TECHNOLOGY BASED COMPANIES AND THE DESIGN

The objective of this paper is to show a discussion regarding the relation between technology and design, with attention to the existing performance and activities of companies linked to the design incubator that belongs to ESDI/UERJ. Technology, regardless of what is nowadays most valued and widespread, can't be confined to the realms of software and computer science, or even what was recently coined as "information technology", much less what is called by mass media as "high technology". Technology has to do with the gathering of many types of knowledge assembled as a whole in a functional way in order to create new products, explore new markets, find new ways to organize an endeavor, incorporate new raw materials or utilize new processes to fulfill the needs of customers; design is a tool in this process that is able to develop products that will have commercial success into the marketplace. Therefore, the design incubator from ESDI/UERJ has among its cornerstones to introduce within the discussion of efficiency, technical function and economical viability criteria regarding social efficiency as well as user friendliness to products which are made by industry. So, design goes "pari passu" with technology, searching for solutions that could join high quality, aesthetic refinement, knowledge provision, innovation and creativity, all along with rational basis, functional fitness, economical viability and sound foundation, in order to achieve the fulfillment of the needs of our society.