and marketing, is a strategic function of a company, the success of a studio which incorporates all of that into its work should not be surprising.

Gigodesign is the most well-known design studio in Slovenia; how do you maintain your advantage over the competition?
We are particularly concerned with the quality of a project; all the criteria in the studio are subordinate to that, including the organisation of implementation and staff knowledge. We aim to identify essential problems, which we try to solve comprehensively. And that is why we have several experts from different fields, from product design, communications, web solutions and service design. We have our own approach to managing projects and consulting in the field of design management. The results are multidisciplinary. The quality of solutions is recognised by a growing number of companies, which after their first experience usually continue their cooperation with us. It means that we work well and that the cooperation has positive economic effects.

Which of the products that you have designed are you most proud of?
We do not evaluate results so much in terms of the product but in terms of its impact on the users’ experience or the value of a brand. We are also interested in how a project promotes innovation culture in the company we are working for. These additional factors are more important, and we are mostly proud of projects that have affected and changed business models, promoted innovation culture and established design as a key strategic factor in companies’ competitiveness.

Which project is engaging most of your attention at present?
Projects vary, and so does the timeframe for their implementation. We are working simultaneously on several projects, which enter and exit different development phases; some are in the initial concept design phase, others in prototype phase and some are being launched on the market. We also work continuously on our own development, which includes projects such as the management of the Competence Centre for Design Management and the design accelerator project, Design Forward. We have been cooperating with some clients for over a decade, and such cooperation is naturally different from the clients with whom we are working for the first time.

We are currently finishing a new LED floodlight for Intra Lighting; a ski boot for Alpina is in the second prototype phase, and we are making corrections for Adria Mobil of Novo mesto after this year’s first presentation of the collection to distributors. We are in the initial concept design of a project for an Italian client and we have several very interesting projects with very young companies. We have been successful in two tenders recently, so we are focusing our attention on projects for Gorenje and Droga Kolinska.

How important is design for the sales of a product and how frequently should the design change to keep the product competitive?
That is a good question: it defines the issue of understanding the field of design. Regardless of the meaning of the word design, the design of a product is the result of planning the technological, marketing and particularly user factors, both functional and emotional, among which I refer to the aesthetic side of a product, which is less the result of subjective aesthetic criteria than of our experience as users of a product throughout its lifespan, from distribution, purchase, purpose and use, and frequently also when the product is no longer in use and we wonder about its impact on the environment after it is discarded. That is why the design process addresses not only the appearance of the product, but is included in the initial development phases, and affects the product’s interaction with the user to a great extent. Steve Jobs simplified this when he said, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works”. And that is absolutely true.

From which it can be concluded that, in addition to innovation and marketing, design is a strategic function in a company.
If design does not have a strategic function in a company, the company is not worth investing in. For example, just look at what is happening in traditional industries. All those sectors which did not, or do not, invest in the differentiation of products and services and in the development of their own brand, which also signifies an independent position in the market, are gone or will soon disappear. Slovenian industry is primarily organised for supplying or subcontracting, which is reliant solely on the expectation of new orders, and thus competes only in terms of labour costs, i.e. human and technological factors. This is the role of a follower with low added value. Since much has been said about the wood industry recently, this is a good example. Until the industry develops products that are better and also different, smarter, more practical and responsive to modern needs, it will not overcome the crisis. These products are no longer created by technologists in companies’ development departments, but with an analytical approach to the market, the monitoring of social and commercial trends and the creation of new user needs. Those companies that are stripped of everything due to bad business decisions, that lack managerial knowledge and are incorporated into the mentality of the local market do not recognise this, and the revitalisation of these industries will not be achieved without thoughtful strategies.

What is a good ratio between innovation and promotion; which deserves more investment in your opinion?
That depends on the sectors in which a company is working, of course; however, good innovative products achieve the same level of recognisability in the market with far lower costs than the usual advertising media, which means that investment should be directed particularly towards developing innovative products, and the numerous modern marketing approaches should be exploited as well.
The ratio, which was distinctively on the side of advertising in the 1990s, is gradually moving towards the development of innovative products, also because many companies which did not understand this trend, no longer exist.

How do you get to know the user of the product that you design and how does this affect the design?
Due to very different projects and tasks, we must learn fast. As a rule, we receive basic information in the form of project starting points. We also form our own view on the basis of trends in the industry, which we review, and try to remain equally critical of all incoming information. In the first phases of the concept project, we tend to cooperate with experts and wish to acquire the key competitive factors to make a product successful; if we can, we experiment and test concepts, which means that if something does not work, we start again.

Do you think design can influence the transformation of a company?
Of course. That has happened several times. It is all a matter of the first positive experience, trust and well-informed owners or leading management. The organisation of the company and focus on business goals are thus conditions for including design in the company’s business processes. Companies undergoing ownership transformation or with interests of a non-business nature do not recognise the strategic role of design. This is understandable, since such strategic directions produce results several years’ later and are not useful for resolving the current crisis. Incorporating the design approach is an important strategic factor for increasing the competitiveness of the economy and also for the efficient transformation of public administration (which is an important trend in some developed economies in the EU). We therefore need a ‘policy of creativity’, as we do not have such a policy yet. A good example of a transformation from a lagging post-socialist country into one of the most quickly advancing countries is Estonia. In 2007, it ventured on the path of transforming its economy into a model of creative economy, with an analysis of the state of its creative potential, the aid of its Scandinavian partners and a strategy. Five years later, it has proven that the national development model was correct.

The lack of information among opinion makers and the lack of successful businesspeople do not provide conditions for the development of strategies (such as in Estonia), which include design among other important development factors for improving economic competitiveness and social stability. I want the role of the country as an accelerator of design development and as a promotional mediator to be enhanced. Strategies and measures used by other countries can serve as examples. Nevertheless, certain movements in individual tenders, grants and initiatives can be noticed at certain ministries.

Comparing foreign products with regard to design, are we being overtaken by foreign trends or are we keeping up with the times, developing strategies, increasing competitiveness, introducing new methodologies and tools?
Two extremes can be noticed: on the one hand, there are companies which in all design management fields are equal competitors in more developed foreign markets; these include extremely advanced and sensitive young start-up micro companies. The other extreme is represented by a rigid public sector unprepared for restructuring, and companies experiencing increasing problems, including several state-owned companies and local self-government. It is important to start preparing the conditions to develop efficient strategies (particularly for service design) and the application of new methodologies or tools, which would reveal the strategic significance of this field also in the public sector.

Does Slovenia have enough high-quality designers?
To a certain extent the quality of designers is the result of the environment and conditions for obtaining education and experience in implementing high-quality projects. Slovenia has established a basic level, which provides the conditions for the development of good designers. However, Slovenia is not on the list of countries where this quality can be attained.

The DsgnFwd Design Accelerator has opened in Ljubljana. What is it about?
DsgnFwd Design Accelerator (https://www.dsgnfwd.com) invests in companies in the early development stages, in so-called start-ups, in order to help in their development and the launching of potential globally successful companies. The accelerator is intended for companies which wish to enter global markets and are prepared to accept and apply the ‘lean start-up’ development methodology originating in Silicon Valley, combined with integral design as understood by Gigodesign.

The accelerator was established in cooperation with two partners, Robert Antunovič, a serial entrepreneur and investor from Boulder, USA, and RSG Capital, a venture-capital management company. An individual company is offered 10,000 euros in cash, 10,000 euros’ worth of design services and 100 days at our premises in return for a 10 per cent share in the company.

The objective of the programme is to enable the development and launching of a product and a brand within 100 days on a professional level to a degree suitable for market validation and for performing the validation. If the product and the brand receive a positive response from the market, we also help in providing further financing and development.

Vesna Žarkovič, SINFO