Design and the Creation of Value

John Heskett (1937-2014) was a prolific and pioneering design academic. He worked as chair and professor of design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, spent fifteen years as professor of design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and was also a visiting professor at universities in Denmark, Turkey, Chile, Germany, Japan, and Finland.

He authored many classic design texts, including 'Industrial Design' (1980), 'German Design 1870-1918' (1987), and 'Philips: A Study in Corporate Design' (1989). A large part of his research focused on business applications for design. He was especially interested in exploring how design creates economic value, and the role of this in the design policy of governments and corporations.


Clive Dilnot is Professor of Design Studies at the School of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons, New York. He has taught in Hong Kong and at Harvard University, and served as director of design initiatives at the Art Institute in Chicago. He has written extensively on the history and theory of design, and his most recent work is on design ethics.

Suzan Boztepe is Senior Lecturer at Malmö University, Sweden. Her research focuses on how design creates user and economic value, drives organizational and societal transformation, and catalyzes innovation. She has published widely on strategic design and human-centered methodologies. She completed her doctorate under John Heskett at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, where he originally taught the groundbreaking seminar on design and economic value on which this book is based.