Since the Council of Industrial Design (now the Design Council) was founded in 1944 to develop the new industrial designers post-war Britain needed, the UK design industry has had a champion that promotes by all practicable means the improvement of design in the products, services and business of Britain.
But the Design Council is by no means the only organisation that supports design and designers in the UK.
Design promotion
The Design Business Association (DBA) exists to promote professional excellence through productive partnerships between commerce and the design industry - and to champion effective design which improves the quality of people's lives. Its annual Design Effectiveness Awards and Inclusive Design Challenge give plenty of opportunity for designers to demonstrate design that makes a difference.
The Chartered Society of Designers is not just a UK institution. It's the world's largest professional body for designers with over 3,000 members in 34 countries and represents designers from all disciplines.
British Design Innovation aims to increase collaborative innovation between designers and industry. In April 2007 its final transitional step away from being a design industry body to being a collaborative innovation and design organisation was the launch of the Innovation Bank, which enables members to trade IP, concepts, propositions, technologies, applied research and to make innovation requests from each other.
D&AD was founded in the 1960s by a group of London-based designers and art directors including David Bailey, Terence Donovan, Alan Fletcher and Colin Forbes. It's an educational charity dedicated to celebrating creative communication, rewarding its practitioners, and raising standards across the industry. Since it started, it's been awarding Yellow Pencils to designers willing to put their work in front of some of the industry's harshest critics.
Design Wales provides design support for Welsh businesses and encourages the use of design in Welsh industry and education.
Facts and figures
Did you know that there are 185,500 designers in the UK? That 62% of them are under 40? Or that 61% of UK designers are men?
The Design Council's research on the UK design industry, on how UK businesses use design and on how the UK's design capability compares to that in other nations, presents a comprehensive picture that compares UK abilities now against how we worked in the past.
Where to see design in the UK
The Design Museum in London is the first museum in the world to examine the role of design in everyday life. It contains permanent historical collections, including furniture, domestic appliances and cameras, plus temporary themed collections. The Dyson education department runs workshops and study days for students and teachers at all levels from primary to further and higher education.
The Victoria and Albert Museum has a permanent display of some of the UK's finest examples of product design and its temporary exhibitions have focused on fashion design, design in China and graphic design in the last year.