Design strategy and management are very important. While we engage in activities with a variety of planned actions aimed at the needs of near and far periods with the strategy, we also try to create a market with products or services that we will develop by identifying needs with innovative thinking methods with the design itself.
Sertaç Ersayın is an international industrial design guru raised by our country. He graduated from METU Industrial Design Department, Faculty of Architecture, in 1988. He also received an MBA in Strategic Management Coaching and Leadership at Koç University in 2007. As a business experience, he was the Head of Design and Design Manager in Turkey’s giant organizations. He is a Board Member of the World Design Organisation (WDO), Chairman of Industrial Designers’ Society of Turkey and Chairman of Creative Industries. He has over 300 competitions and over 30 awards in Turkey and around the world, of which he is a judge.
What do we need to understand when it comes to Design and Industrial Design? Firstly, could you draw us a frame of this?
The word design and design naturally has meaning and meanings. But sometimes we can define it as an action created. As an industrial designer, when we evaluate this meaning, it is necessary to evaluate the different concepts that come across. It is important to have an approach based on the development, design of products and services produced by industrial methods, and the fact that all these solutions are for human beings. Design is an area where change, innovation, and original products and solutions need to be evaluated strategically to meet the real need. It is an area that needs to be well managed, with a number of creative actions and decisions within it, which makes it necessary to anticipate the possible demands and expectations of tomorrow while focusing on today’s needs. Local, national and institutional developments, change the most important design means sometimes in some cases with what we, users and listeners understand.
Everything has a strategy; Communication strategy, growth strategy, crisis solving strategy etc… Could you tell us about the design strategy and its importance?
Design strategy and management are very important. While we engage in activities with a variety of planned actions aimed at the needs of near and far periods with the strategy, we also try to create a market with products or services that we will develop by identifying needs with innovative thinking methods with the design itself. If design strategy and corporate strategy cannot talk to each other and mutually understand each other, it is not possible to move efficiently towards a solution around this issue. I would like to bring this up by drawing attention to the difference between OEM and ODM production. Those who can strategically manage the design are those who have created their motivation to invest in their original products and improve efficiency. Resource management, platform management, optimization, design and brand, the relationship between hierarchies, Market, competitors, users and user experiences, new technologies, sociological, and cultural expectations and many others at the same time many concepts, such as interpret, create solutions, and also solutions efficiently to reflect this strategy will bring success.
You are on the board of the World Design Organization and you preside and take active roles in many similar local and global NGOs related to design. Is it the same as what we understand by design as the world understands from design?
When we bring together innovative decisions and solutions that will minimize sustainable development, creating a clean environment and nature, responsible production and consumption, efficient use of energy resources, pollution, inefficiency, and all kinds of inequalities with the design top title, we can see the goal and power of design even more easily. 7 of UN’S 17 SDGs are also very strategic and important for wdo ( World Design Organization). In different geographies of our great world, on different continents, there may be differences in how design is handled on national basis. But none of the different methods reduce the value of the design. Similar differences exist between Japan and China, such as differences between the Southeast Asian model and India. WDO brings all the differences and needs into consideration, from Canada to look globally. Competitions, government policies, education strategies, industry utilization rates, budget size in all these details
Based on the value added and efficiency examples provided by Industrial Design, what do you recommend to the Textile and Ready-to-wear sector in particular? As our companies and as a country, how should we take measures, what should we invest in, what issues should we focus on?
I recommend that they compete with their own brands and collections, especially in the textile and ready-to-wear sector. I recommend that they return from OEM to ODM in a strategy and goal, or turn to increasing the proportion of their own collections within the OEM product portfolio. I also suggest that they hold a search meeting together about the stages of the office furniture sector and how they manage the system designs and large product pieces and portfolio. I suggest that they plan a position with experience and style from a price-oriented structure that works in front of trends and orientations, creating its own style and style, revealing the expectations of textiles and ready-made clothing , especially based on culture, demography and style
With the pandemic process, a complete global change and transformation process started. As one of the leading Industrial Designers of the world, could you evaluate what kind of future awaits us? What has the pandemic changed, what will it change, what will it not be able to change?
This question is a Frequently Asked Question nowadays. We all know that our world has changed rapidly, especially over the last 40 years. In particular, there are important developments, new Technologies and new products. Information is always available, and the world is digitally integrated. I am leading Asia Pacific in the Covid 19 project that we are running with WDO, IBM and Design for America. I see the same feelings and shared experiences in about 40 cities where we work together simultaneously. We’re all at home, we’re all having the same problem. We have seen that Bombay and California, Milan and Istanbul, Brussels and Taipei have the same problems. Actually, we saw that we all live in the same house. No matter where we are, our common problem has brought us all together. It has reminded us that our problems are common.
First, representatives of the creative industries came together globally and established initiative groups and social networks. They focused on solutions through interdisciplinary collaboration in these social networks. Such rapid collaborations were those that gave hope for the future. The pandemic has shown us that people need each other and human contact and hugging are important. I think these were the immutable consequences of this period. In developing countries, we have also seen results such as increased online trade, decreased cash transfer rate, development of logistics and service sector, increased digital entertainment sectors, credit card usage rates and changes in consumption habits in many areas.
uring this period, it is necessary to analyze many different developments, such as the fact that the product sold at least is a suitcase, and the product whose sales growth rate increases the fastest is a bread making machine. While the value of technology-based companies has increased, many different industries lost valuable portions of their turnover. We also know that our global and common problem pushes us towards more responsible production and more responsible consumption. We have also seen the fact that the Medical industry will be stronger in our lives, white goods, textiles, furniture and many industries will be in cooperation with the medical industry.
We live in change, our paradigms are changing. We are at a time when change is rapidly being embraced. Artificial intelligence, Internet of things, data analysis are now among the disciplines in which more design and creative industries will collaborate than ever before. Travel restrictions, which started during the pandemic period, caused significant changes in the supply chain of canceled flights. In this period when everyone returned home, itwas also necessary for the production industry to return home within the framework of regional needs. We will encounter more regional eco-systems formed by the main industry and auxiliary industries in the nearby geographies. We have to manage the factories that you cannot travel or visit more efficiently due to reduced mobility. The manufacturing industry, designers and project developers, buyers, as well as those who demand technology, products, and developers will now come together on different digital platforms.