Last year however, American Apparel teamed up with Lookbook.nu, an online site where everyday people can upload their “look”- people vote, you gain style credit, and your photo can end up on Lookbook’s homepage. In a sort of online contest, American Apparel and Lookbook asked the site’s members to submit styles featuring American Apparel clothing and the winning “looks” would be featured in a book available free in stores an online to customers.

After sifting through entries, the company chose 132 looks from 77 Lookbook members. The irony? All the winning looks are more tasteful, subdued, and less sexy than their usual adds. When asked why the change in direction, The American Apparel Press Team responded, “Maybe this is better categorized as a resource than as an ad. What we liked about it is that it’s 77 people who each have their own sense of style showing how they like to wear American Apparel. Our photographers and designers see the garments in one way and sometimes the customers and fans see it a totally different way. The book has both. That’s a big reason why we’re giving it away at the stores and we hope people take it and get inspired or interested in pieces they wouldn’t have considered before.”

Interestingly enough, the brand has also started to use the looks in their adds and they say that they will continue to use crowdsourcing as a means to engage customers. So for now American Apparel has a new look and I guess its true what they say- the people have spoken.

To see the Lookbook in its entirety visit the American Apparel site.

There are serious talks of money when enhancing “cultural capital” – whole industries (and jobs) in fashion, design, architecture, multi-media, etc – in striving to be become a “global city brand” on par with Paris, New York and London. It is ambitious, no doubt. In other words, design is serious business, as South Korea’s companies have learned. For example, in enabling Samsung to overtake America’s Motorola and become the world’s second-largest cell phone maker (after Finland’s Nokia) in 2007.

What does it take to transform a city? Let’s talk “Culturenomics”. It starts with creating an urban environment where people want to come and live with their businesses and raise families. Creative industries and lifestyle are what drive national competitiveness.

According to South Korean officials, “major companies have chief design officers sitting next to their CEOs. We already have 30,000 design students graduating every year. We have to make the best use of these human resources. Our goal is to have people say that if you want to see the latest design trend, you should go to Seoul. That will be a valuable asset for economic growth. Culture is the key factor that can promote the attractiveness of a country or city. Products we export with a touch of culture will be sold at a more expensive price.” They definitely get it.

Seoul is not without competition. Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo are all trying to be the regional design hub, and all of them have some advantages. Many of Seoul’s (or Hong Kong or Shanghai) visions are top-down planned real estate redevelopment, but underlying all of it is the people or mix of people that drive the creative “Culturenomics”. Top-down is needed, but not enough. It is a co-creation process that involves industries and developers. The creative coalition will need to look at each city and its history, the present situation and possible futures to mobilize people. Often these people are marginalized and their importance is diminished in a city whose economic development is too often focused on smokestack chasing and giving away tax freezes.

There needs to be an understanding of the so-called creative class, in order to identify the essential parts of a creative ecosystem and the investments needed for it. We need to identify the cultural and heritage facilities needed, new ways to build community participation and ideas to attract new creative industries into identified precincts.  We need facilities for artists, writers and performers … but also need to find ways of attracting filmmakers, designers, architects, multimedia and creative technology companies, and all those who create ideas and content. These arts and related creative industries drive new economies. They also help create an attractive and sophisticated city in which to live, work and invest. Every city needs a plan and this will shape the competitiveness of cities in the next 20 years. Designers can help transform them. I wonder if Toronto, Chicago, Bangalore, Boston, Montreal, Shanghai, Zurich and Dublin have plans in place?

Image Source: http://inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/seoul2026.jpg; http://inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/seoul2026interior.jpg; http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JpAMkZYKSnM/RhqmYi51nQI/AAAAAAAAAds/5TtOzTpS_IA/s400/Shanghai%2BRen%2BBuilding.jpeg

If design is about critical thinking and problem solving, then there are plenty of other tools. Designers can look to technology, nature or even everyday objects for inspiration. Or should design school start using Lego and Playdough? With just a few basic tools ( just craft materials) people could actually start to think about things from different points of view and be creative. My personal toolkit includes dozens of Playmobil soldiers. I used that for my competitive strategy simulation.

What is a designer? Is it someone who went through applied arts training in Pratt or Arts Center or St. Martin? Is it someone who is trained as an architect and decides to apply his or her skills to problem solving? It is required that a designer’s works are both objective and subjective. The objective requirements are easy to understand, they are technical and typically driven by business requirements that allow for measurement and direct comparison. What is the best way to build this? What is the balance between form, function and performance?

In the last few years we’ve seen everything about the way products are designed, manufactured, and sold be destabilized.  This is the first time in a century that we’ve realize we need to rethink products and sustainability. Great industrial product designs are supposed to be timeless classics, does that mean anything to anyone today? The core virtues of fine industrial design—safety, usability, convenience, serviceability, utility and solid construction.  Name me some classic design these days?

Then there is the subjective, creative side of design that’s difficult to explain and hardest for most people to understand. Some “designers” hide behind the curtain and spin and spin, hoping they will come up with an idea. Others work in a collaborative fashion and bring out the best in others. Others think they are designers but hardly understand the basics of design, thinking that having reasonably good taste equals design. Sorry no.

The aesthetic side of design relates to fashion, human behavior, emotion and cultural influences such as the cultural meaning of symbols. Designers are immersed in the visual (and increasingly audio and other senses) language of their culture and industry specialization. Not only making things look pretty (that’s important too) but also bringing human and cultural values to business problems, humanizing a product or service and turning a corporation into a trustworthy entity.

Image Source: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2420/2237674772_62e30f699d_o.jpg