Vitamin D – Design strategies for small and
medium-sized enterprises

The latest issue of "Design by Doing" shows how medium-sized companies are making their mark with design. With contributions from business journalists, companies and designers, as well as the results of a survey of German medium-sized businesses. There are around 1,400 companies in the German-speaking world that have a turnover of less than three billion euros, but are still number one, two or three in the world rankings of their sector. Most of them are relatively unknown. Hesse Design has interviewed and experienced 150 German medium-sized companies: Many of them are not interested in classical advertising, but spend 18 percent of their marketing budget on the maintenance of their corporate image. Why? They want to strengthen and strategically develop their brands with design.

So they use "vitamin D". In the human body, it ensures strong bite and resilient bones, mental flexibility, good nerves and even better resistance. In companies, vitamin D works in a similar way. This issue of "Design by doing" documents the results of the survey and uses three case studies from medium-sized companies to show what a company can achieve by means of vitamin D: At the steel manufacturer Zapp, the CI process not only led to a new image, but also to more powerful structures. Heinze, producer of lighting and home accessories, thus sharpened the profile of its own brand in addition to its merchandise. 

Authors: Barbara Bierach, Christof Heinze, Christine Hesse / Verlag Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach, order at: info@hesse-design.de 24 euros plus postage, ISBN: 978-3-921997-77-2 (©2010)