22. January 2010 by Aidan.

While I was in San Francisco last week I had the opportunity to attend one of the AIGA’s D.Talks events. The theme of last weeks event was “Crowdsourcing“. The event was well run with Josh Levine of Great-Monday as moderator and a panel consisting of Jason Aiken (99designs.com), Jody Turner (Cultureoffuture.com) and Christopher Simmons (MINE).

The mood in the room (full of graphic designers) was predominantly of gloom over the threat from crowdsourcing websites, such as 99designs.com where you can get a logo designed for about $300. The concern was that this was undermining what these professional designers were offering for 10 times the price. The argument for the crowdsourcing side was that the low price attracts many businesses that would have never paid a designer for a logo and it also allows designers to build a portfolio of work based on the submissions.

It went around in circles for a while but what it ultimately comes down to, as I said on the night, is that when you are buying a logo on a website for $300 you are buying a product. When you work with a designer to develop a logo for your business you are purchasing a service and you are paying a premium to develop a relationship with the designer, work through a design process with them and ultimately end up with a logo that is more meaningful to you and your business. (Of course it may or may not look better than the $300 logo - that’s a matter of taste!).

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18. January 2010 by Aidan.

We had a first SD Drinks event in San Francisco last Friday night at Lime Bar on Market St near Castro.

It was a good evening with lots of stimulating conversation and it was great to meet up with a group of new friends who have similar interests. In addition to myself there were designers from a number of companies including Nokia, Intuit and Adaptive Path in addition to American Heart Foundation and some independent designers & educators.

As is usual, the question “what is service design?” was raised a number of times and as the evening and the drinks progressed we became more creative in answering it.

Jamin Hegeman   has offered to organise the next event.

Many thanks to all who attended, it was a great way to spend a night in SF. Special thanks to Ayana Baltrip for her help in organising this event and for taking all the photos.

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8. January 2010 by Aidan.

After lots of input the venue has moved to Lime restaurant and bar on Market St, San Francisco. Here are the details :

Where: Lime, Market St, SF

When: Fri. 15th Jan 2010

What time: starting 6:00-6:30pm

Any questions? contact details below…..

Aidan

Original Post: 

As I am in San Francisco next week I thought it woud be a good idea to try to get some service designers together for a few drinks and a chat. The Service Design Drinks idea follows on from other successful events in locations are diverse as England, Australia and Brazil.

This is just an informal gathering of people interested in service design and design thinking. Why not come along?

As I have no idea how many people will turn up, and with a nod to my home country, I have decided to simply meet up in the one pub (bar) that I usually end up in while I am in the city, Johnny Foleys on O’Farrell Street. If anyone has a better suggestion then please let me know.

So here are the details and all are welcome:

San Francisco (informal) Service Design Drinks

Friday Jan 15th   from 6:30pm

Johnny Foley’s Pub, 243 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco

Lime Bar, Market Street, SF

See you there, I’ll be the Irish guy in the corner! (or you can call me on +353 87 233 44 51 / email: aidan@servitize.com )

Posted in Service Desig, international, General | 3 Comments »