Ed Boyd, Dell’s New Industrial Design Director

Reena Jana, writing for BusinessWeek:

The man behind this effort is Ed Boyd, one of Dell’s most unusual hires in recent years. Boyd is an industrial designer who used to dream up new sunglasses and shoes for Nike. Now the 43-year-old is trying to make design an integral part of Dell, the personal computer maker long known for cranking out boring gray boxes. “I was skeptical it could be cool,” says Boyd, who joined the company last year. “I took the job when I heard the design lab would function like a startup for consumer [products].” […]

Next year, Dell will let buyers customize laptops in a dizzying number of ways, mixing scores of colors, patterns, and textures. The options will go far beyond the handful of choices available from most of its rivals. In essence, Boyd is taking the Nike approach of letting people design their own sneakers, and trying to apply it to the world of computers.

I think this is a very smart move for Dell. A very different philosophy than Apple’s, for sure, but that’s a good thing — Apple’s philosophy would never work for Dell.

★ Thursday, 13 November 2008