John Heskett begins to slowly bring his introduction to design to a close in chapter 9. This chapter functions by discussing the three areas of contextual influence in design: "the professional organization of design, or how designers view themselves; the business context in which a majority of design practice is located; and, in addition, the level of government policy..." One point that I found to be interesting in this chapter was how design can be thought of as a central function of a company or, simply dispersed throughout. An examples that were given consisted of IBM and the Japanese Matsushita electrical company. Another interesting point was discussed on pg 115 about how design can play a huge role in changing the fortunes of companies such as, for example, Chrysler in the early 90's. Lastly, reading about how design was previously viewed as strictly a very "artsy" field to be involved in in previous decades was very intersting. For many years it was believed that only artists were capable of teaching any aspect of design in schools which further evolved the schools to be even more art oriented.
The last chapter of the short novel, chapter 10, worked well to efficiently wrap everything up and bring it all together with closing ideas. This chapter talks about two recurring themes in the book and what the future of design could look like as far as how it will build and grow on its past. Also considered is the question of what designers of the future will be like. For example, will they "merely be technocrats, devoting their skills to the highest commercial bidder without consideration of the ends they serve...[or] is there instead a dimension of social and environmental purpose requiring acknowledgement in the world?" This chapter leaves many things to think about and proves that there is never an end to the work that can be done in the field of design.
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