This is the presentation I gave at the Association for Professional Design Firms in Portland in May of 2009.

1. The Future of Design:
Meaning and Sustainability
May Change Everything
Nathan Shedroff
May 2009

2. DESIGN SUSTAINABILITY
BUSINESS

3. DESIGN SUSTAINABILITY
• Increased awareness & • Increased awareness
respect in the business • Increased prices
world • Increased transparency
• Increased integration in BUSINESS
academia • Increased competition
• Increased documentation (globally & locally)
• Increased desire for
innovation
• Economic crisis
• Ubiquity in techniques

4. DESIGN SUSTAINABILITY
BUSINESS

5. DESIGN SUSTAINABILITY
EXPERIENCE
BUSINESS

6. DESIGN SUSTAINABILITY
MEANING
EXPERIENCE
BUSINESS

7. What are the pressing questions
for our industries for these times?

8. What are the pressing answers
for our industries for these times?

9. What’s a more sustainable world look like?

10. “In a stable economy,
sustainability is the competitive
advantage strategy.
In a down economy, sustainability
is the turnaround strategy.
In a collapse, sustainability is a
survival strategy.”
Hunter Lovins, 2009

11. MONEY
SOCIAL JUSTICE
NATURAL
RESOURCES

12. The Aeschlimans, 1948

18. We need:
Think in systems
New conversations with our clients
A focus on efficiency, value, and health
A focus on services/benefits, not products
Better assessment tools & metrics
More transparency & accountability
Engage diverse stakeholders
Work in multidisciplinary teams
Redefine “conservative”

19. Tools:
Sustainability Helix
Integrate Bottom Line
Okala™ Curriculum
sustainableminds.com
www.eiolca.net
www.nationalgeographic.com/greendex

20. Sustainability Helix
Governance and Management Stakeholders & Communities
Operations and Facilities
Design and Process Innovation
Human Resources and Corporate Culture High degree of organizational alignment
Marketing and Communications
Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement
Stage 0: Stage 1: Stage 2: Stage 3: Stage 4:
Unsustainable Exploration Experimentation Leadership Restoration
“Business as Usual”

21. What’s more meaningful world look like?

24. Price/Value
Commodity Product Service Experience
From: The Experience Economy, Pine and Gilmore

25. Price/Value
Experience
Commodity Product Service Event/Environment

26. Duration
Initiation
Immersion
Intensity
Conclusion
Reflex
Continuation
Habit
Triggers
Engagement
Senses:
Sight
Sound
Smell
Taste
Breadth
Touch
Product
Cognitive: Service
Concepts
Brand
Symbols
Name(s)
Channel/Environment
(Space)
Promotion
Price
Interaction
Passive Significance
Active Meaning
Interactive Status/Identity
Emotion/Lifestyle
Price
Function

28. Core Meanings:
Accomplishment Harmony
Beauty Justice
Creation Oneness
Community Redemption
Duty Security
Enlightenment Truth
Freedom Validation
Wonder

29. We need to:
Engage diverse stakeholders
Think in systems
Engage customers deeply
Focus on experiences, instead of artifacts
Speak the language of business
Work in multidisciplinary teams

30. Tools:
Meaning Model
Experience Model
makingmeaning.com

31. What’s a post-consumer world look like?

32. In a consumer world:
consumption = happiness

37. We need to:
Think in systems
Engage diverse stakeholders
Work in multidisciplinary teams
Focus on experiences, instead of artifacts
Create new visions of the world
Create new economic models
Create new roles for advertising
Create new corporate charters

38. Tools:
covive.com/gri
grossnationalhappiness.com
B-Corp & Corp2020
???

39. DESIGN SUSTAINABILITY
MEANING
EXPERIENCE
BUSINESS

40. The (new) beginning