»» Sign up for the next #DesignInTech briefing.
100+ links to the history of Design in Tech going back to 2004 and stopping at 2014 because design in the tech arena is so commonplace now. This historical context is what led to the Design in Tech Reports, launched in 2015 at SXSW Interactive. —JM
2004
- 05.2004: Book: “The Substance of Style” by Virginia Postrel, Harper Collins
2005
- 01.2005: “Getting Schooled in Innovation” by Bruce Nussbaum, BusinessWeek
- 08.2005: “Y-Combinator’s First Class Launches” by Paul Graham, by blog
- 11.2005: “The Beauty of Simplicity” by Linda Tischler, Fast Company
2006
- 07.2006: Book: “The Laws of Simplicity” by John Maeda, MIT Press
2008
- 07.2008: “Philippe Starck and ‘design is dead’” by TIm Leberecht, CNET
2009
- 09.2009: “Why Is There Such a Stunningly Short Supply of Designers in Silicon Valley Right Now?” on Quora
- 09.2009: “Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation” by Tim Brown, HarperBusiness
- 02.2009: “IDEO’s David Kelley on ‘Design Thinking” by Linda Tischler, Fast Company
- 12.2009: “Bessemer Snags a ‘Designer in Residence’ from Mint.com” Michael Arrington, TechCrunch
2010
- 02.2010: “The Value of Design to Startups” by Dave McClure, BusinessWeek
- 04.2010: “The Case for a Designer in Residence” by Jeff Gothelf, his blog
- 09.2010: “Why Apple Leads the Way in Design” by John Maeda, Huffington Post
- 09.2010: “What do you think about the idea of a designer in residence for a VC firm?” by Mark Suster, on Quora
2011
- 01.2011: “Posterous Cofounder Garry Tan Steps Down, Heads to Y-Combinator” by Jason Kincaid, on TechCrunch
- 03.2011: “Design Thinking Isn’t a Miracle Cure, but Here’s How It Helps” by Helen Walters, FastCoDesign
- 04.2011: “Design Thinking Is A Failed Experiment. So What’s Next” by Bruce Nussbaum, FastCoDesign
- 05.2011: “Why the Valley Wants Designers That Can Code” by Jared Spool, UIE
- 07.2011: “MoMA Preview: 12 Brilliant Projects That Explore How Tech Helps Us Talk” by Linda Tischler, Fast Company
- 10.2011: “Today’s Takeaway: Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple, Dies at 56” with John Hockenberry, WNYC Radio
- 10.2011: “Steve Jobs Biography” by Walter Isaacson, Book
- 11.2011: “One on One: Walter Isaacson, Biographer of Steve Jobs” by Nick Bilton, NYT
- 11.2011: Comprehensive “DESIGN” posts that run to the present by Design Staff, Google Ventures
- 12.2011: “Silicon Valley’s Designing Women Give Tips on Talking Tech” by E.B. Boyd, Fast Company
- 12.2011: “100 Days of Design Entrepreneurship” blog by Jessica Karle Heltzel and Tim Hoover
2012
- 01.2012: “Silicon Valley’s New Secret Weapon: Designers Who Found Startups” by Enrique Allen, Fast Company
- 01.2012: “Designer Founders” by Enrique Allen, Ben Blumenfeld, Xander Pollock and Corina Yen, Book
- 01.2012: “Does Your Startup Need a Designer co-Founder?” by Enrique Allen, Google Ventures Library
- 02.2012: “Wells Riley: Startups, This is How Design Works” by Carlos Melegrito, The Industry
- 03.2012: “Design the New Business” Online Documentary Film by Zilver Innovation
- 03.2012:“Why Can’t Startups Find Designers?” by Sacha Greif, TNW
- 04.2012: “In Silicon Valley, Designers Emerge as Rock Stars” by Gerry Shih, Reuters
- 04.2012: “User Interface Designers Invade Silicon Valley After Success of Apps Like Instagram” by Ellis Hamburger, TheVerge (based on Shih’s piece)
- 04.2012: “Silicon Valley is Desperate for Designers” by Laurie Segall, CNN Money
- 04.2012: “Chief Design Officers Will Be the New CMOs” by Devindra Hardawar, VentureBeat
- 04.2012: “Get Rich U. There are no walls between Stanford and Silicon Valley. Should there be?” by Ken Auletta, The New Yorker
- 06.2012: Book: “Kern and Burn: Conversations With Design Entrepreneurs” by Tim Hoover and Jessica Karle Heitzel, Kern and Burn
- 06.2012: “Forget B-School, D-School is Hot” by Melissa Korn and Rachel Emma Silverman, WSJ
- 08.2012: “Design Principles, Startup Style” by Braden Kowitz, Google Ventures
- 09.2012: “If Design’s No Longer the Killer Differentiator, What Is?” by John Maeda, Wired Opinion
- 09.2012: “How Steve Jobs’ Love of Simplicity Fueled A Design Revolution” by Walter Isaacson, Smithsonian Magazine
- 09.2012: “The Indomitable Mary Meeker” by Steven Levy, for Wired
- 09.2012: “The Flat Design Era” by Allan, Layervault (via @kellysutton: “It coined the term “flat design” for better or worse”)
- 10.2012: “For Startups, Design is the New Competitive Advantage” by Kelly Reid, Forbes
- 11.2012: “What’s Next, a Design Bubble?” by Cliff Kuang, WIRED
- 11.2012: “Funding Good Design is Now Officially Mainstream” by Katie Fehrenbacher, GigaOm
- 11.2012: “Silicon Valley’s Hottest Commodity: The Design-Savvy Founder” by Eric Markowitz, Inc.
2013
- 01.2013: “Demand for Beautiful Design Grows in Quant-Crazy Silicon Valley” by Cotton Delo, Ad Age
- 01.2013: “Disruptions: Design Rivals Technology in Importance” by Nick Bilton, NYT
- 01.2013: “6 Startup Lessons From Designers At Pinterest, Fuseproject, And Behance” by Enrique Allen, FastCo Design
- 03.2013: “How Google Ventures Infuses Design Into The Heart Of Its Portfolio Companies” by Harrison Weber, TheNextWeb
- 05.2013: “7 Ways Venture Capital Firms Infuse Design Into Their Startups” by Rachel Barge, Greenstart Blog
- 05.2013:“How Design Thinking Transformed Airbnb from a Failing Startup to a Billion Dollar Business” by First Round Capital
- 06.2013: “The Future of Design Is More Than Making Apple iOS Flat” by John Maeda, Wired Opinion
- 06.2013:“The product design sprint: a five-day recipe for startups” by Jake Knapp, Google Ventures
- 07.2013: “Redesigning Product Development” by Mike Abbott and Megan Quinn for USA Today
- 07.2013: “New Habits Transform Software” by Quentin Hardy, NYT
- 08.2013: “Why a New Golden Age for Design is Around the Corner” by Cliff Kuang, WIRED
- 08.2013: “Why Great Design is Crucial for Startups” by Lori Kozlowsky, Forbes
- 08.2013: “Why Aren’t There More Designer Founders?” by Jessica Alter, WIRED Opinion
- 09.2013: “Design Matters More Than Technology” by Cory Johnson, BloombergTV
- 09.2013: “With Moore’s Law Receding, Design is How We Decide” by John Maeda, GigaOm
- 09.2013: “How the ‘Failure’ Culture of Startups is Killing Innovation” by Erika Hall, WIRED Opinion
- 09.2013: “10 Lessons for Design-Driven Success” by Robert Safian, Fast Company
- 09.2013: “VCs continue to embrace design and young design talent” by Rani Molla, GigaOm
- 11.2013: “Design is Eating Silicon Valley” by Mark Rogowsky, Forbes
- 11.2013: “Should Tech Designers Go With Their Guts – Or the Data?” Braden Kowitz, WIRED Opinion
- 12.2013: “Silicon Valley’s New Obsession With Beauty” by Claire Cain Miller, NYT
- 12.2013: “John Maeda, Innovative President at RISD, Departs for Silicon Valley” by Anya Kamenetz, Fast Company
- 12.2013: “RISD President John Maeda Departs for Roles at Kleiner Perkins and eBay” by Jason Del Rey and Mike Isaacs, AllThingsD
- 12.2013: “Why John Maeda Is Leaving RISD For a Venture Capital Firm” by Shaunacy Ferro, Fast Company
2014
- 01.2014: “Why Startups Need Design Students” by Shaunacy Farro, Fast Company
- 01.2014: “Silicon Valley ‘didn’t think a designer could build a company’ says Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky” by Marcus Fairs, Dezzen
- 02.2014: “How to Keep Your Designers Happy” by Enrique Allen, WSJ
- 02.2014: “Design: The Missing Link in Silicon Valley’s Ecosystem of Innovation” by Soren Petersen & Barry Katz, HuffPo
- 02.2014 “Leading Designers at Square, Dropbox, and Flipboard on How to Land a Dream Job” by Ben Blumenfeld, FastCoDesign
- 02.2014 “5 questions designers should ask themselves before joining any startup” by Enrique Allen, The Next Web
- 02.2014: “6 Invaluable Lessons for Startups from Stanford’s Famed Design School” by Babu Kurra, WIRED
- 02.2014: “Demystifying The Concept of Design” by Erika Hall, WSJ
- 02.2014: “Three Principles for Using Design Successfully” by John Maeda, WSJ
- 02.2014: “Surfing The Next Wave” by Kara Swisher, Vanity Fair
- 02.2014: “No Silver Bullets: Etsy’s Randy Hunt on Product Design” by Jason Shen, Jasonshen.com
- 02.2014: “Study: Good Design is Good for Business” by Carey Dunne, Fast Company
- 02.2014: “How Can You Become a Designer in Residence at a VC Firm?” with response by Keith Rabois@Khosla, QUora
- 03.2014: “The Valley Is Now Focused on DE$IGN” by Katie Fehrenbacher, GigaOm
- 03.2014: “Can Design Save Silicon Valley?” by Jules Pieri, HBR
- 03.2014: “The Monuments of Tech” by Quentin Hardy, NYT
- 04.2014: “Design In The Driver’s Seat: Silicon Valley (Finally) Gets On Board” by Craig Peters, Awasu Studio Blog
- 04.2014: Accel Design Conference, by Andrew Braccia and Vas Natarajan, Accel
- 04.2014: “Why VC Firms Are Snapping Up Designers” by Mark Wilson, Fast Company
- 04.2014: “Is Design A Good Method For Problem Solving?” by Maicol Chavez, Medium
- 04.4014: “Designing Cultures That Build Great Products” by Damian Madray, Medium
- 04.2014: “Designer Duds: Losing Our Seat at the Table” by Mills Baker, Medium/Mokriya Blog
- 04.2014: Comprehensive Interview I did with Tina Essmaker of The Great Discontent
- 04.2014: On-Air Interview I did with Emily Chang of BloombergTV
- 04.2014: “Design Is About Intent” by John Moran, Rampant Innovation
- 04.2014: “A Conversation About Design” by Nadya Direkova, Google Developers Blog
- 05.2014: “Cheat Sheet: Understanding The Role of Design in Startups” by John Zeratsky, Google Ventures
- 05.2014: “What Fuels Great Design (And Why Most Startups Don’t Do it)” by Braden Kowitz, Google Ventures
- 05.2014: “DESIGN is …: What CEOs should know about design” by Irene Au, Khosla Ventures
- 05.2014: “Betaworks and the Dance of Fashion and Technology” by Debra Scherer, Business of Fashion
- 07.2014:First Round Review Design Memos< by First Round Capital, since 2013
- 07.2014:“Dear Startups: Don’t Skip Design Thinking”> by Lauren Turk, Forbes
- 07.2014: “Yves Béhar, Star Venture Designer, Plots His Next Move” by Linda Tischler, Fast Company / Co.Design
- 08.2014: “Google Acquires Gecko Design, Opens Wider Door To Hardware Design, Semiconductor Manufacturing” by Laurie Sullivan, MediaPost
- 09.2014: “How Top Startups Pay Designers” by Daniel Burka, Google Ventures
- 09.2014: “A Golden Age of Design” by Rob Walker, T Magazine
- 10.2014: “Design Consultancies — The Perfect Platform for Launching Startups” by Soren Petersen, Huffington Post
- 10.2014: “Ex-RISD President John Maeda: “Money Is Quite Useful, Actually” by Shaunacy Ferro, FastCo
- 10.2014: “Let Ideo’s Top Brass Show You How To Solve Problems Like A Designer” by John Cary, Fast Company / Co.Design
- 11.2014: “Why introducing good design to established companies isn’t so easy” by David Meyer
- 11.2014 “How design changes the way investors see your startup” by Kyle Fugre, Venture Beat
- 11.2014: “What Is Behind The Rise Of The Chief Design Officer?” by Michelle Stuhl, Forbes
- 11.2014: “Why introducing good design to established companies isn’t so easy” by David Meyer, GigaOm
- 12.2014: “50+ Designers Share Their Top 3 Design Trends For 2015” by Founders Grid
- 12.2014: “The Rapidly Disappearing Business of Design” by Robert Fabricant, Wired
For a general history of Silicon Valley, this is a useful link that Jackie Xu pointed out to me … but my all time favorite is the PBS documentary on Silicon Valley that’s available free online.