Massachusetts, by design
CASINOS AND biotechnology have been promoted as industries that deserve state investments. But Massachusetts should also invest in another economic engine - design.
Apple's iPhone shows the economic power of good design. But that's only one window on an industry that includes Web, fashion, industrial, and interior design.
"Design is an economic sector that doesn't act like an economic sector," says Beate Becker, project director of Designing an Industry, an initiative launched this year by the Massachusetts College of Art and Design using state and Boston Foundation funds. With an advisory committee of members in government, business, and education, the initiative seeks to raise design's profile.
One challenge is how design melds with technology. An answer comes from Kennedy & Violich Architecture, a Boston firm that has integrated solar-powered light sources into textiles, creating portable, light-emitting cloth that can be shaped as users see fit. The cloth has been tested in rural Mexico, where it has been blended with Mesoamerican weaving traditions. It's light for places that have no electrical gird. The product has also attracted young adults to jobs. After working on the project as a University of Michigan graduate student, Patricia Gruits moved here to work for Kennedy & Violich.
Design can also create unique products for shoppers and keep them spending locally. One example is Vessel, a Boston housewares store, co-owned by Stefane Barbeau, a member of the MassArt advisory committee. He says the industry needs to be more accessible to the public, and that politicians should make design part of their agendas, explicitly noting that design can boost business, which in turn benefits the state.
That state can play many roles: adding more design courses to public college curriculums, and using existing economic development programs to help design companies. Massachusetts could also be a partner in creating new incubators for companies or in hosting a design expo that helps local companies work with international companies to create products such as furniture designed here that's fitted with textiles from abroad.
One such international conversation will happen this morning at MassArt. A representative from the Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority, a government agency, will discuss "concept design," or how design can work with other disciplines such as social science to solve world problems. Among the questions asked in the authority's recent report on concept design are "What's next after gas-guzzling SUVs?" "What does it take to sell water pumps in Africa?" and "What are the greatest challenges faced by kindergartner of the future?"
Given this sweeping potential, the design industry is ripe for sound public investments.
