Materializing digital collecting: an extended view of digital materiality

If digital objects are abundant and ubiquitous, why should consumers pay for, much less collect them? The qualities of digital code present numerous challenges for collecting, yet digital collecting can and does occur. We explore the role of companies in constructing digital consumption objects that encourage and support collecting behaviours, identifying material configuration techniques that materialise these objects as elusive and authentic. Such techniques, we argue, may facilitate those pleasures of collecting otherwise absent in the digital realm. We extend theories of collecting by highlighting the role of objects and the companies that construct them in materialising digital collecting. More broadly, we extend theories of digital materiality by highlighting processes of digital material configuration that occur in the pre-objectification phase of materialisation, acknowledging the role of marketing and design in shaping the qualities exhibited by digital consumption objects and consequently related consumption behaviours and experiences

A Framework for Services Evaluation in Integrated Design Consultancies: A Triangular Approach

The design sector is a dynamic field characterized by fierce competition. Design consultancies, namely those companies which provide design services to other organizations in the form of consultancy work, are increasingly challenged to commit time and resources to their business development. Additionally, design-aware clients require from them greater levels of operational sophistication. This paper presents a triangular framework which integrated design consultancies, i.e. those integrating a number of design services under one roof, can use to assess their client services, design work and their own marketing activities. It consists of three entities: the consultancy, the client and the account, a notional entity which includes the collective of past, ongoing and future design projects for the same client, involves teams from the other two entities and requires their synergy. Each of these relate to a number of criteria which they are judged against, as well as criteria which interconnect them. The framework was applied in a Glasgow-based integrated design consultancy which provided important intelligence for the consultancy and tested the framework's effectiveness. The framework proved a very useful tool for any integrated design consultancy aiming to assess its services in light of its continuous business development