Are men really capable of designing quality products for women? The easy answer to that question is, NO. Men are not capable of designing products for women. No man no matter how feminine they think they are is able to design to women specifications, tastes, comfort and so on. Take the above picture a design by Jean Paul Gaultier. This article of clothing is not wearable to the everyday woman (not speaking from any kind of personal experience). But my wife enjoys watching the catwalks and time after time she says; “ that’s not wearable but it looks cool”. Women designers design much fancier items that are usually wearable.
If you look at product design and take the MotoRazr for example. Geoffrey Frost was the marketing man behind the Razr and it sparked a new wave of design in the mobile phone industry. It’s compact size, hard lines and metal casing are clearly the mark of a man. Now women loved the Razr also because it was a status symbol at first. But after Motorola realized that it was such a hit the only thing they did to the phone to make it more appealing to women was make it hot pink (and later gold). They could have totally retooled it made it look more feminine or anything but being a bunch of men they decided… “Oh lets change the color!”.
While most trends won’t change from being a male dominated perspective we should give it up for the women designers. They are much more adaptable clearly designing in a male world they hop between designing girly and manly all in the same day. I know I couldn’t design a purse without a place for a hammer or screwdriver.
If you look at product design and take the MotoRazr for example. Geoffrey Frost was the marketing man behind the Razr and it sparked a new wave of design in the mobile phone industry. It’s compact size, hard lines and metal casing are clearly the mark of a man. Now women loved the Razr also because it was a status symbol at first. But after Motorola realized that it was such a hit the only thing they did to the phone to make it more appealing to women was make it hot pink (and later gold). They could have totally retooled it made it look more feminine or anything but being a bunch of men they decided… “Oh lets change the color!”.
While most trends won’t change from being a male dominated perspective we should give it up for the women designers. They are much more adaptable clearly designing in a male world they hop between designing girly and manly all in the same day. I know I couldn’t design a purse without a place for a hammer or screwdriver.
