Design Management & Organisation

After last Wednesday’s lecture and workshop by Franci Wessels about company/brand identity and positioning, today we had a lecture about design management by Joffrey Walonker, the Design Manager at Royal VKB.

Design management is a very interesting discipline, one that gives direction to brands and their design, creating coherence in product families and generally improving a brand’s performance and increasing its long term viability. Design management is a comprehensive activity that applies at all levels of business, throughout every stage of the product and its development. The strategic approach and effect design management has on a brand and its products is quite fascinating, and the value of design management cannot be denied.

I quite like being aware of all the intricate connections involved in the process of design management: keeping that macro view in order to create a better brand and thus a better product. I’m already looking forward to the next week’s lecture by Mark van Iterson, Manager Global Heineken Design & Concept.