Maria Stashenko, Organica design

Posted: October 11th, 2010 | Filed under: Speakers | | No Comments »

Maria Stashenko is an expert in design management, Design management course supervisor in BHSAD (British Higher School of Arts and Design, Moscow), academic member of DMI (Design Management Institute, Boston, USA). Founder and director of design consulting company Organica, author of several methods of design research – design audit and visual benchmarking. Her experience includes project management in brand strategy development, design and design research for Nokia, Valio, 3Q, Scarlett, Alcoprime, Europro, Prodo-management and a wide range of FMCG companies. Maria holds international diploma of Anhalt University in marketing management (Germany). Organica is a design consulting company in the sphere of branding and package design, with the competence of design strategy and design processes research in an enterprise.

Transforming design: from object to meaning

Everything was always clear about design – it can be “created”, “developed”, “constructed”. You ask to do it, and it is done for you. But all of the sudden you realize that you don’t know whom to ask for a design – a planning engineer? A constructor? A brand consultant? Or an identity specialist? Everyone is doing design. 20% of company employees might carry “design” title of their business cards. Which of those people will be the author of “our design”? And, generally, why is everything so complicated, and what is “design”?
Players in the field of design are foundations, politicians, summits and individuals. New and unseen before forms of guidance through the evermore complex reality appear as a response to an identity crisis – design consulting companies, service designers, behavior ethnographers. Are those the forces of evil or are they beginnings of a new life? It is time to break the vow of silence and talk about design. About the things hidden below the horizon.