Compasso d'Oro ADI Design Museum. Historical collection. Ediz. illustrata

The strategic role of design for competitiveness is a fact. This role has been codified in various disciplinary sub-areas including, most of all, strategic design1, which is the attempt to circumscribe the potential of design according to the competitive results that it can originate, at the same time representing the difficulty in defining universal principles and methods. The strategic role of design depends, in fact, on contexts, industries, and situations. Just as there is no passe-partout design, applicable to different design objects, it is equally difficult to define strategic design in an exhaustive way. In reality, it is easier to talk about design ‘strategies’: a wide repertoire of activities, approaches, and tools, in tune with the requests for innovation and differentiation coming from different types of proponents. Historically, the strategic role of design can mainly be outlined in two strands that sometimes overlap: a focus on the brand and its logics on the one hand, and the impact on innovation processes on the other. So, in summary, we see a design that deals with branding to help define the positioning and identity of the company in a turbulent context, through the physical (and projectable) evidence that represents its values and narratives.