Latin American markets as design labs
Abstract
With the emergence of dynamic consumer markets in Latin America, such as those in Brazil and Mexico, designing and marketing goods and services has become more complex than ever. As a way of engaging with these intellectually-demanding projects, research-oriented designers choose to sell their expertise through consulting services. Because most universities in Latin America do not have access to these complex design projects, they lose the capacity to attract highly-qualified designers who have research interests. Consequently, in Latin America, strategic design consulting firms, not universities, are leading the research and development of new design tools, methods, and processes. However, because they lack incentives for sharing their know-how, consulting firms do not invest in transferring lessons learned. Nevertheless, this can be improved if design schools in Latin America can partner with consulting firms to develop, experiment, and diffuse new design techniques and strategies that can be used by design consultants when confronting demanding projects. This study aims to discuss the scope and feasibility of such a partnership.
Key words: design knowledge, Latin America, innovation, laboratory.Downloads
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