Sir John Sorrell on the Design Council and CABE
Recession. Cuts. Austerity. Unemployment. Bonfire of the quangos.
Those were the daily headlines when I was invited to become a member of the Design Council in 1992. It seems like a long time ago now, but the context is familiar. In 1993 the Government of the day was thinking of closing the Design Council down as part of the slash and burn policy of that time. I reviewed the Design Council in 1993 and stayed on as Chairman until 2000 when I went on to set up the Sorrell Foundation and theLondon Design Festival. But then I couldn’t resist the challenge to chair CABE when I was invited to in 2004, and I did so until 2010.
I know these two organisations as well as anyone. And I believe that this coming together, this partnership, will prove to be of enormous significance to design and architecture, to culture and the economy and to Britain and its reputation in the world.
For the last year or so I have been UK Business Ambassador for the Creative Industries. Whenever I give a talk abroad people always ask, what is the secret of the success of our creative industries and particularly our great design sector? I reply by talking about our superb post-war creative education system – our brilliant art, design and architecture schools which are the envy of the world. I also talk about the multi-national, multi-disciplinary nature of our design community and I always talk about the advantage we have because of our two brilliant national organisations for design and architecture: the Design Council and CABE.
So I was delighted by the coming together of the Design Council and CABE to create a new organisation, built on a powerful heritage but with a new and exciting combined agenda. This single, singular, national organisation for design and architecture will be unique in the world.
The event
As the Design Council and CABE come together, what do you hope this will mean for design?
Sir Christopher Frayling
When the architects start doing business with the designers and it becomes seamless. Here’s the environment, here are the buildings, here’s the everyday environment, here are the everyday objects, and products and services, and they meet in the middle. But the gears do grind! I wish you luck, it’s going to be a slightly choppy ride but when it works it’s wonderful. I’ve got thirty years of seeing it work and it’s great.
Jane Priestman OBE
We have a Japanese expression which I’ve used many times which said that the power of two equals 10 and therefore we expect great things from the merger.
Terry Morgan, Crossrail
We’ve been using CABE to help us with our design concepts and to use them as an independent challenge to how best to bring design to the fore, in terms of our stations. So I’m hoping now with the future of CABE being assured, that that relationship can continue.
Joe Ferry
It seems like a natural synergy to bring those two together because the Design Council to be thinking about design through the whole experience someone has from every touchpoint to the whole environment. So bringing the environment side into the Design Council seems like a lovely synergy that should come to fruition with great success.
Baroness Whitaker
Well, I think it’ll be in a powerful position to make government understand the profound impact design has on the everyday lives of ordinary people, their wellbeing, how they get their children to school, their transport systems, the houses they live in, so it’s terribly important. The other thing is, it’s going to be in a position to push design education as being an important skill for everybody; primary school, secondary school, tertiary education, it is one of the few problem solving skills…team building, and it’s really neglected. And we can do it very well.
Diane Smith
I think there’s tremendous potential for them to come together in terms of being more pragmatic in the way that design is approached for social justice so that design is not just for people with money or with aesthetic values but that the link between CABE and the aestheticism of the Design Council will actually mean that where we live and the neighbourhoods we live in will be better than they have been in the past.
Lord Bichard
Clearly what I want to see is design having a more powerful voice. I don’t think governments have ever really understood the power of design, so I hope that bringing planners, architects, landscape architects, graphic designers, communication designers, fashion designers together – and hopefully getting them to work effectively together – will give us much more clout and people just won’t be able not to hear what we say. Because design is the key to creativity and innovation, that’s what we want – it’s the key to better public services, better neighbourhoods, better communities and more people need to understand that.
Sir John Sorrell
And join me in a toast to the new organisation, to design and architecture and to the future.