Business & Marketing Choices

While Design Division has their own website and Instagram, marketing is difficult because of their affiliation with the city. Due to the legality and political issues projects usually have, marketing for these projects becomes a legality issue. Thus creating an overarching problem of transparency of information to the public. The branding of the office reinforces their identity as a dual presence within the city government and the outside design community.

Transparency of Information: How should the public be engaged with these projects? How much should the public/community be involved?

Responsibility within the public realm: How can the office use their design knowledge and content to speak on community issues on behalf of the community?

Design & Critics

Due to the structure of the department in regards to being a city entity, Design Division has a lot of interaction between the studio designers and outside co-workers who are non-designers. Thus receiving critics from a person outside of the small studio can be difficult because non-designers are more inclined to comment about the content of what is produced while a designer is more inclined to comment on the design quality and graphical aesthetic.

Client & Contractor Relationships

This office is apart of the local government, therefore there isn’t a need to seek business or clients as a traditional design firm would do. Often times Design Division provides design parameters, provide information of a given site regarding its context, or show the vision of what an area could be. This would be done to assist outside design firms/developers/land owners/engineers with their initial research, guide their design, or help them establish an initial concept.

Location Bias: How should projects that come through the office be prioritized? How should projects be selected?