Design Vancouver and then Design BC were a part of the Vancouver design scene 20 years ago. I also remember going to a meeting at Montebello, Quebec — invited along with designers from across Canada to talk about a national design initiative. I am probably woefully out-of-date in terms of what is happening on this front — but I suspect not much.
It was inspiring to visit the UK Design Council last week. http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/
One of the Council’s tag lines:
We show how design can help build a stronger economy and improve everyday life
From Web Site:
Objectives
Insight…Inspiring new ways to do business
Challenges…Turning big problems into innovation
Support…Creating new value out of competition
Investment…Growing design to build business
Another “tag” is:
We connect decision makers with the right design help to solve their problem.
The Council works with businesses, academia and citizens in the pursuit of better solutions for a better way of life for all through design.
From the web-site:
Everything we do starts with our business plan, submitted every three years to the Department of Business Innovation and Skills, which provides our core funding.
We are run by an Executive Board of directors headed by our Chief Executive, David Kester. This board reports to, and is advised by, our Council – chaired by Lord Michael Bichard – whose members are drawn from industry, education, policy and design to reflect our interests. The membership is refreshed on a three-yearly basis.
I met with Lesley Morris, Head of Design Skills at the Design Council. Lesley develops and manages the education work at the Council which includes projects, publications, policy and research for design education and training at all levels.
Lesley helps future designers and design managers to develop effective and relevant design skills. One of her projects is the Multi-Disciplinary Design Network http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-work/investment/Multi-disciplinary-design-network/.
The Multi-disciplinary Design Network was formed in 2006 to support the implementation of the Cox Review which recommended the establishment of ‘Centres of Excellence’ – universities offering postgraduate multi-disciplinary programmes combining design, business, science and engineering.
The Higher Education Funding Council has made significant capital investments in two new centres, Design-London (see previous design blog) and C4D based at Cranfield (which I may visit, time/energy permitting).
Lesley has been spearheading a number of fact-finding visits to various parts of the globe to determine the state of “design” in locales such as Europe (The Netherlands, Denmark & Finland), America (California, Illinois, Massachusetts), and Asia (China, Korea). The members of the network are interested in learning from the latest thinking on cross-disciplinary teaching and learning in leading universities and companies.
Lessons from Europe and America are both on the web-site. The Asia trip actually happened recently — the team was stranded in Beijing due to the ash cloud. So that report will be along in the future.
There are definite advantages of having an organization like the Design Council for a country. My sense is that design is much more a part of the British culture than it is the Canadian culture. True — Canadian geography makes all of our national initiatives challenging – but we complain frequently about our productivity and our innovation quotients — both of which could be assisted by a better design literacy in both businesses and the general citizenry. No shortage of projects to tackle. And the good news is that there is precedent in the UK in terms of the “how” to set up and the value of doing so.