It's always fun to talk about design, especially in this forum. All the design lovers live here, and we get to see the full spectrum of opinion. But one thing I have noticed is that there is very little discussion about how to sell design. In an economy like the one we have today, selling design is certainly high on every designer's mind. But you are not going to hear many substantive comments made on this subject, because most architects are working for firms, and firms don't want to share their secrets, they don't want to aid the competition, and they certainly can't share their war stories. So how design is actually sold is rarely a very public conversation.
I suppose the best source of information is probably going to come from retired hands who have been through it all and are no longer at risk. Then, there are those lucky architects who get to sit on the owner's side of the table during the big sales pitch. They get to be the fly on the wall that we all wish we could be. The truth is, a lot of firms have some pretty creative talent in-house, but they don't necessarily properly utilize their artistic talent to make themselves look as good as they should in a marketing effort. To be perfectly honest, it's often their own marketing department that stands in the way of progress. Put a designer in a room with a marketing leader, and see how disjointed the conversation will be. One is highly visual, the other is overly verbal, and never the twain shall meet.
I have invested years of time putting together my book "Principles of Creativity," which should be available on Amazon in the next month or two. The delays have been so numerous that it is literally catching up with my next book on the marketing of design. When I was putting together my theory based research on how design functions, I gradually came to realize how little is being said about how to sell design skill, and how to use design skill to boost all of other skills sets a particular architecture firm is trying to market. I suppose what I did was separate my work between theory and application. My first book is more pure design theory while the second is more focused on real application of actual design management.
I've always felt that a designer needs to have a theoretical base to truly be any good at what they do. So for me, starting with theory is the natural starting point. Then the application gets to be much easier. No matter where you stand as a designer, there is one reality you can never escape. You have to learn how to verbalize what it is you really do - for you own sake, and for the sake of the sales pitch as well. If all you have is a 'pretty picture, then you are left with that old Honda slogan: 'the design that sells itself.' You had better hope it can if you don't know how to talk about it.
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Rich Farris, AIA
Architect
Dallas, Texas
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