Some very good points raised - I'm sure this trend is seen in most western countries, not just Sweden.
For years I have been aware of how many people making critical strategic decisions about design and it's role in a product or brand, are not people who can see or appreciate the subtle difference between great/good design and average/poor design.
For most business people, marketing managers, budget holders, CEO's these decisions are based purely on their experiences of products and brands in their life to that point. Their opinions are very rarely the result of analysis and understanding of the subtle levels of communication that take place in all designs good or bad. On the whole they make judgements from the standpoint of someone who will have mostly consumed 'Average Design'.
The problem with so called 'Average Design' is that it swamps the market place and therefore lowers the bar for what is acceptable. One thing my days in publishing taught me is that for a while at least people will give most products a go no matter how poor the design - how can this be so?? I rationalised that if a product like a magazine makes it to the market place, end users perceive initially that it is good enough to be there, else why would it be there - who would spent all that money to make something that is bad!! With consumer goods this is magnified by demographics and price, the poor need cheap goods and there benchmark for assesment is other cheap goods. It is reasoned that cheap goods...
