To be sure, design for business impact can be as simple as coming up with new packaging designs for the same product. BreadTalk Group, for example, has taken the Thye Moh Chan brand of Teochew pastries and put the traditional baked goods into contemporary packaging and sold them at higher prices.
SINGAPORE (May 27): Mark Wee, executive director of DesignSingapore Council, is all too familiar with the narrow definition of “design”. Asked what it is, the response from any given audience would typically be “fashion design” or “interior design”.
As head of the government agency helping to develop Singapore’s design sector, Wee is now on a mission to demystify the approach to design and show that there is a wider meaning and deeper purpose to design than just aesthetics. “Design can be extremely strategic in creating a new value,” says Wee in an interview with The Edge Singapore. “Many companies globally are already using design to create differentiated value to be competitive.”
