After decades of uncoordinated activity punctuated by moments of brilliance – think Le Corbusier, and Philippe Starck – the French design industry has spent the last two decades putting its house in order.
The early 1980s saw the launch of the Agency for the Promotion of Industrial Design (APCI) and the National Higher School for Industrial Design (ENSCI).
Today, design has infiltrated industry on a scale never previously seen. French car manufacturer, Renault has roughly trebled the size of its design department in the past 20 years. Major companies increasingly call on design consultants, using their expertise and cachet as selling points. The railway company SNCF, for example, used Christian Lacroix for the interior design of its TGV trains.
Design promotion
France has no government-backed design body akin to the UK’s Design Council. The big industry player is APCI, which – although created by the ministers for industry and culture in 1983 – is now an independent organisation. It aims to promote French design within industry, public life, and internationally.
Among APCI’s main activities are:
- Panorama Design France, a biannual French/English guide to developments in French design
- Observeur du Design, an annual award and exhibition recognising collaborations between companies and designers
- La Chronique du Design, a newspaper published to coincide with APCI events
- The AFD (Alliance Française de Designers) is a membership group for designers of all types. It’s a member of BEDA, and works to advise and support members in their work.
Additional support for design has come from Paris Développement, which is working to stimulate innovation in the design industry. It provides funding for new businesses and projects, promotes the industry with events such as the Paris Innovation Tours, and raises the profile of design as a profession.
One of its projects has been the République Innovation hub, which merges technology with Paris’s more traditional industries – fashion, publishing and the arts. Established in January 2003 and located on the Rue du Faubourg du Temple, République Innovation is aimed primarily at artistic and design businesses.
Facts and figures
Paris is the base for 70% of French designers and half of the country’s design companies. Employment in design has doubled every ten years since 1980.
Paris and the surrounding regions are home to more than 9,000 designers and 20,000 people employed in the design industries, representing more than 2,000 individual companies. These design companies cover textiles, packaging, graphics, environment, multimedia and more.
The average turnover per company is €1.1m with over half of the total sector sales derived from packaging design.
The only design magazine in France is étapes, first published in 1994. It has a circulation of 50,000.
Design education
Paris alone is home to 19 schools of various kinds of design. The institutions below are just a sample of France’s educational offerings.
Ensad (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) is a Parisian school of decorative arts, that dates back to 1766. Areas of study include animation, interior design, visual communication, industrial design, and photography.
For more information, visit www.ensad.fr
ENSCI also situated in Paris, was founded in 1982, when France was starting to tackle the idea of design in a serious way. It’s still the only national higher education establishment in France dedicated to industrial design.
For more information, visit www.ensci.com
EEGP (École Européenne de Graphisme Publicitaire) is even younger than ENSCI. Based in the city of Angers, it opened its doors in 1991. Combining traditional and modern techniques, the EEGP is a graphic design school committed to producing an annual crop of graphic designers, illustrators and web designers.
For more information, visit www.eegp.fr
ESAG/Penninghen is a prestigious private school in Paris which awards two distinct degrees. The first, Graphic Design-Art Direction, qualifies graduates for careers in image-making and visual communication. The second, a degree in Interior Architecture, leads to careers in architecture, scenography, furniture design, and 3D design.
For more information, visit www.penninghen.fr