Culture defined by the Oxford American Dictionaries:

the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively : 20th century popular culture.
- a refined understanding or appreciation of this : men of culture.
- the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group : Caribbean culture | people from many different cultures.
- [with adj. ] the attitudes and behavior characteristic of a particular social group : the emerging drug culture.

I of course realize that the above descriptions do not in any way give the design profession a lock on the creation of culture. Quite the opposite: everyone has the opportunity to contribute to culture, no matter what station or profession in life.

What I want to talk about is (what, in my experience, I perceive as) the expanding role of the designer — to be able to address broader cultural issues than just 'decoration' or 'production'.

As I mentioned earlier, I am finding myself in many more brand development and brand strategy meetings than ever before. These discussions move far beyond creation of a logo or a package or such related designs. They move into names, meanings, functions, experiences, even aspirations and hopes. For some reason my role as a creator of one sort (design artifacts) is now allowing me to be considered a creator of another sort (a brand experience).

While the creator in me is more than happy to be included in this process, I do find it to one degree or another dissatisfying. The issues that a 'brand' touches on are broad, far-reaching and difficult to control. They involve many many people, perceptions and points of contact. Most importantly these issues involve my design recommendations to the business owner as to 'what I would do'... but 9 times out of 10 it is the business owner who really has to do it, not me. And by the very nature of our roles, the business owner has very different priorities than the designer. Hence a sort of disconnect occurs in the development of the brand identity. It is conceptualized to be one way, and yet becomes another in practice.

It is this dissatisfaction in brand execution that has made me all the more interested in contributing to culture in a more straightforward manner. Create an entire thing – business of the product or service. Its name, its place, its structure, its personality, its look, and so on. In a way that makes me the business owner, primary stakeholder-decisionmaker and designer all at once. This way a true and authentic 'brand' can be created in a truly sustainable fashion — because it develops a true sense of what/who it is. It can flow out of a focussed vision and develop much like one's real personality might... Become its own 'true self'.

This is not to say that brands that follow a different model of creation do not contribute to culture, they most certainly can and do. But I feel that for me personally, the ability to create an authentic experience that is holistically interrelated to a genuine personality (where all facets reflect that core personality) is more likely to affect culture in a positive manner.

But perhaps this leads to a completely different conversation about what influences culture and how...

Am I delusional? Controlling? Egotistical? Or do others of you design professionals share my sentiment?

Please contribute to Widgets & Stone culture:

You're spending way too much time gazing at your naval, aren't there widgets to be made?

As always, thank you for pulling me out of my bellybutton Steve.

Interesting thoughts. I'd like to hear an example of "creating culture" through design from business concept to launch.

I think that the important concept is allowing the brand to flow out of and become it's own true self as you say. I'm not sure there is much authenticity in creating the culture from the start. Somehow it seems seems too manufactured and controlled to be real. Yeah, it may be "focused" and "holistic" but lack genuine personality (no matter how great or tight the design may be).

I can think of a few contrasts to illustrate what could happen when "creating culture" through design: a mall(culture created) vs. downtown in a small town(culture evolved); Washington DC (culture controlled) vs. NYC(culture evolved); Television(culture controlled/created) vs. the Internet(culture allowed to develop unfettered).

I suspect that there needs to be a period of time where the brand grows without much direction and crafting within the business. Ugly, awkward, loud, obnoxious and even at odds with its identity. None the less, this period allows the brand to become authentic and then contribute to culture with an tried and true voice.

Frank, your points of controlled culture vs. evolved culture are good ones. But I think my desire is not to control an entire culture – like a mall – but to control one small facet that contributes to culture – like a store in the mall.

My personal frustration is less about the design at odds or out of sync with the true identity and more about the true identity itself. I think the genuine and consistent is appealing whether it is a person, an organization or a product or place. And I think my desire is to hit on those sorts of things...

I think of Parmigiano Reggiano – it is what it is and the whole world has come to appreciate it, how it is made, who makes it and what the place (Parma) is like...

Does that make any more sense? Less about decorative style, more about substance.

Umm. Sort of I guess. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around an example and how that would contribute substance versus style. The cheese example seems to say to me the opposite of what you're trying to connect to. There's no real brand created, designed, managed and controlled. It's evolved over time to be what it truly is.

Can design create substance or is it relegated to enhancing or decorating a core identity that already exists in a product, person, place, etc?

Oh, I very much beg to differ. Parmiggiano Reggiano is very substantive and very Designed. It really only comes from one source in the whole world in and around Parma, Italy. Mankind made many distinct 'design' decisions that help to create the world famous cheese - not the least of which a culture that would wait for and appreciate a cheese that takes 16-24 months to make. Other very clearly 'design' decisions in the process: raising cattle for milk, raising this particular breed, deciding what to feed them and how the cows 'live' every day, how the milk is cooked, prepared, put in a salt bath for 10-14 days, and then aged.

My point is that any one of these things taken by themselves would seem unsubstantial and insignificant. But someone or more likely some group of people making very distinct decisions - in my mnd, big D 'Design' - on what is made, how it is made and why on earth it is made.

Does that make anymore sense?

Yes, that helps me understand the scope of the word design as you meant it. My understanding of Design was much narrower.