Is Design Global?

Design is very much global but is not necessarily practised the same everywhere. In every country, there is a form of design from housing, cars to cutlery, but there are not necessarily infrastructures and institutions which accommodate certain design subjects. Design also differs in countries due to culture and belief, meaning what a certain country or region deems to be good designs another might not necessarily follow the same principles and values. 

Figure 1 Nike pro bra: Nike news

Figure 2 A women in a Nike Hijab being developed for Muslim women athletes: Nike

One brand which has a global appeal and is striving to have a broader design scape is Nike, despite having multiple scandals and ethical questions being raised about how they run their company in overseas manufacturing factories, in third world countries looking for cheap labour, they do have a global design agenda, and their latest product is a statement in the right direction. With the western world, Nike is the most dominant sporting brand but in the far east where there are different rules and beliefs, it can be difficult to penetrate the market especially for women. In the western region, Nike regularly advertise their female athletes in tight revealing clothing (Figure 1) but this is not accepted in the Middle east.  

“Nikes new Hijab is designed to make sports more comfortable for Muslim women and goes on sale in 2018” (BBC News 2017) (Figure 2) Although this could be seen as a big international company trying to penetrate another market for profit, it has also had great reception from Muslim athletes like (Abdelaziz, 2017) “As a hijab wearing athlete, I'm stoked for @nike's pro hijab line. More so I love that its approved/featured by ACUTAL (sic) hijab wearing athletes” this is a clear indication that design can affect the world and there are still areas where companies like Nike can go to not in the western world and create a mutual and beneficial product.

With Nike’s multicultural approach it is easy to see why Nike is ranked ‘18’ in the world’s most valuable business (Forbes 2016), and ranked 1 on Complex Most iconic brands, with the company calling the logo, “the most Iconic image in the world” (Complex 2016). To further illustrate Nike's global strategy Just in the football industry the company represents 10 different national teams and 12 other league teams in 6 different countries (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Nike Football team representative: Nike

The direction in which Nike has taken in looking at different cultures, clearly indicates that design is global, and is affected by the different cultures including sport, by doing so, they have created a product which supports women, in an ever-growing Muslim sports industry.

Image List

Figure 1……Nike Pro bra: Nike

Figure 2…… A woman in a Nike Pro Hijab being developed for Muslim women athletes: Nike

Figure 3…… Nike Football team representative: Nike

Bibliography

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