Publisher's Synopsis
With the right collaborative and supportive structures, the skills and ideas of craftspeople, designers, innovators and scientific researchers can work together to strengthen industry and improve its products. This selection of RSA lectures, which represents the whole creative spectrum from craft and design to scientific invention, describes how this can be done and how these different groups have worked with industry in different ways. - - Sir Nicholas Goodison?s lecture emphasizes the value of craft skills for industry and outlines ways in which manufacturers can be encouraged to use them more; developing this theme, Robin Levien explains the difference between craft and design skills and how manufacturers can mass produce ?craft magic? to make their products more appealing. The next three lectures show what it is really like to set up creative enterprises (Helen David English Eccentrics, Tomato and Priestman Goode) and stick to one?s ideals in the business context. In his lecture about ship container design, naval architect Marshall Meek, Master of the RSA?s Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry, describes the realities of working with major shipbuilding companies, balancing the different demands of safety, function and cost, often challenging convention. The last three lectures in the book focus on scientific research and technological invention. Professor Sir Alec Broers argues that research can no longer be carried out in isolation from the worldwide research network: small groups must collaborate with larger organizations to ensure survival and success - a view echoed in Simon Schaffer?s analysis of the decline (and success) of science, and its social and political context. Sir Robert May suggests how the UK's world-class science and engineering base can be better exploited for economic advantage through government and other initiatives so that individual researchers receive proper reward and so that we 'capture the creativity of both individuals and of business'. - - This book offers valuable insight into business and industrial practice for craftspeople and designers, for manufacturers who work with them and for students intending to set up their own companies. Scientific researchers will find in it ideas for developing and funding their work. It will also be of interest to academics working in the fields of innovation, technology management and craft/design education.
