The growth of the Internet and online communities has also changed the figure of the business consultant. In 2012 the young designer from Treviso Davide Scomparin founded Desall.com, an open innovation platform for the world of design and innovation, offering companies a tool of ‘participatory’ growth.
For each phase of product development, from the concept to the product design, naming to packaging, Desall.com involves an online community of over 70,000 creative people in 180 countries. The voting happens through a public gallery that involves the whole community and the network of contacts of the authors. The company, however, has the last word in the choice of the design.
Nevertheless, the response of the community offers important feedback on the level of appeal and commercial potential of a project. Once the contest is over, Desall.com operates to take the idea to the next phase, in close contact with the winning designer and the R+D division of the company.
In the field of design the platform has held fifteen contests on different themes: from product design with Alessi and Italcementi, Elica, Slide, Made.com and Babele, to interior design for retail with Malìparmi, to urban furnishings with Veronafiere, and lighting with Leroy Merlin and Fabbian.
The list also includes multinational brands like Whirlpool and Kinder, as well as artisan companies like the Dal Pian glassmakers from Treviso. To meet the needs of smaller firms that have know-how that deserves attention if a more complicated task. Desall.com is now in a phase of analysis of service for this type of company: to innovate thanks to the possibilities offered by the social media, while respecting the heritage and structural necessities of businesses.
Text by Valentina Croci
