our future.

We value creativity and innovation.

hugs cg

Well put. I applaud CG and what he had to do out of necessity. That’s precisely the kind of story I plan to bring up at the next board meeting. (In fact, a lot of this thread will be brought up at the next meeting and on our internal wiki.)

You’re getting at the core of the challenge we face: That precious content that you poured your blood, sweat and tears into is exactly what we need to be aggregating and delivering at IDSA. But here’s the rub: Exactly who is going to generate all that content? The paid IDSA staff? Despite all the wonderful work they do keeping IDSA and its event running, they’re not industrial designers (with the exception of Clive). They don’t know what you know (nor are they expected to). We depend on our volunteers for that content; the staff is just there to make sure that it get organized and is made available to the membership.

Unfortunately, we’re in a a bit of a catch-22 here: Many question the value of IDSA due to its lack of content, but we need the content to attract members to generate or at least aggregate… content. Plus, we need to “close the feedback loop” so everyone, members and non-members alike, can voice those needs and be heard. Maybe we could have put together a group to help CG create this presentation. Maybe we could get him some funding… Anything’s possible, but I’m just reacting after the fact. I’d like to be on the front side of these things if possible so we can do something positive.

So it’s not an unreasonable question to ask CG: As a 15 year member of IDSA, have you considering allowing IDSA to publish your pitch? It sounds amazing and would extremely helpful to your colleagues. I know from my standpoint, you’d be a hero amongst your peers and we would be eternally grateful for your contribution.

What do you say?

I can’t for the exact same reason that Chuck Jones couldn’t–it’s proprietary to my employer. And it’s 5 years out of date. I did it for their benefit on their dime. That’s why I said IDSA should be providing this type of content that we can’t share amongst ourselves.

If I could share, I’d likely think to post it on my website and link to it from the Core77 blog for maximum exposure.

@No Spec and Warren, This strikes me as odd: and correct me if I’m getting this wrong, but we need to pay for an organization to volunteer content to so they can sell the idea of organization and get more people to volunteer content? Seems like a tough sell there. What is the service that the IDSA would be providing in that situation that say Dexigner.com isn’t?

I agree, giving content for IDSA to make money on (either directly selling it or indirectly via memberships) doesn’t sounds like a very good deal to me.

Perhaps it could flipped around. People already generate tons of content through blogs, books (like Yo’s for example), courses (I’ve done a few for example that I could see being of value to others)…maybe what could work is if IDSA partnered with something like Blurb.com or Lulu.com and then authors could have their work published, under an IDSA “label”, still own the content, and receive a major portion of the revenue. IDSA would get a small bit, but more importantly IDSA would be “distributing” the content and have their name attached to good stuff. The content would be available to both members and non-members, and perhaps even a special discount could apply to members (though I think it is better to be equally priced for all). IDSA needs to forget about the quick cashgrab (ie. I saw those case studies on Catalyst still cost $$), and concentrate more on being the go to place for good design content. Revenue can come later or in different ways, but fundamental information and useful publications should be accessible for all, otherwise people will just go elsewhere.

Think of how many design books are published every year independently or from publishing houses like Taschen and Phaidon. IDSA could be OWNING this market if they use their brand to aggregate all kinds of stuff and put their stamp of approval on it!

Think about it - an easy stream for example for good value and revenue could even be to create the ultimate portfolio printing service! Or how about publishing a final year’s school exhibition in print or online. If IDSA was the goto source for things like this, every student would know about IDSA and have an easy entry…

In fact, just thinking about this kind of stuff (I’m making it up as I type) is actually very exciting. There are so many possibilities. Perhaps the next IDSA conference should just be a design charette about what the organization could/should be. I’d bet with 50-100 designers in one room for one day (with a few beers) the results would be amazing! It could even be a virtual conversation like this is.

R

several years ago there was a thread about blogging that started something like: out of a hundred people, 1 percent generate content, 10 will respond, and the rest just read. This is what I’m saying is the problem.

IDSA can either screen and recruit that 1 percent somehow or, find a compelling way to convince designers not to ask what IDSA can do for them, but what can they do for IDSA.

I think that ratio holds true.

@R, that would be pretty awesome.