Design Outsourcing

Here’s a video about the next major outsourcing destination. The Philippines is known to have good quality education, a multi-cultural ethnic mix, and sensitivity and understanding of the Western culture, having been a Spanish colony for more than 300 years, and an American ally since the end of the 19th century:

By Spencer Nugent
I’ve met alot of designers in my limited experience that complain about the “sketchers”. Sometimes designers with an aptitude for sketching get labeled as being shallow or non-creative. However, I see sketching as a means to and end rather than the end all. When all is said and done, regardless of how flashy [...]

Another interesting video that gives you a snapshot of the effects of outsourcing on one country, particularly India.
Have a look and let me know what you think:

No one could argue the success of a man like Steve Jobs who has become one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time. He started with nothing and went on to create Apple computers with Steve Wozniak. At one point Steve Jobs was the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios. I really enjoyed reading Steve [...]

Recession slowed growth of design outsourcing in 2008
According to a Gartner survey of 40 vendors offering IC design services, the number of outsourced projects grew more slowly in 2008 compared with the previous year, with survey respondents reporting rapid growth in designs at lagging-edge process nodes.
By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News — Electronic News, 8/17/2009
The [...]

Prevent Disasters in Design Outsourcing
by Jason Amaral and Geoffrey Parker
Firms that pursue product platform strategies—by leveraging a common set of development, production, and support resources—have been able to outmaneuver competitors by cost-effectively delivering a greater variety of distinctive products. Having succeeded in outsourcing manufacturing, these firms are now also working to outsource the design of [...]

Watch an interesting documentary about the lifestyle of younger generation in India, as a consequence of the outsourcing industry:

Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

Outsourcing refers to a company that contracts with another company to provide services that might otherwise be performed by in-house employees. Many large companies now outsource jobs such as call center services, e-mail services, and payroll. These jobs are handled by separate companies that specialize in each service, and are often located overseas.
There are many [...]

Here’s an interesting and in-depth article about product design outsourcing written by BK Sathish from Infosys in India.
Click here for the PDF.
Source: www.infosys.com

From Wikipedia:
Product designers are equipped with the skills needed to bring products from conception to market. They should have the ability to manage design projects, and subcontract areas to other sectors of the design industry. Aesthetics is considered important in Product Design but designers also deal with important aspects including technology, ergonomics, usability, stress analysis [...]