Design 2.0: Robyn Waters

Robyn Waters is the founder of trend consulting company RW Trend, and before that was the VP of Design for Target. She believes that “good taste and great design don’t have to be expensive”. Target’s strategy of differentiation through design has allowed it to compete successfully against behemoth Walmart.

The 3H design theory

HEAD need
HANDBAG value
HEART love, want
Most people go to Target with a $10 list, yet people end up spending more than $100. That’s the effect of the Heart.

Trends and desires

“Trend are signposts pointing to what is going on in the hearts and minds of consumers”.
The key is to figure out what’s important, not just what’s next. The best example of this philosophy is Philippe Starck’s sippy cup, pictured above. Target executives were skeptical, after all a sippy cup isn’t supposed to have a stem and look like crystal glass. Starck insisted and pushed the design through, convinced that every little girl should feel like a princess. Lo and behold, it was a tremendous success, with the $3 cups now selling for $100 on eBay. Other examples of trend-aware design abound, such as LG’s cellphone with a Qiblah (pointer to Mecca), or this Prada perfume bottle design inspired by the 30s and 40s.

Left brain, right brain, and the creative process

Robyn used the above diagram to explain the creative process to Target executives, which was apparently no easy task. While numbers are useful as a research tool and a success metric, not everything can be measured – you have to leave room for the right brain to operate, the incubation period. It is through a combination of left and right brain thinking that you arrive at illumination.

Various quotes

“The hear has its reason, of which reason knows nothing” – Pascal
“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts” – Einstein
“Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is important, but what they hide is crucial” – W. C. Fields
“When opposites supplement each other, everything is harmonious” – Lao Tzu
“Growth is a creative process, not an accounting process” – Robert Redford
“The art form of our busines is intuition” – James Sinegal, CEO CostCo, on how his company is about more than just penny-savings, it’s about a ‘treasure hunt’.