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The role of design in the formation of the Silicon Valley ecosystem of innovation.California's Silicon Valley is home to the greatest concentration of designers in the world: corporate design offices at flagship technology companies and volunteers at nonprofit NGOs; global design consultancies and boutique studios; research laboratories and academic design programs. Together they form the interconnected network that is Silicon Valley. Apple products are famously Designed in California, but, as Barry Katz shows in this first-ever, extensively illustrated history, the role of design in Silicon Valley began decades before Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak dreamed up Apple in a garage.
Offering a thoroughly original view of the subject, Katz tells how design helped transform Silicon Valley into the most powerful engine of innovation in the world. From Hewlett-Packard and Ampex in the 1950s to Google and Facebook today, design has provided the bridge between research and development, art and engineering, technical performance and human behavior. Katz traces the origins of all of the leading consultancies including IDEO, frog, and Lunar and shows the process by which some of the world's most influential companies came to place design at the center of their business strategies. At the same time, universities, foundations, and even governments have learned to apply design thinking to their missions. Drawing on unprecedented access to a vast array of primary sources and interviews with nearly every influential design leader including Douglas Engelbart, Steve Jobs, and Don Norman Katz reveals design to be the missing link in Silicon Valley's ecosystem of innovation.
About the author
John Maeda ist ein weltweit gefragter Grafik-Designer und Medienkünstler und zählt zu den führenden Experten zum Thema Einfachheit in der Informationstechnologie. Er ist Professor für Informatik am Media Lab des Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, wo er die Aesthetics + Computation Group gründete und derzeit als Co-Direktor des Physical Language Workshops und des SIMPLICITY-Konsortiums fungiert. Mit zahllosen Preisen ausgezeichnet (etwa: 1994 Japan Multimedia Grand Prix, 1999 Goldmedaille des New York Art Directors Club, 1999 Daimler-Chrysler Design Award, 2005 Lucky Strike Designer Award der Raymond Loewy Foundation) gilt Maeda als Vordenker zum Thema "Simplicity" und zählt laut Esquire zu den 21 bedeutendsten Menschen des 21. Jahrhunderts. In mehreren Büchern hat er bisher seine Philosophie der Humanisierung von Technologie und seine Sichtweisen der digitalen Kunst dargelegt. Maeda wurde 1966 in Seattle als Sohn japanischer Einwanderer geboren.
Summary
The role of design in the formation of the Silicon Valley ecosystem of innovation.California's Silicon Valley is home to the greatest concentration of designers in the world: corporate design offices at flagship technology companies and volunteers at nonprofit NGOs; global design consultancies and boutique studios; research laboratories and academic design programs. Together they form the interconnected network that is Silicon Valley. Apple products are famously “Designed in California,” but, as Barry Katz shows in this first-ever, extensively illustrated history, the role of design in Silicon Valley began decades before Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak dreamed up Apple in a garage.
Offering a thoroughly original view of the subject, Katz tells how design helped transform Silicon Valley into the most powerful engine of innovation in the world. From Hewlett-Packard and Ampex in the 1950s to Google and Facebook today, design has provided the bridge between research and development, art and engineering, technical performance and human behavior. Katz traces the origins of all of the leading consultancies—including IDEO, frog, and Lunar—and shows the process by which some of the world's most influential companies came to place design at the center of their business strategies. At the same time, universities, foundations, and even governments have learned to apply “design thinking” to their missions. Drawing on unprecedented access to a vast array of primary sources and interviews with nearly every influential design leader—including Douglas Engelbart, Steve Jobs, and Don Norman—Katz reveals design to be the missing link in Silicon Valley's ecosystem of innovation.
Report
"Beneath an engaging narrative lies a carefully researched and theoretically grounded understanding of the critical role that design has come to play in the world's most dynamic center of innovation." - Ikujiro Nonaka, Professor Emeritus of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University
