Collaboration of designers and suppliers

Leveraging networks to collaborate

@dbasulto posted a great article on @archdaily today http://bit.ly/4T4vDk

The post is a great piece of theory any budding entrepreneur should action on.

It’s the kind of thing I think all designers in New Zealand could do and the UK/developed markets too. For too long we have tried to compete on mass production, doing everything, outsourcing nothing for fear of loosing quality control – something we just can’t do with emerging markets growing so fast.

It speaks to smaller firms or even solo-preneurs, pairing up with others that have the skills they need to produce great work.

Experts in each area: market, design and produce something fantastic.

There’s even spots to outsource the whole business logistics, accounting and legality side as well.

I think we’ll see more and more simple online packages for startups (accounting/Irenas Cloud Bookkeeping and marketing), and suppliers pricing for one offs rather than bulk orders.

A website to foster this collaboration

One site I’d thought of was to put these two points together. A DIY hub where the client has the idea, he picks a skilled designer by resume, who together come up with a good builder and choose the optimum parts for the job.

Just imagine how your next bicycle, car or house could look!
I’m sure someone’s already doing this on a freelance scale, but what about for mass marketed custom goods?