Movie review

VISI attended the first screening of Design the New Business, one of the many offerings during the two week-long Design Indaba Filmfest.

Six international design students produced this splice-and-dice 38min doccie during their summer internship at TU Delft. 

The film explores the ever-increasing interplay between business and design through case studies and interviewees immersed in a variety of interdisciplinary design fields. Throughout the movie it comes clear that business and design thinking should not be viewed as opposing forces but rather as complimentary.

Alexander Osterwalder, author of Business Model Generation affirms the value of design thinking in the business world: “Aesthetics are just the most obvious outcome of the design process. The real value lies in the tools and techniques that designers employ to create something new.”

He continues to explain that if you use design thinking you invite failure as a crucial part of the process since your failures become your success. In the design process it is through failing that you learn and the design matures. 

Another design truth that was repeated by various interviewees is the value designers add through their unique perspective as well as their ability to cope with dynamic contexts and complexity to create “clarity in the fussiness of modern life”.

Although the movie is not a visual tour de force it does provides some interesting insights and perspectives.

Design the New Business is but one of the interesting films on show during the filmfest. The Design Indaba Filmfest runs from now to 4 March at The Labia on Orange in Cape Town. Tickets are just R30 and you can book through computicket.

For the complete list of films on offer go to www.designindaba.com/filmfest2012

Watch the Design the New Business Video here on Vimeo.