The Design and Learning Conference 2010 explored in depth the multiple relationships between design and learning from a policy making point of view. David Kester started proceedings and talked about the role of design policy, the future of the Design Council and next-practice opportunities for designers.
Over my seven years as Chief Executive of the UK Design Council I have been lucky to participate in some rare design events around the world. This conference will be one to remember – not only as it is enjoyable to be among friends - but also because it marks an important milestone in design history. Design researchers may refer to these two days as marking a whole new phase in design action from policy-makers – European design policy.
The role of design policy
I think I may be right in claiming that the first example of industrially focused design policy was in the UK. Now I have said this – I am sure that someone here will correct me. But if it wasn’t the first example it was certainly very significant. In 1835 a liberal politician, Sir Christopher Ewarts, serving within the government of Prime Minister Melbourne – mentor to Queen Victoria – chaired a Select Committee on Arts and manufacturing. It was at a time when the barriers to trade were coming down and politicians were anxious about our ability to compete within Europe. Plus ca change!
Sir Christopher’s Committee put forward a bold idea - to found the first Government-sponsored school of design. One of it’s first students – at the tender age of thirteen years was Christopher Dresser who is remembered in the history books as the world’s first industrial design consultant. Significantly he came from a humble family in Glasgow – an early example, perhaps, of how design education is a great leveller and one way to accelerate social mobility. The school grew and went on to become the Royal College of Art – our premier postgraduate design school. Other institutions followed and academics have concluded that this example of design policy from over 150 years ago laid the foundations for a strong design education system and a vibrant design sector now worth over €13 billion per annum in revenues alone.
This audience is full of designers and policy experts. I don’t need to persuade you of the importance of design in policy. You know it and understand its role in your own country. You know when your government has recognised the value of design, how it has taken positive action and what impact that has had. I would hazard a guess that some of the most significant moments in your own history of design policy will have coincided with tough economic times. Design policy has frequently been a distress purchase – or maybe that’s unfair and it is designers who have been knights in shining armour – such as the modernists who responded so eloquently to the consequences of the depression in the 1930’s. In his recent book “The Great Reset” the economist Richard Florida attributes wellsprings of design and innovation to the great recessions of history.
Certainly in the UK politicians of all parties have supported design across the decades and in particular during years of hardship and economic challenge. The Churchill government decided to found the Design Council in 1944 – during the war years - as part of its advance planning for reconstruction. In the wake of the dark days of the ‘70s recession, Margaret Thatcher swept to power and publicly backed design with a seminar at No10 Downing St. She publicly took on the teaching establishment and challenged them to re-think the school curriculum on design. More recently, in 2005, our last Chairman, Sir George Cox, was commissioned by the then Chancellor, Gordon Brown to produce a report on the role of design to business competitiveness. It followed the Chancellor’s visit to China and new predictions on the rise of the BRIC nations. The outcome included investment in new multi-disciplinary university centres that combine design, business management and science.
The future of the UK Design Council
Governments don’t sponsor such activities without a keen eye on their return on investment. Last month Britain underwent the toughest public spending round in our living memory. One of Britain’s most senior businessmen – Martin Temple, Chairman of the Engineering Employers Federation – was asked by David Willetts, our Universities and Science Minister, to review the Design Council. As you may have heard, the outcome for the Design Council was favourable. It has to adapt but receives the wholehearted support of the government as its advisor on design.
Why? Why back design policy right now? The crux of Martin Temple’s paper is summarised in his own words, as follows:
Performance is a good measure of value [and] some of the current activities of the Design Council can help the government address its most pressing issues such as securing economic growth and productivity gains in the public sector Design Council Review
Three themes for the EU to consider
So what evidence does the Temple Review provide of the practical economic power of design policy and how might this apply to the European Union? Three themes emerge from the report’s appraisal of the Design Council.
Firstly, increasing the competitive chances of small firms.
SMEs are the lifeblood of our economy – they make up 99.9% of all UK business. Over the last three years the Design Council has used its roster of world-class Design Associates to work with 1,800 CEOs and their Boards to strengthen management awareness of design as a strategic tool. On average every £1 spent delivers £10 of economic value recorded in profits, sales and jobs as Gross Value Added (or GVA).
One recent example is a young company that has invented a mouldable silicon called Sugru that can be used to repair household goods. With help from their Design Associate, the MD has gone from a standing-start to attract investment and her product has just been named by TIME magazine as one of the best inventions of 2010. I know that we are not alone in providing mentoring to small business. Could we create a common knowledge framework, share best practice and help lift the chances of the 20 million SMEs across the EU?
The second major theme emerging from the Temple report is around the commercialization of new technologies.
The UK government has made a strong commitment to knowledge driven-economy rooted in new discoveries and with a strong emphasis on green technology. They have ring-fenced the science budget, committed €240m to new Technology & Innovation Centres, similar to the Fraunhofer network in Germany, and announced a new Green Investment Bank.
However, our research and practical experience at the Design Council has shown that design is too often the missing link in turning new discoveries into workable business propositions. Too often this is where we fall behind our peers in the US. I consider it a high-level skills gap. So in the same way that we have mentored CEOs in business, lately we have also supported research teams in universities.
For instance, at Oxford University one team were working on a new algorithm that could theoretically identify and compare the output from any number of different appliances including the combined use of electricity, gas and water. The implications for smart metering were deemed to be significant but the idea was stuck in the lab. The design input resolved a range of practical issues. More importantly it helped create visualizations and a business presentation to persuade investors who stomped up the first €884,000 and followed that up with a further €4.7m. The Navetas Smart Meter is now in full trials with a major energy supplier.
Alongside many other examples this work has provided clear-cut evidence that design methods can help de-risk investment in science and accelerate ideas to the market. The EU’s recent Innovation Union communication states – “our strengths in design and creativity must be better exploited. And the commercialization of science provides such an opportunity”. Just consider. Together we have the most formidable design sector - a tentative estimate puts the total turnover of the European design industry at €36 billion. It is sought the world over for its understanding of consumer behaviour. What better way to raise innovation output than build the links with science research?
The third theme highlighted in the Temple report is public sector reform.
This is a hot topic in the UK and I know it is a shared issue for European nations. The cost of services continues to rise at rates that are simply unaffordable. The Design Council is currently working on designing new ways for the public sector to deliver services for less money. Designers have the tools and abilities to support service providers to re-think, prototype and re-design their services. We do it everyday in other industries – airlines, hospitality, retail, entertainment, banking.
Over the last year we mentored ten key public services across the UK. Some central government services such as company registration and others at a local level such as an inner city homelessness service. Within a one-year period a design-led approach helped public sector workers identify over €35m of immediate and repeatable savings and a projected Social Return on Investment of £26 for every £1 spent. This isn’t just about best practice – it’s next practice.
I know that our colleagues in Denmark are trying similar things – I know this because we swap notes. With some encouragement EU nations could be world leaders in service design and at helping turn social challenges into new market opportunities.
These are three of the big themes that Martin Temple highlighted as benefits to our government of retaining and integrating the Design Council into what it calls its “innovation infrastructure”.
Conclusions
So where does this leave us? The headline news of bailouts and austerity creates an obsession with recession. Anyone would think the world economy is shrinking. Far from it. World economic output for 2010 is expected to rise by 4.25% – with much of the growth in emerging markets. Real GDP growth in China was at 9.1% last year and the OECD predicts this buoyant rate to continue.
Two things will continue to drive growth. The first is Creativity – humans are innately creative and enterprising – and the more free and open the society the more the ideas are generated. The second thing that will drive growth is technology. The pace of discovery has not abated – quite the contrary it is accelerating. The connection between creativity and technological innovation is design. It helps turn our ideas into practical form. It is the deep human instinct to turn technology to our human advantage.
We face unprecedented challenge - well known to us all: climate change and environmental concerns; the ageing population and preventative health; security for a safe society.
Design can provide us with the neutral human-centred space to generate the new thinking required. It is as simple as that. We have a tremendous shared asset in design. It is deeply engrained in our cultures – for some countries represented here like France, Germany and Italy and our Scandinavian friends design is a defining feature of their national characteristic.
This is something to capitalise on within education and training at all levels – particularly in business for the benefit of our senior managers in industry and within the public sector. Design-led innovation is the way we can both build markets and fix problems. We can strengthen the competitive position of our businesses, accelerate our science to market and turn some of our societal challenges into market opportunities.
You may say this is a rosy picture. I say to you in response that design knows no other way than to create optimistic futures.
Designers know no boundaries. Whether at Philips Design in the Netherlands or Nokia in London the mix of nationalities in our design studios reflects the global world we all operate in. The more our governments chose to collaborate the more we can pool our knowledge, strengthen our capabilities and help our communities to innovate and compete. For me this is the essence of an open design policy of European nations.