in your dreams, girls

I hope I'm in some kind of dream or time warp and what I witnessed on the video is not a true reflection but rather, some antediluvian nightmare and not the real state of industrial design as practiced today.
The most obvious, glaring omission throughout the whole process of "designing the dream machines" is.... women. Russell Lloyd, Dick Powell, Nick Talbot, Neil Hurst, Adrian Caroen, David Fisher, Richard Seymour are the 7 directors of Seymour Powell. Why are there no women involved. They don't exist? They don't consume? They definitely don't design! So where are they? Throughout the entire process women are absent. The exception being at a brainstorming session where, the idea of a multi functional base for kitchen equipment was suggested by a woman and, adopted as one of the ideas to be pitched to their client, Tefal. Thereafter not a women in the place: not designing, not model making, not pitching, not anywhere. What does this tell us about industrial design? Who is it for? What is it about? The design process should, I think, be an inclusive, explorative, holistic experience. One through which the designer gains insight and inspiration and ultimately produces as complete and successful a product as possible. How can this possibly be the result when the process here is left entirely in the hands of white, middle aged (probably middle class) males? By virtue of their own experience, I suggest, they must simply reflect, reinforce and promote their own values and experiences. It seems to me this is an extraordinarily narrow and limiting path for the designer to follow.
I could suggest a couple of reasons why Tefal probably didn't manufacture the food processor, I could point to a major design factor that the boys didn't mention with reference to the scooter for the Indian market... both rooted in the fact that men and women not only use products differently but also perceive products differently but, I wonder if they are interested my input? I find the absence of the female voice very, very strange, here and now, in the 21st century. Women do represent the other 50% of the market and yet don't seem to have any place in the world of Seymour Powell. Is this simply symptomatic of this particular company or a fair representation of the industry in general? If the design team is either uninterested or unaware of this "other" voice how seriously should I consider their view of design, process and methodology etc. They apparently fail to see value in a fully integrated, non gender/ethnic specif design team? A failure which I think necessarily diminishes the quality of their products. (and depresses me beyond words ....)
Id Sketching makes this point oh, so well... It's the boys idea of a joke... They know they are stereotyping in the worst possible way but that's OK because we're "just kidding".... Guess what, harm done ... I know, heres' a good idea... lets all sit around and tell racist jokes then, tell the people it's aimed at THEY don't have a sense of humour because we think it's funny .... IT'S NOT OK it's never OK.... So we'll see the WOMENS sketching sometime soon, just not yet...

In an industry being so dominated by men, it is interesting to get the point of view from some of the lovely women who work with us. It is estimated that the females make up aproximately 20 percent of the industrial design professionals. Many of these women in the industrial design community have unique perspectives and experiences that allow them to excel in situations where some of the rest of us (testosterone-fueled beastly males) have no clue. We hope to include the ladies here on the site and we definitely know many of them have some great sketching skills to share!

Look for an interview and sketch samples dropping soon from a veteran female designer!

UPDATE: just in case…take no offense with Barbie. I know she is the super-skinny doll that has been blamed for little girls’ insecurity about their image (which in turn leads to eating disorders) but no harm intended.