The Impact of Design

Statistics say that the initial design of a space drives 85% of the capital cost of the space and 100% of the occupancy cost of the space. However, design costs less than 5% of the capital cost and less than .33% of the occupancy costs. I had to think about this for a long while, letting it sink in. Basically, the impact of design is huge but the price/cost of design is not so huge. Wouldn't this lend you to think that spending a bit more money on design would make sense since you could maybe decrease your other costs substantially by using better design?

I have been watching art and design and their impact on the world my whole life. I could go on and on and on about it but there is a small part of this big topic that interests me greatly. The public schools that our kids go to have cut and cut to the point where art and design no longer exist as important educational topics. They are not considered basic educational needs and in order to keep math and English in the schools, our kids are doing without art and design. So, it goes to say that we are raising generations of kids that have never really been educated in design or art and some really have not exposure to art and design. As these kids grow up and become heads of companies, they are missing design and art as core understandings unless they miraculously are interested or have taken a college course in art. Therefore, the ones that are controlling the big corporate dollars are not spending or wanting to spend money on design because they may not know the impact?

The world certainly sees good design and bad design every day. Design is everywhere but is it noticed as design or just image. The Apple Stores - nice design right? It effects your experience right? I walked into the UTC Apple Store last week and was astounded by the design. This isn't even one of their flagship masterpieces and it was cool. A guy in flip flops helped me buy a time capsule in under 3 minutes, emailing me the receipt and sticking a cool little sticker that said "lucky you" so the guard at the door knew I had bought the product. All of that is customer experience and all of it is based on good design. Look at your experience walking into WalMart versus Costco. Totally different set ups, totally different designs. Does it affect you? Why does my husband like going to Costco so much, and I am sure that he is not the only guy that actually likes going to Costco.

When you walk into a workplace, you have an initial reaction - it may be about the aesthetics, the colors, the design, the smell or lots of other stuff. But you always have a reaction. This reaction effects how the business attracts workers, how the business succeeds or fails and whether the business functions effectively or not. Integrating good design, which includes sustainable practices does affect the bottom line - and it doesn't cost a fraction of what other things cost.