Design in business

Design, as the practice of creative problem-solving, is essential to every business, regardless of size or industry:

• Startups need designers to craft intuitive experiences for their digital products.

• Agencies hire armies of creatives, from visual and motion storytellers to masters of copy.

• Corporations depend on design to maintain cultural relevance.

• Local businesses use design to stand out, connect with their communities, and drive sales.

• And now, the creator economy has opened a new era where world-class creativity and design are highly rewarded by the market.

But although companies generally recognise the value of design, two major problems persist in how creativity is leveraged, and both sides suffer because of it:

Siloed work

Creative work is often isolated. Designers are kept apart from decision-makers, disconnected from the bigger vision or the business objectives. They don’t know the “why” behind their work. They’re metaphorically laying bricks, not building a cathedral.

Death by management

I’ve seen this play out many times, in both corporate and startup worlds: creativity often dies by management. Layers of middle managers, driven by KPIs and “stakeholder value,” play it safe instead of pursuing meaningful work.

When this happens, designers dissociate from the project, only doing the bare minimum, while companies get poor returns and lose trust in creative talent.

Both are to blame:

• Designers lose interest and settle for being pixel-pushers instead of design partners.

• Companies hire creatives only to have non-creatives dictate how creativity should work. Makes no sense.

Design alongside business

Few understood the power of design in business like Steve Jobs. He also gave the best definition on what design is, and isn’t:

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

Most leaders still associate design only with visuals or aesthetics. But great designers contribute with something deeper, a way of thinking that combines:

• analysis with intuition

• data with creativity

They understand human psychology, cultural context, usability patterns, and market positioning. They weave these together into seamless, emotionally resonant experiences.

If a product looks great but isn’t intuitive, no one will use it.

Jobs empowered Jony Ive to obsess over every detail. Ive was responsible for all things design at Apple, not just hardware or software, maintaining an integrated design vision that unified products, interfaces, and experiences.

Apple still coasts on that legacy today.

In a recent 2025 interview, Jony Ive reflected:

“I believe that when somebody unwrapped that box and took out that cable, and they thought, ‘Somebody gave a shit about me,’ I think that’s a spiritual thing. I wish that I had empirical evidence, but I do believe that we have this ability to sense care.”

Two key points:

• Attention to detail communicates care.

• Good design often lacks measurable metrics, and that’s okay.

The kind of effort to achieve this level of good design is invisible to operations-minded people obsessed with cost efficiency. They see it as unnecessary and need everything done yesterday. It’s why Tim Cook’s Apple, while more optimised, has lost its magic.

Yet it’s exactly these “unmeasurable”, unified efforts that separate remarkable from mediocre. When given space, design can perform wonders.

Design-led business

Here’s where the manifesto comes full circle.

Good design is the microcosm of good business.

The same skills apply: critical thinking, prioritisation, understanding constraints,

gathering data, reading the market, iterating fast. It’s the same system of thought.

Designers and founders share the same DNA. They make bets, test, pivot, and refine. Neurodivergent as fuck, but wired for synthesis.

Over the past three years, I’ve been co-founding and running Jujuc, a Product-as-a-Service venture offering parents a sustainable, cost-effective alternative to buying toys. It’s design-first, customer-centric, and built using the same thinking I used to design digital products for startups.

It forced me to learn funnels, copywriting, marketing, social media, video editing, and much more. But it isn’t any different from learning Figma, Framer, Jitter, or Spline.

And wow, with AI, the reach of design and systems thinking multiplies. You can wear every hat you want.

Furthermore, as a designer in someone else’s business, you rarely see how users react to your work. As a design-led founder, you get direct feedback, adapt fast, and own your decisions.

No gatekeeping, no middle management, just creation, iteration, ownership.

Final thoughts

I’m not saying this path is easy, and I’m by far no expert. But I believe being a design-first entrepreneur is the best bet for true creative freedom and has the most potential for growth, both personal and financial.

In times where corporate layoffs prove how disposable “good employees” can be, I couldn’t care less about a job title and good salary, because it could be gone tomorrow.

I prefer to bring my skillset directly to the market, or better yet use my skillset to create something, and bring that to the market.

Massimo Vignelli said:

“If you can design one thing, you can design everything.”

That also includes designing a good business.

Good luck!

Andrei