The how, the why and the who about us and what we do ...

About the Design Council

The Design Council champions great design. For us that means design which improves lives and makes things better.

As an enterprising charity, our work places design at the heart of creating value by stimulating innovation in business and public services, improving our built environment and tackling complex social issues such as ageing and obesity.

We inspire new design thinking, encourage public debate and inform government policy to improve everyday life and help meet tomorrow’s challenges today.

Our mission

Mountain with path The Design Council champions great design.
For us that mean design which improves lives and makes things better.
Find out more

Media Centre

Newspapers in rack Are you a journalist wanting to know more about the work of the Design Council? Or would you like to read coverage of the Design Council in the media? Visit our media centre.

Our people

Kate Jones portraitAs well as designers and project managers, our team includes financial experts, marketeers and lobbyists. We recruit brilliant people from a wide variety of backgrounds. Find out more about our team

Our trustees

Rab Bennetts portraitOur Board of Trustees sets our strategic direction and helps us achieve our mission of bringing the transformative power of design to the things that matter. Find out more about our Trustees

Annual reports

The Design Council is a charity incorporated by Royal Charter and now includes Cabe. Our funding comes from various sources including the Departments for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Communities and Local Government (DCLG). In this section you can find out about our finances and download our annual reports.

How we work

How we workWe are an agile organisation. We have national impact by working through a network of industry specialists, our design associates and built environment experts.

Find out more about how we work
and who we work with.

Jobs

Design Council pencils in a potAre you interested in working for us? We are looking for creative, innovative, flexible people who are hungry to learn about design and keen to develop their own careers.

Our history

Britain can make it posterThe Design Council started life in 1944 as the Council of Industrial Design. Over more than 60 years Britain has seen massive social, economic and technological change. We've changed too, though we've always fought to make design central to Britain's well being.

Royal Charter

On 19 May 1976 the Design Council was awarded its Royal Charter charity status.

Design Council Royal Charter
See our Royal Charter (PDF)

Power to transform

Find our more about who we are and how we work in our brochure, The Power to Transform

 

The power to transform PDF document

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