Arnell Group did the design of the new Tropicana package.  Seems like a lot of people hate it, so much that they are going back to the old design. Designers like it, most of my non designer friends don’t.  Arnell in ID Magazine seems to think that the client made the wrong call saying “you (consumer) like Grovestand, and they (Tropicana) didnt want to do it anymore. So you went to the store to get Grovestand and it wasn’t there. What does that have to do with design?”  He claims this is a “shopability” issue, not design.  I wonder if he had the insight to make a point to the client that us consumers liked Grovestand BEFORE he got paid?  I’m sure he got paid quite a bit for that work, IF Arnell said, ‘hey we think the consumers want Grovestand, so we’ll save you a lot of money, not do the work, but charge you 50% of the proposed fees for the advice!”

In the end, the clients ARE responsible for making decisions, regardless of what famous consultant is providing the advice.  That’s a big part of why I’m getting a taste of being the client…I know that I have the ultimate responsibility and accountability for decisions that get made, regardless of who might be whispering in my ear.

Google this, lots of passionate dialog on this.

Hundreds say something like this: “NameHere is a product development consultancy focused on design, strategy, market, user interface and research, industrial design and engineering.” Some are a bit more poetic. “…user desires, business needs, design vision…” Below are the more unique entries I’ve found:

DESIGNERS

John Maeda – “Simplicity”
Ross Lovegrove – “Organic minimalism”
Santiago Calatrava – “Repetition…” (because nature often works in patterns) designer of the Chicago Spire

CONSULTANCIES

Ammunition – “Don’t play the game, change the game…Loaded”
Astro - “We create supercharged products and brands”
frogdesign – “form follows emotion”
Fuseproject – “Design brings stories to life”
Lunar Design – “Creativity that makes a difference”
New Deal Design – Get Real
Smart Design, 11 Design – (roughly) Making people’s lives better.
Teague – “…establishing perspective.”

CORPORATIONS

Krups – “Passion, Precision, Perfection”
Philips – “Sense and Simplicity”
Porsche Design – “The Engineers of Passion. Pure, functional and technically innovative”

(ok, i’m just starting this list, if you got some interesting ones for me to add, post a reply)