The Designer as Producer: Working Outside Mainstream Manufacturing by Victor Margolin

Margolin discusses the emerging global marketing structure that has changed the role of the designer - designers are becoming manufacturers and distributors as well, due to the use of advanced technology. Computers and the internet allow designers to immediately become entrepreneurs, creating and selling their designs world-wide and doing away with the old craft-based cottage industry with only local distribution. One particularly exciting area is sustainable products. He argues for design schools to move beyond the historical preparation of designers to serve manufacturers, and rather create design entrepreneurships, for designers who want to be both product innovators and manufacturers, to learn about technology, marketing, management, and design.