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Design Returns A review of national design strategy 2004–08



Design Returns A review of national design strategy 2004–08

2Sir Michael Bichard, Chairman

4David Kester, Chief Executive

6Competitiveness

14Sustainability

20Innovation

28Presenting the evidence

Contents



Design Returns 3

I accepted the challenge

to be Chairman of the Design

Council because I firmly

believe that now, more than

ever, we need creativity,

innovation and ingenuity to

tackle the most pressing

issues facing us in this country

and around the world.

As the national strategic

body for design, the Design

Council is uniquely placed

to confront these issues,

sitting at the interface between

government, industry,

education and design. Our

goal is straightforward,

clear and ambitious: to help

the UK make better use of

design than any other country

in the world.

Since I started the job I have

been struck by the

remarkable achievements

of my predecessor, Sir George

Cox. I inherit an organisation

with a powerful reputation

and this report is, in part,

a celebration of the successes

of his tenure. His review

for the Treasury, published in

2005, emphasised that

design is the key to turning

creativity into innovation.

As such, it marked a watershed

in government policy and set

out an ambitious programme

of measures that are now

being implemented across

the country.

But the world does not

stand still. Even since 2005,

environmental threats

have become more urgent,

representing possibly thebiggest challenge mankind

has ever faced in peacetime.

There is also a growing

recognition that social issues

such as healthcare cannot

be solved by simply spending

more money and that, if

we are to make headway,

radical innovation is required.

Meanwhile, the economic

climate has grown markedly

tougher.

This sets the context for

today’s design agenda.

Design’s traditional strengths –

such as adding value

to businesses so they can

compete in the global

marketplace – are more

important than ever.

But design’s proven ability

to help ideas and innovation

flourish could also help us

deliver better public services,

exploit our strengths

in science and technology

and tackle issues such

as sustainability and crime.

As ever, the challenge is

as great for the client as

for the designer. The idea that

creativity is the preserve

of a gifted few has finally

been debunked and designersand clients must now

recognise that the public are

not just stakeholders but

participants in the creative act.

The best, surest way to safe-

guard our future is to ensure

that design engages with

every part of industry

and every level of society

because, as this report

so vividly demonstrates, good

design is good for the UK.

Sir Michael Bichard, Chairman



5

As Michael says, good

design is most definitely good

for the UK.

We’ve always had strong

evidence to prove it.

It’s helped us make the case

for putting design at the

core of how we work

as a nation, whether it’s in

business or the public sector.

The facts and figures

show that the more you use

design to liberate ideas,

accelerate innovation and

inform decision making, the

better the returns.

But today that case is even

stronger. This review is

full of stories of how design

has helped people and

organisations.

They’re stories of businesses

facing difficult decisions

about how to stay competitive,

get a foothold in tough

markets or grow bigger.

They’re also stories of people

working to find new ways

to solve the problems they

see around them in daily

life. The returns on design

investment come in pounds

and pence, but also better

quality of life.

Central to these stories are

programmes we have

developed over the last three

years which help breed

the confidence to use design

effectively in business and

the public s ector.

Alongside this practical work,

we’ve helped create theclimate and conditions for

design to thrive, whether it’s

influencing national policy

on business competitiveness

through the Cox Review

or shaping far-reaching plans

to enhance the skills of the

UK’s design sector and keep

it among the world’s best.

We are now building on

this platform to generate future

design returns for the UK.

David Kester, Chief Executive

Design Returns



Competitiveness From a standing start in 2004, Designing Demand

enabled 124 companies to use design more strategically

and effectively. By the end of 2007, 1,556 firms had benefited.

On average, for every £1 spent on design, companies who

received our intensive mentoring returned a £50 increase in

turnover above expected levels.



India now has a national

design policy to make

‘designed in India’ a byword

for quality. It intends to set

up specialised design

hubs for industrial sectors,

establish four more design

institutes and create a

Design Council equivalent.

India faces massive social

challenges but it has a highly

educated workforce (with

48.7 million graduates at the

last count), is investing heavily

in science and technology(India’s US patents more than

quadrupled between 2000

and 2007) and has a booming

design industry.

Russia has not used its

vast reserves of cash and

energy to transform

its business culture. But the

government is working with

the EU to make its innovation

policies more effective and

make better use of a large, well

educated workforce.

Brazil is home to a vibrant,

serial award-winning

design industry and, in 2006,

became the first South

American country to pass

a law to stimulate innovation.

Booming investment

and consumer demand have

fuelled economic growth,

suggesting the country

might finally disprove the cliché

that ‘Brazil is an emerging

economy and always will be’.

Briefing

BRIC

The UK’s biggest competitive

challenge in the 21st century

will come from the BRIC

countries (Brazil, Russia, India

and China). BRICs account

for 30 per cent of the world’s

economic growth since

2000, attract 15 per cent of

the world’s foreign direct

investment and are responsible

for 15 per cent of world trade.

BRICs are big, modernising

rapidly, increasingly

sophisticated technologically

and investing heavily in design.

Within a decade, China

could be the world’s second

largest economy and the

government has the policies

in place to ensure that,

by then, products will not

just be made in China but

also designed there.

The flourishing, if fledgling,

Chinese design industry

may already be worth £3bn.

Depending on what definition

you use, China already

graduates 30,000-100,000

design students a year.

But, with innovation at the

heart of its new five-year

economic plan, it aims to

treble its number of design

schools to 1,600 to fulfil

its target of 20 per cent

year-on-year growth in the

creative industries.

To compete, British companies must

differentiate themselves by adding value to

their goods and services and signicantly

increasing their productivity. Our research

shows that, through effective use of design,

businesses can add value, become more

productive and gain market share. For every

£10 design-conscious companies investin design, they make a prot of £8. That is

a phenomenal return on investment. Design’s

value is increasingly recognised by investors

in the UK stock market: the share prices

of design-conscious companies out-performed

other rms by 200 per cent between

1995 and 2004.

Some British businesses are getting the

message: 44 per cent of UK manufacturers

invest more in design than they did three

years ago. But many small and medium-sized

enterprises (SMEs) are sleepwalking

into a position of competitive disadvantage

because they lack the knowledge, skills

and experience to manage design.

Using design to make SMEs more competitive

and innovative is a matter of national

economic importance. It’s a fact recognised

by government, which in 2005 approved

recommendations in the Cox Review

of Creativity in Business aimed at helping

businesses exploit design.

Enterprising companies that are already

using design are proving that it provides a

powerful competit ive edge and that, in

the 21st century, the surest way to out-perform

competitors is to out-think them.

Competitiveness The UK’s economy faces unprecedented challenges.

To overcome them and compete in fast-changing markets,

businesses must add value instead of cutting prices. There’s hard

evidence that using design will help them do exactly that.

9Design Returns Competitiveness

Designing amore competitiveeconomy

Across the world, competition has never been

so intense. International barriers that used

to impede the ow of goods, services, capitaland labour have collapsed. Revolutionary

advances in science and technology have created

new business opportunities. And plummeting

transport and communication costs have made

location much less relevant than it used to be.

These factors have caused a seismic shift in

the way the world does business. With vast

domestic markets, access to a large, cheap

labour force and billions being invested in

technology and research, India and China will

soon make it impossible for British business

to compete purely on pr ice. Even quality, Japan’s

economic miracle teaches us, will not protect

the UK for long. The British economy is one

of the most open in the world – trade already

accounts for roughly half the nation’s GDP –

and the illusion that some businesses are ‘safe’

from foreign competition may soon be painfully

dispelled. At best, British businesses have

ve or ten years before Chinese and Indian

companies match them creatively.

Alan G Lafley,

Chief Executive Officer,

Procter & Gamble

Design, not price or

echnology, is the ultimate

competitive advantage in

he 21st century.’

Gordon Brown,

Prime Minister

‘Design is not incidental

to modern economies, but

integral; not a part of

success but the heart of it.’

The DesignCouncil’s researchshows that…

39%of rapidly growing UK

companies regard design

as integral to their business.

Only

7%of firms whose turnover isn’t

growing agree.

43%of companies which add a lot

of value to their core product or

service see design as integral,

compared to

15%of firms that haven’t

added value.

43%of businesses who see

design as integral compete

mainly on price,

compared to

65%of those who don’t see design

as integral.

Vicky Pryce,

Chief Economic Advisor and Director

General, Economics, BERR

‘We need to ensure

all businesses across all

sectors are thinking

more creatively about

the challenges they face

and making more effective

use of design.’



anet Walker,

Commercial & Finance Director,

Ascot Racecourse

Design matters. Any

business that wants to

ncrease sales and

any government body

rying to protect UK plc

from low-cost overseas

competition cannot afford

o ignore the importance

of good design.’

Briefing

Design Associates

Lesley Page is a Design

Associate who has been

chosen by the Design Council

to mentor companies

on the Designing Demand

programme.

She started working with

Designing Demand in May 2006

and has since helped more

than 20 companies, mostlysmall businesses. The firms

may have different needs and

operate in different sectors but

she likes to start each project

in a very similar way. ‘We begin

with a getting-to-know-you

session, where managers just

talk about their business,

which helps us to understand

their goals and unearth

any cultural issues that may

constrain or influence what

they can do. Then we work with

the company to discuss

its strategic priorities using

a proven framework with

supporting design tools. The

process then helps to develop

a design project to support

those priorities.’

In her career, Page has

managed branding and design

projects for such clients

as Fujitsu, Motorola and UEFA,

been a director of a brand

consultancy and head

of division in a plc delivering

marketing solutions for the

web, and acted as a business

advisor to creative and

digital businesses. She firmly

believes that, ‘Sometimes,

you have to demystify the

design and marketing process

to make sure clients can move

forward with confidence.’

Peter Luff MP,

Chairman,

Business & Enterprise Committee

‘Our businesses must

export aggressively and

continue to move up

the value chain. We have

done these things since

the Industrial Revolution,

but we need to do

so with even greater

determination to play on

a wider stage.’

Case study

Aga

The problem

Aga, maker of the iconic Aga and

Rayburn cookers, looked to

Designing Demand for new product

ideas but discovered its brandshad become unclear.

The solution

Aga used Designing Demand

to clarify, differentiate, promote

and extend its core brands.

Aga launched a simple 13 amp

electric cooker for customers

who didn’t live in large farmhouses,

a new Rayburn model to suit

small urban homes and also new

cookware and tableware ranges.

The return

Aga’s profits rose by 14 per cent

and exports soared by 38 per cent

between 2003–04 and 2005–06.

The new cookware range increased

revenue from that market from

£2m to £7m in four years. Rayburn’s

share of the company’s sales has

almost trebled.

All the services use design

to drive strategic change.

To be accepted, firms must

show they can and will

invest significantly in design

and that senior management

will be integral to the

process, so strategic decisions

can be made quickly. Design

Associates, experts in

branding, product develop-

ment and d esign management,

work with managers to

identify where design can

stimulate innovation and createnew opportunities.

The programme is currently

available in most English

regions. It launched in London

in summer 2008, with the

remaining regions set to follow.

mproving businessperformance

n 2004, we launched a pioneering programme

called Designing Demand to make SMEs

an engine of national economic growth.Following the Cox Review’s r ecommendation,

t is now helping companies across t he

UK work with designers to transform their

business. Many directors initially assume

hat design will help them restyle or rebrand

but they invariably discover that it can redene

heir strategy, reorganise their product

ange, reduce costs or open up new markets.

To give just one example of a more mature

business , the iconic co oker company Aga

generated £5m in new business after

using the programme to launch a new range

of cookware.

mproving businessperformance

Design Returns Competitiveness 110

Across the UK, businesses are discovering how to get the most

from design through our Designing Demand programme.

t’s helped more than 1,500 firms develop the skills to choose,

brief and manage designers and make design part of their

strategy. And the returns on their design investment have

been impressive.

Aga’s experience is remarkable, but not

untypical. Designing Demand’s services,

tailored to help businesses with different

needs, have enhanced the performance

of rms in such diverse sectors as garden

ceramics, nanotechnology, household

cleaning products, eco-friendly cars, dyes

and pigments, heavy industry, fuel cellsand cutlery. And the programme has proved

a lifeline for many hi-tech start-ups,

which can struggle to tur n their good ideas

into investment and revenue.

Businesses have enjoyed gains like hefty

year-on-year sales increases of 35, 25

and 50 per cent following the rebranding

and repackaging of a key product

range, orders worth £1m for a redesigned

product and multi-million dollar investment

after discovering new applications for

emerging technology.

The evidence that Designing Demand

delivers results is compelling. A study of

75 companies using its Generate service

forecast that the programme would help yield

an expected total of £11.6m in new sales

and safeguard £2.5m in existing sales. Ninety-

seven per cent of businesses expect sales

to increase and 90 per cent expect prots to

do the same. Perhaps not s urprisingly,

30 per cent are already engaged in follow-up

design projects.

In the Immerse service for larger, established

rms, nearly nine out of ten businesses

said the design projects they’d completed were

critical to their success, and sales outran

forecasts by 14 per cent. For every £1 invested

in design, turnover rose by £50.

Briefing

Designing Demand

More than 1,500 of the UK’s

smaller businesses have found

that Designing Demand can

make them more competitive.

Businesses taking part in theprogramme first attend a

workshop that makes design

more relevant to their business

needs. They can then

apply to take part in one of

three transformational

services: Generate, which

focuses on a specific project

for small and medium-sized

businesses (SMEs) with

growth potential; Innovate,

which helps hi-tech ventures

overcome their business,

technology and market

challenges through multiple

design projects; and Immerse,

a service for larger businesses

that tackles strategic

challenges through multiple

design projects.

The Immerse service for established

businesses saw these returns.

£1Investment in

Design

Tu rn ove r I nc re as e P ro fit In cre as e

£50 £2

Designing DemandImmerse

(above expected results) (above expected results)



Case study

InterSections

The problem

How do you fuel debate on

the continuing evolution of designand its relationship with other

disciplines?

The solution

Our two-day InterSections

conference staged in

NewcastleGateshead in October

2007, brought 34 leading

international thinkers and hundreds

of designers together for lively

discussion on how design is

transforming in response to a world

in transition.

The return

The conference was hailed as a

success and as an important forum

for discussing the future of design

practice.

It provided insights on how the

market for design is becoming

more complex, global and

demanding and how designers are

responding by venturing beyond

their traditional craft role to become

co-creators and strategists.

The findings have informed

the work of the UK Design SkillsAlliance.

Colleges

and universities

Network of visiting design

professionals – bringing

working designers into degree

courses.

Multi-disciplinary design

network – exploring how

design, business, technology

and other fields can work

together.

Careers advice and guidance –

clear information to help

students choose the right course

and the right job.

The designindustry

Designers’ Business

Knowledge Base – a guide

to what professional practice

really means for design

businesses, including examples,

signposting and tools.

Professional development

campaign – a drive to boost

availability and take-up

of professional development,

promoting new and existing

courses and piloting new

responses to unmet needs.

Strategic analysis and

future thinking – researching

tomorrow’s skills needs,

analysing the findings and

leading debate on the best

responses.

Continuous professional

development – a guide to the

best CPD and work to develop

new ways of delivering it, or

creating new courses to build

skills in areas like sustainability

and leadership.

For the full Blueprint, visit:

www.designcouncil.org.uk/skills

Is the UK design industry ready for the

challenge? There are some worrying signs,

notably the fact that only artists do as

little workplace training as designers and

career paths are perennially difcult to

dene in an environment where 85 per cent

of businesses employ fewer than ve staff

and have short lifespans. Rigid structuresdon’t sit easily with the dynamic creativity

that gives UK design its distinctive character,

but nor is a uid environment conducive

to skills development. The result is that

designers’ careers frequently plateau in their

mid-40s and some of their creative potential

goes unrealised.

The education system that feeds the industry

also has issues to confront. Design is

highly popular at school, but the subject and

its teaching are often too distant from the

reality of professional practice. In many cases

the origins of Design & Technology courses

bear the imprint of their forerunners in

Woodwork and Home Economics. In colleges

and universities, there is little focus

on multi-disciplinary teams or core business

skills that will prepare designers for the

modern workplace.

There’s growing realisation that UK design

has to steer a path between embracing

new standards of professional practice and

preserving the craft and creativity that set it

apart. In this light, the need for high quality,

accessible and uniform training and career

development is becoming more apparent.

The good news is that the design sector has

united to address the situation. More

than 4,000 people have been involved in a

consultation on the issues that has led to

a plan, the Design Blueprint, co-ordinated

by the Design Council, agreed by government

and backed by the industry. The task now

is to take that plan forward.

132

UK design is respected and in demand. Its creativity and

economic clout are clear. But what about its future? Does it

have the right skills to handle a fast-moving world, rapidly

changing client demands and a bigger, more strategic role in

responding to global issues?

Design Returns Competitiveness

s British design skilledenough?

The UK’s dynamic creative sector now

accounts for seven per cent of GDP – roughly

he same as the nancial services sector –and design has contributed hugely to t hat

success story. At the last count, the UK design

ndustry generated £11.6bn in tur nover

and employed 185,500 designers. Its skills are

respected and sought after across the world.

But the world is changing. Technological

advances and economic globalisation

are levelling the playing eld – and the UK’s

competitors have seen their opportunity.

China is busy adding creative strength to its

ow-cost manufacturing capability, having

opened around 400 design schools in the last

wo decades. Korea trains 36,000 new

designers every year, and Finland, Sweden,

Denmark, Germany, India, Singapore

and New Zealand are all investing heavily

n design skills. Already, eight out of ten

UK design rms face international competition

of some kind.

To preserve its lead, UK design will need

o stake out new territory, using entrepreneurial

skill to carve out new openings. It may not

be enough in future just to execute a client’s

design brief. Instead, designers will

ncreasingly have to add value by helping to

shape the strategy that produces the brief.

Our designers will also have to develop skills

n fast-emerging disciplines like service

design and be comfortable working in multi-

disciplinary teams in a way that’s becoming

ncreasingly common in business. And

hey will need new expertise to help clients

uncover opportunities arising from the need

for sustainability.

Briefing

Design Blueprint

The industry-backed Design

Blueprint, co-ordinated

by the Design Council and

Creative & Cultural Skills, setsout a plan linking design

skills with the development of

the sector overall. It calls

for an industry-wide UK Design

Skills Alliance to implement

ten key measures to support

designers through their

education and into their careers.

They are:

Schools

Designers working with

schools – enabling teachers

and students to work

with professional designers.

Design Mark – rewarding

schools for delivering high

quality design education.

Teacher development –

strengthening links

between teacher training and

professional practice.

Jeremy Myerson,

Professor of Design Studies,

Royal College of Art, London

‘Designers have always

jumped over the fence

into business consultancy.

But it has been given

a new urgency – and a

new legitimacy – by the

social and environmental

pressures that now crowd

in on business.’

Case study

NextNet

The problem

How do you develop and support

creative leaders with the right

combination of design and

entrepreneurial skills to spearhead

the development of the design

sector?

The solution

The Design Council, with support

from the government’s Cultural

Leadership Programme, has piloted

a scheme to identify and nurtureleadership talent.

NextNet aimed to create a network

of future design leaders and

foster their strategic thinking and

understanding of business,

giving them the ability to influence

other business disciplines in

generating solutions.

NextNet worked through an

informal programme of mentoring,

coaching seminars and networking

that gave advice on areas like

effective pitching, communicating

vision and building teams.

In the six-month scheme, companies

including agencies and in-house

design teams each nominated

participants to form two-person

teams that learned from each other

and from senior mentors drawn

from diverse businesses such as

Virgin Atlantic and The Guardian,

and including designers Dick Powell

(pictured) and Michael Johnson.

The return

The project showed that mentoringis a flexible, personalised and

convenient way for mid-career

designers to broaden their skills.

It also gave the mentors a valuable

chance to swap insights and

experiences about how to develop

people. Learning from the project

will contribute to more work in this

field, planned for 2009.

Janice Kirkpatrick,

Director, Graven Images,

Glasgow

‘Rising competition from

abroad adds pressure

to an industry already

long overdue for an

overhaul and perhaps not

equipped to support its

clients or the development

of our economy.’

P h o t o

: R e n z o M a z z o l i n i



Sustainability In 2005 one of our teams worked in a draughty

Victorian terraced house in Lewisham to explore design’s

role in energy efficiency. In the process, we prototyped

a service to help residents navigate the mass of advice on

energy and the environment. Inspired by our work, the

London Development Agency ran a pilot study with 40 homes.

Now a Green Homes scheme is being rolled out across

London to 5,000 homes.



Design support for the

public sector – developing

a new version of Designing

Demand which places

best practice sustainable

design at the heart of public

service innovation.

Public engagement –

through the Dott programme,

local communities work

with designers to develop

new ways to support

sustainable living.

Co-ordinating design policy –

exploiting opportunities

to stimulate change through

policies, for example the

creation of a new standardfor sustainable design with the

British Standards Institute.

Briefing

If the UK is to reduce its

greenhouse gas emissions

by 20 per cent by 2020,

every household must play its

part. In two very different

parts of the UK – Lewisham,

a London borough, and

Ashington, a mining town inNorth East England – we

have run two projects which

could contribute to reducing

the energy consumed in

the nation’s homes.

These projects have targeted

domestic energy because

this accounts for one third of

the UK’s emissions and

British homes waste more

energy than any others in

Europe. With British energy

prices having doubled in

the past three years, innovative

thinking is needed both

to cut emissions and attack

fuel poverty.

In 2005, as part of our Future

Currents project, designers

and other experts spent six

weeks in a draughty Victorian

terraced house in south

London to explore how house-

holders could easily use less

energy. The design thinking

from that project – particularly

the idea that consumers

needed to be guided through

a mass of advice by a ‘green

concierge’ – helped to inspire

the Green Homes programme.

Satisfying and increasing this demand,while still producing something economicallyviable, calls on designers to think andwork in new ways. It may mean specifyingnon-toxic, sustainably produced, renewableor easily recyclable materials. It couldbe selecting energy-efcient manufacturing

processes and designing for re-use, recyclingand re-manufacture. It might call for productsto be replaced altogether with services. Or itmay be that minimising built-in obsolescenceis the best route to sustainable consumption.

It is up to designers to master newapproaches so they can integrate sustainabilityinto the development of products andservices that shift customers’ aspirationsand stimulate a new market for sustainableofferings. Designers must also be preparedto make the business case for change.Some businesses are visibly adoptingsustainability, but others need convincingbased on future returns. Retail giantWal-Mart has begun to attack the problemof packaging, which accounts for a fth ofall waste put out by households. It reducedpackaging for just one toy line and madeannual savings of $2.4m, saving over 3,800trees and more than 1,000 barrels of oil.But while this is a positive exemplar, thebulk of our production and consumptionsystems are still geared to material-intensive,wasteful and unsustainable practices.

The business opportunity is very real.In his report for t he Treasury, Sir NicholasStern predicts that the market for low-carbon products alone will be worth £500bnby 2050. Businesses which are rst to ndcost-effective ways of bringing sustainableofferings to market can expect to enhancetheir brands and reputations. They might evenreduce their costs into the bargain.

Sustainable design can no longer be theexception, the niche discipline practised byan enlightened mi nority. Environmentaland social consequences have to be a featureof what we all dene as good design.

The Greater London Authority

has invested £4m in Green

Homes in 2007-08. Londoners

glimpsed the sustainable

future in Trafalgar Square,

where an exhibition eco-home,

No 1 Lower Carbon Drive,

stood near Nelson’s Column.

With advice available online,

by phone or through the ‘green

concierge’, Green Homes

could save Londoners £300

a year and cut the capital’s

carbon emissions by 500,000

tonnes a year by 2010.

Designers working on the

Low Carb Lane project, set up

during our Dott 07 programme

in the North East of England,developed a dashboard-style

graphic representation to run on

TV sets to show householders

how much energy they were

using. Experiments with similar

devices in Canada and Spain

reduced household energy use

by as much as 15 per cent.

176 Design Returns Sustainability

Creating amore sustainableworld

t is estimated that more than 80 per centof all product-related environmental

mpacts are determ ined by product design.That stark fact alone should be enougho establish that sustainability is very much

a design issue.

Designing a product is the process ofdeciding how it’s going to be made,what it’s going to be made of and, to aarge extent, what is going to happeno it while it’s being used and how longt lasts. The environmental implicationsof specifying a product are obvious.But the hand of design extends further,o the systems for getting it to the

customer, supporting it and getting rid of it.

Around the world, customers are moreaware than ever that their choiceshave consequences for the planet. Andhey’re starting to demand goods and

services that have as little environmentalmpact as possible, whether it’s carsike the Toyota Prius or Muji’s socks madefrom recycled yarns.

H Lee Scott,

Chief Executive Officer,

Wal-Mart

‘It does not require

a great investment to

reduce packaging,

but it does require a

different mindset.’

Sustainability Design is in prime position to meet the growing need

for products and services that don’t just generate profits

but also make minimum impact on the planet. But designers will

need to think and work in new ways to move sustainability

nto the mainstream.

Case study

Ceres Power

The problem

Ceres Power, which spun out of

Imperial College in 2001, had

developed a promising, timely

technology – fuel cells, an efficient

way of producing energy that

emits much less carbon – but

needed funding to sustain research

and product development.

The solution

Ceres joined the Designing

Demand Innovate service and soon

identified a broader potential

customer base outside the heat

and power industry, making

it more attractive to investors,

and used design to develop a

3D video prototype that helped

generate £10m in funding.

The return

Ceres floated on the AIM market

in 2004, has a market value of

£144m and has formed strategicpartnerships with Centrica and

EDF Energy Network.

Innovations in Energy Saving

Briefing

We are moving sustainability

to the heart of design in

business, the public sector,

education and communities.

Our current work

includes:

Designing Demand –

integrating opportunities

for sustainable design into

the mentoring and advice

given to small and medium-

sized businesses through

our established support

programme.

Design skills – bolstering

designers’ skills through

the professional practiceframework being created

as part of the industry-

backed Design Blueprint,

which also supports design

education in schools, and

new content and modules for

degree courses.

Design Council sustainability initiatives

Deborah Dawton,

Chief Executive,

Design Business Association

‘Many designers want

to make sustainability

an integral part

of their offer so it’s vital

that we fnd a way

of equipping them with

that knowledge.’

Richard Lambert,

Director General, CBI

‘What designers can do,

with others, is imagine

futures that i mprove the

quality of life but use

less carbon.’



Briefing

Dott in a nutshell

Dott (Designs of the time)

kickstarts community-led

innovation and supports

sustainable living. It gets

the public involved in using

design to define problems

and prototype solutions by

working with design teams.

Dott is run with host partner

organisations in a single UK

region or nation. The content is

shaped with a local programme

team to reflect the area’s

priorities and draw on existing

initiatives and projects.

The key elements are:

Public design commissions –community-led design

projects focusing on local

issues with national relevance,

from health and transport

to crime prevention and

energy use. The emphasis

is on using design methods

and tools to generate

prototype concepts.

Education projects –

the main vehicle for involving

young people from primary

school age onwards in

innovation. Schools are given

the tools to tackle design

briefs and students work with

professional designers.

Design showcases –

exhibitions and events

combining the best

regional design by students

and professionals with

outstanding national and

international work.

Dott Festival –

a celebration of design

and the programme’s results,

documenting the public

design commissions. It is

intended for a large scale

audience and involves the

region’s cultural institutions

and programmes.

Case study

Urban Farming

The problem

Global food systems are not

sustainable. So how can design

help to create an alternative

production system – within city limits?

The solution

As part of Dott 07, a project helped

residents use redundant inner-

city space to grow food. It culminated

in a celebratory banquet in

Middlesbrough, which fed 2,500

people, raising public awareness byshowcasing a positive solution.

The return

For the first time, Middlesbrough

has a waiting list for allotments,

prompting a new strategy from the

council, which has committed

to extending the project in 2008 and

secured £150,000 to do just that.

A new co-operative will sell the

food grown back to the community.

Already, local authorities in Glasgow

and Portsmouth have shown interest

in the scheme.

Can designmprovehow we live?

Climate change is such a vast, complex and

global issue that it is easy – and tempting –

for people to assume their actions canmake no difference. The best way to challenge

uch fatalism is to engage them in debate,

timulate awareness of the issues and

work with communities to devise s olutions.

And that is just what we did with Dott 07.

Dott is a rolling region-by-region programme

which aims to use design and design

hinking to improve our quality of life and

timulate all kinds of innovation, collaboration

and invention across the UK.

Alan Clarke,

Chief Executive, One NorthEast

There’s a history of

design in the North East

of England going back

o box girders and George

Stephenson’s Rocket,

and Dott 07 will create

a design legacy felt

hroughout the lifetime

of our ten year economic

strategy and beyond.’

198 Desi gn Returns Sustainability

The rst region to host Dott was North

East England. One NorthEast, the regional

development agency, was keen to embrace

the programme, having identied design-

led innovation as integral to its strategy

of creating new jobs, encouraging

small business start-ups and growing a

sustainable economy.

Dott 07 prompted many people in the

North East to reconsider how they dened

design. This was not a programme where

designers told other people what to do

and how to live. Instead, Dott 07 placed

designers at the heart of a series of ambitious

projects in which they worked with local

communities to develop grassroots initiatives

to improve ve aspects of daily life:

transport, energy, schools, health and food.

Dott has left a lasting legacy. All ten of

the community innovation projects run during

the programme are being taken up by

the region, backed by development funding,

while some have attracted national and

international interest. The Urban Farming

project, for example, has generated inquiries

from as far aeld as Sydney, Australia.

There has also been a shift in attitudes among

the many thousands of people who visited

the Dott Festival, indicating that design has

made a lasting connection with the community.

n 2007, Dott (Designs of the time) became part of life in North

East England, engaging more than 200,000 people directly

with design. It reached out to 15,000 students and 100 small

businesses and, through media coverage, made millions aware

of the challenges involved in creating a sustainable society –

and how design can help.

Case study

Dott Festival

The problem

When you have run innovative

design projects and other activities

over nearly two years across

a whole region, how do you share

the experience and communicate

the results?

The solution

Stage the Dott Festival at Baltic

Square in NewcastleGateshead,

giving communities the chance to

share their stories and documenting

the design processes used from

initial exploration to briefing and

prototyping. In addition, stage other

events and exhibitions around

the region.

The return

Around 200,000 people engaged

with design throughout Dott,

including 20,000 people who visited

the main Baltic Square exhibition.Other highlights included the

Meal for Middlesbrough event,

which attracted 8,000 people. Events

and exhibitions were a highly

visible way of showcasing the

results of Dott for local people and

international visitors.

Case study

Low Carb Lane

The problem

A lifestyle with low environmental

impact is a great objective, but

can people on low incomes afford it?

The solution

Designers worked with house-

holders in a residential street and

found they were more focused

on immediate social problems like

vandalism and drug abuse

than reducing their carbon footprint.

And green home improvementswere beyond their budgets. So they

created a system to let people

monitor their energy use in real

time through their TV screens

and match it to their budgets. And

they designed a financial package

allowing home improvements to be

carried out with low interest loans

paid for through energy savings.

The return

The systems developed in Low

Carb Lane are being taken forward

in the North East’s new energy

strategy. They are also being studied

by Warm Zones, the government-

backed body founded to fight

fuel poverty.

Case study

EcoDesign Challenge

The problem

How do you turn redesigning

a school into an educational

experience for pupils?

The solution

Set them a design brief that poses

two questions: how big is your

school’s carbon footprint, and

how could you reduce it? Pupils

at 86 schools in the Nort h East

responded at part of Dott 07’s

Eco Design Challenge. They came

up with ideas from new bike sheds

to growing their own food.

Five schools won £5,000 each

and had their ideas show-

cased at the Dott 07 Festival.

They include Acklam Grange

School in Middlesbrough,

which won the competition withan innovative design for a

sun-shaped school that used solar

panels and filtration ponds.

Children at Lord Lawson of

Beamish School in Birtley

suggested redesigning the bike

sheds to encourage pupils

to cycle to school while studentsat Tanfield School in Stanley

proposed an outdoor glass-

covered eco-classroom,

complete with beehives andwormeries, to educate people

about the environment.

The return

The practical ideas developed

by young designers for

their schools are set to be

implemented through

an initiative by the National

Endowment for Science,

Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

John Thackara,

Programme Director, Dott 07

‘Simple changes in

production processes

and design will get

us to where we need

to be by 2025. Beyond

that you will need

a much more radical

approach to product

design and development.’



nnovation Hi-tech firms are using design to transform their

business. UK companies using the Designing Demand Innovate

service found the programme greatly improved their ability to

raise money, develop new products and strategies and sharpen

their branding.



232 Design Returns Innovation

Design enables innovation. It provides a system

for understanding user needs, distilling the

value in creative ideas – whatever their origin –

and translating them to match and often create

market opportunity. Design effectively reduces

the inherent risk of innovation by making

it possible to test ideas rapidly, realising them

inexpensively through visualisation and prototyping early in development, before major

spending is committed. It’s a process that

reveals aws that would otherwise become

apparent much later, when they’re more costly

to put right. This amounts to the ability to

do something that still sits u neasily with some

management cultures: fail early and fail often.

In some businesses, design-led innovation is

the norm. A major Design Council study

draws clear parallels between major brands

including Starbucks, Microsoft, Whirlpool

and Xerox and how they use design strategically

to consolidate their market-leader status.

Our research also shows that among UK

businesses that see design as integral, 81 per

cent have launched new products and services

in the last three years.

But these are exceptions to a general situation

with several causes. Too much promising

science and technology is failing to get out

of the research lab and on to the market.

Too many small businesses lack the knowledge,

wherewithal or inclination to use design.

And the public sector is not yet using its annual

£150bn of procurement muscle to stimulate

and reward innovation across its supply chain.

The urgent task for the UK is to make sure

that managers in both business and the public

sector have the design capability they need to

get the most out of their know-how and ideas.

Design-led innovation –a national challenge

Innovation has always mattered. The ability

to exploit new ideas and get them to market has

long dened successful businesses.

But now innovation matters even more

to the UK because other competitive avenues

are being closed off. Global markets have

been transformed because rapidly developing

economies produce goods more cheaply than

us, and their efciency and productivity are

improving fast. It’s estimated that China and

India will be the world’s largest and third

largest economies by 2050, and they together

with Russia and Brazil account for 35 per cent

of global economic growth.

How are we responding? Beyond high-prole

success stories such as Dyson’s inventive,

distinctive products and Virgin Atlantic’s

service design innovations, the signs are not

encouraging. Our research shows that six

out of ten UK rms have not brought anything

new to the market the last three years.

To improve our competitive position, politicians

and business leaders are encouraging us to

make innovation a national habit. The good

news is that opportunities to do so are growing

through new models like open i nnovation.

Technology is making it possible to reach

outside corporate structures for ideas. Exploiting

links with universities, suppliers and lead

users can reap rich dividends. Procter &

Gamble’s Connect and Develop strategy, for

instance, produces 35 per cent of the company’s

innovations and brings in billions in revenue,

even though R&D spend as a proportion of sales

has been reduced since 2000. Such practices

can also cut the number of ideas being discarded

because they don’t apply to the ‘core business’.

One recent study suggests the level of such

unexploited patents runs at 75 to 90 per cent.

Briefing

New national policies

The UK government is putting

increasing emphasis on

making the UK more innovative,

and it’s acknowledging the

role of design.

The 2008 Department for

Innovation, Universities and

Skills White Paper, Innovation

Nation, features several

major new policies that

incorporate design into moves

to commercialise the UK’s

science base, make businesses

more competitive and renew

public services.

They include:

Taking forward the roll-outof our Designing Demand

programme as a key UK

business growth service.

Development of a new

programme to support

public service teams on major

transformational projects,

building on the success of

the Designing Demand model

to stimulate public sector

innovation.

The creation of an

innovation hub by NESTA,

in collaboration with

the Young Foundation,

the National School

of Government and the

Design Council to drive

innovation in public sector

procurement.

An Innovation Index,

with input from the Design

Council, among others to

measure the UK’s innovation

performance.

Extending the Designing

Demand Innovate

service into university

technology transfer offices

to accelerate the flow of

scientific research to the

market. This was a key

recommendation of Race

to the Top, Lord Sainsbury’s

review of science a nd

innovation policy, which

is now being taken forward

following the Innovation

Nation White Paper.

nnovation The key to the UK’s competitive prospects is its ability to

nnovate. And a major factor in innovation is design. Not only

does it translate ideas and technologies into successful products

and services, but it also cuts risk. Now more business and

public sector managers need help to use it.

John Denham MP,

Secretary of State for Innovation,

Universities and Skills

‘Society is increasingly

user-driven. Therefore,

it is essential that

technologists understand

people’s needs an d

wants better, so they can

be more successful in

designing and producing

products and services.’

lastair Darling,

hancellor of the Exchequer

We must seek competitive

advantage by enabling

apabilities that our

ompetitors cannot imitate.

The UK has distinctive

kills in i nnovation and

reativity that we can

draw on to produce high

alue goods and services.’

Case study

Geni-e™Smart Utility Meter

The problem

Oxford University researchers

had developed a unique

electricity meter that promises to

cut energy bills by 20 per cent

by monitoring the power individual

appliances are using. They wanted

to prototype the technology but

hadn’t resolved key questions about

usability and installation.

The solution

Design Council mentors helped

the team commission rapid

prototype visualisations. These

strengthened the brand and

the pitch to investors, and helped

develop the business plan to

commercialise the technology.

The return

Isis Innovation, the university’s

technology transfer office, has won

£750,000 of seed funding and

is negotiating £2m of investment.

The team is also in partnership

discussions with utility companies.

Case study

Owlstone

The problem

Owlstone had developed a ground-

breaking device the size of a

five pence piece (below) which could

detect minute concentrations of

chemicals, but it struggled to get

the technology’s value across to

investors.

The solution

Owlstone used Designing Demand

Innovate to create a brand strategy,

broaden its product range by

developing prototypes and launch

products and services to generate

revenue while it sought investors.

The return

Owlstone developed a product that

enabled customers to sample its

technology, won over £1m in new

investment in 2006 and, last year,

won a massive repeat order from a

UK defence contractor.

Billy Boyle,

Co-founder, Owlstone

‘You need good design

to bridge the gap from

technology to world-

beating products. If you

forget design, you end

up with a lot of kit in

labs and not much in the

hands of your customers.’

Shriti Vadera,

Minister for Business

‘Innovative product design

can give small British

businesses the edge against

low-cost producers in a

fercely competitive global

economy.’



Case study

Axon Automotive

The problem

After developing a revolutionary

type of carbon fibre that could

be used to create an energy-efficient

carbon-fibre car, Coretex was

hit by the demise of a big potential

customer and trademark compli-

cations in the US which meant it

would have to change its name.

The solution

After joining a pilot scheme in theDesigning Demand Innovate

service, the company developed a

new brand (Axon Automotive),

and a new name for its technology

(Axontex) and focused on four

key potential uses for it. After a

relaunch in the summer of 2005,

Axon focused on developing a

carbon-fibre car which, because

of its lightweight chassis, used

20 per cent less fuel.

The return

In 2006, the Energy Saving Trust

awarded Axon £650,000 to build

a prototype and in March 2007

the car was unveiled at the Eden

Project in Cornwall, marking

the first launch of a new general-

purpose British car company

for 50 years.

Case study

FeONIC

The problem

A company founded by University

of Hull scientists was not getting

the exposure it needed to successfully

commercialise a smart material

which changes shape in response

to magnetic fields.

The solution

After joining Designing Demand

Innovate, management realised

that having two names – a

company, Newlands Scientific, and

a technology known as FeONIC –

was confusing customers.

The company became FeONIC

and accelerated commercialisation

by prototyping audio products.

The return

FeONIC has supplied its technology

to the world’s largest shipbuilder

for use on its cruise liners and

agreed a deal for a Chinese company

to make and sell its products in

China and the US.

Adam Afriye MP,

Shadow Minister for Innovation,

Universities and Skills

‘Ultimately, the pace of

innovation will determine

Britain’s place in the

world. When it comes to

solving our economic,

social and environmental

problems, the solutions

come from placing

our trust in the spirit of

innovation hard-wired in

our DNA.’

Designing DemandInnovate

80%of businesses said that the

Designing Demand Innovate service

had improved their ability to

raise finance.


Designing Demand Innovate service

had changed their brand and

communications strategy.


Designing Demand Innovate servicehad changed their products.

C4D will, when it opens to

students in October 2008

on the campus of Cranfield

University, act as a creative

hothouse, encouraging

students to explore design’s

ability to improve innovation

and competitive practice.

The £5.5m project is backed

with £3.5m of government

money and should offer an

intriguing blend of Cranfield’s

strengths in business,

engineering and science, and

the creative flair of London’s

University of the Arts.

Design London is a ground-

breaking collaboration

between the Royal College ofArt and Imperial College’s

engineering faculty and Tanaka

Business School. The London

centre, part-funded by £3.8m

of government money, will

encourage MA, M.Eng and MBA

students to integrate design,

engineering, technology and

business. Nick Leon, a visiting

fellow at Tanaka and former

business development

director for IBM, is the new

centre’s director. He believes

that centres like Design London

will stimulate innovation: ‘Design

methods can be applied

by business people to develop

a radically new supply chain,

create new routes to market or

design a new business service.’

Briefing

Centres of Excellence

In 2005, a review of innovation

and creativity in business by

Sir George Cox, then Chairman

of the Design Council, called

for a nationwide network

of multi-disciplinary centres of

excellence where business,

technology, design and science

could combine and collaborate.

Two years on, the first two

centres – Design-London andC4D – have been announced.

And in the same vein other

courses and programmes are

being developed across UK

universities including Kingston,

Northumbria and Southampton.

Technology transfer through university

centres often marks the rst meeting between

academic research and entrepreneurship, so

these centres are vital in making sure

scientic know-how translates into commercially

viable innovation. Building on earlier pilot

work with London’s University College,

our 12-month collaboration between OxfordUniversity’s technology transfer arm, Isis

Innovation, has yielded a real return for th ree

budding technologies, s howing how design

can work alongside scientic exploration

to add value. The knowledge gained here will

help build a fully edged design mentoring

service for technology transfer centres.

Hi-tech start-ups are already getting help in

using design to shorten time to market

through the Innovate service, which is part

of our Designing Demand business programme

being delivered through regional development

agencies. Ventures have used the service

to clarify strategy and routes to market

for technology from fuel cells to medical

devices. Most importantly, they have raised

millions of pounds in investment funding

to sustain development.

We have also helped to put the building

blocks in place for future generations

of scientic entrepreneurs to get maximum

value from design. Academic centres

of excellence combining technology with

business and design – recommended

in the Cox Review – ar e now a reality.

Through a growing network of these centres,

up to 500,000 students and researchers

could increase their design skills and

knowledge by 2011.

Design andcience: a profitable

partnership

No nation that unks science can prosper

n the 21st century, but nor is scientic

esearch enough by itself to fuel nationaluccess. The UK is a world leader in generating

cientic knowledge, but not at exploiting

, if its level of R&D spend or its share

f triadic patents (those granted in the US,

U and Japan) are any guide.

he situation is improving – the number of

usinesses spun out of universities has soared

n the last four years – but our rivals have

aised their game too. The path from research

ab to commercial exploitation remains long

nd complex for new technology. Realisation

growing, however, that design has an

mportant role to play in ensuring more of

gets to market. Design processes can help

ocus technological development on

he needs of users, and that can bring market

pportunities – and strategic priorities –

nto sharper focus.

he UK has a world-leading science base

nd design capability. The obvious next step

s to bring them together, and we are leading

he way with three important initiatives.


The UK’s science base is world-leading. The same goes for its

design capability. Putting the two together not just in business

but also in education will help exploit our technological

nnovation to the full.

Case study

Synature

The problem

This start-up had a c lever new

product that used technology and

psychological profiling to link

web users with appropriate products

and services based on like-

mindedness. But finding investment

was tough.

The solution

Users and investors couldn’t visualise

how Synature’s product would

work so, through the Designing

Demand Innovate service,

management used design to better

present their technology to a

broader range of potential clients

and develop concepts that related

to real applications.

The return

Synature won investment from

commercialisation consultancy ANGLE

and MyTravel is using its online

product Qubox to help customers

choose holidays.



An event at the Design

Council in May 2008 brought

40 of the UK’s leading

technology designers and

manufacturers together with

young people, youth workers

and police to investigate

how products and services

can be designed to stop

young people being victims

of crime. Inspired byexamples like the Pantech

fingerprint recognition phone

(pictured), delegates

focused on creating design

briefs that provide clear

business opportunities for

manufacturers to develop

a new generation of gadgets

that discourage crime.

Case study

Walker Tech

The problem

How does a school make sure that

new buildings funded by a national

government programme help

pupils get the most out of learning?

The solution

Walker Technology College in

Newcastle is one of the

first schools to benefit from the

government’s £70bn programme

to rebuild or refurbish every

secondary school in England. But,

says Headteacher Steve Gater,

‘the last thing we want is a new

old school’.

So the school worked with

designers to analyse its systems

and processes to work out what

it needed from its buildings.

The return

The ideas developed during the

project included a vocational

learning zone which would save

the time it currently takes to travel

to other establishments as well as

serving the wider community.

They have been crystallised in

a printed brief intended for

the architects who will eventually

renew the school.

Our Dott programme in North East England

gave examples of both these benets. The

Low Carb Lane project explored how to cut

domestic carbon emissions and uncovered a

response to fuel poverty in the process, while

the DASH project concentrated on increasing

uptake for a vital but under-used local sexual

health service. Signicantly, the designsolutions were replicable and have attracted

interest from other providers.

Conrmation that innovation is now written

into the script of government has come

with the recent Innovation Nation White

Paper. Alongside initiatives for business and

education comes a commitment to stimulate

innovation in public services, whether it’s in

assessing the risk aversion that can block

innovation in procurement or exploring new

ideas in front-line delivery.

Advancing the role of design in accelerating

innovation will need a co-ordinated approach

across a complex array of organisations.

This is where the Design Council ts in as the

national strategic body for design, with a mission

to enable programmes and champion policies.

Transformingpublic services

High quality public services are a tangible

symbol of a successful society. The perceived

state of the nation is as much to do withhow well health and transport systems are

working for citizens as with the balance

of payments or the state of the FTSE 100.

Government knows this, and has increased

investment accordingly. But it’s also

realising that, amid unprecedented pressure

to enhance services without increasing

taxes, funding is not the whole story. Innovation

must play an increasingly prominent role

in reconciling high public expectations for

personalised service delivery and the

need for long-term thinking with nite budgets

and short-term pressure on costs.

The creation of the Department for Innovation,

Universities and Skills (DIUS) is in itself

signicant. Not only is it a govern ment

department with innovation as a core part of

what it does, but its remit to drive up

innovation straddles business and the public

sector. This suggests innovation’s prole

in Whitehall is rising in a very literal sense.

But it also shows that traditional assumptions

about the different kinds of thinking done

in business and government are giving way to

the realisation that if creativity can generate

wealth for business it can create other kinds

of value for public services.

Just as design has provided a framework of

methods and processes to accelerate innovation

in successful companies, so its unique ability

to focus strategy on people’s needs means it can

do the same for the public sector. That applies

whether the focus is on nding new ways to think

about, and deal with, social challenges, or on

making services run better.


With increased demand for better public services comes

growing realisation that innovation, not just investment,

holds the key to lasting change. And design has as big a role

o play in the public sector as it has in business.

d Vaizey MP,

ssociate Parliamentary Group

r Design & Innovation

’m sure every constituency

as a problem that better

esign could solve.’

Case study

DaSH

The problem

People who need to use sexual

health clinics aren’t using

them, partly because they’re hard

to find but also because potential

patients feel stigmatised.

The solution

Design and Sexual Health (DaSH),

a collaboration between Dott 07

and Gateshead Primary Care Trust,

proposed a complete redesign

of sexual health services with

a mobile lab, a new k ind of clinic

and a central booking system for

appointments that extends

across the area and links to existing

contraceptive services.

The return

The user-centred redesign of sexual

health services is now in the

pipeline in Gateshead and has been

taken up by five other health

authorities in the UK.

Briefing

Designing out Crime

The Home Office has

formed a Design and

Technology Alliance which

brings together experts

in criminology, policing,

design and technology to

explore how design can be

used to help cut crime.

The Alliance is chaired by

Home Secretary Jacqui

Smith and members include

product designer Sebastian

Conran, Metropolitan

Police Deputy Commissioner

Paul Stephenson and leading

criminologist Ken Pease.

The group is exploring

the role design can play infive priority crime reduction

areas: housing, schools,

alcohol-related disorder,

mobile electronic products

and business crime.

Design has already proven to

be an effective strategy

for tackling crime. Research

shows that remedial design

measures can reduce crime

by as much as 70 per cent,

repaying their original cost

five-fold. Design changes

to cars have reduced vehicle

crime in the UK by half in

the last ten years. And in 2006,

the introduction of chip and

pin technology slashed credit

card fraud by 46 per cent.

If designers and companies

routinely consider crime

prevention at the concept

stage, making it harder

or pointless to steal such

sought-after products as

mobile phones, crime could

be reduced even further.

We are working in

partnership with the Home

Office to develop a long

term programme to make

design a central part

of the government’s overall

Crime Reduction Strategy.

Ian Pearson MP,

Minister of State for Science

& Innovation

‘Design has huge potential

to unlock innovation in

our public services, and

to help fnd new solutions

to the huge challenges

of sustainability and global

warming.’

Kristina Murrin,

Director, ?What If!

‘To build capacity for

innovation in public

services we need to link

people’s skills and

behaviours with the

processes that spark

and sustain a culture of

insight and ideas.

Designers have tools to

connect the two.’

Dr Lynne Maher,

Head of Innovation Practice, NHS

Institute for Innovation & Improvement

‘The use of design

techniques has contributed

enormously to the trans-

formation of healthcare.

The concept of co-design,

where patients and staff

work together to redesign

services, has revolutionised

patients’ experience of

health services.’



The Design Council is the national strategic

body for design. Ou r mission is to

inspire and enable the best use of design

to make the UK a more competitive, creative

and sustainable nation.

We are a Non-Departmental Public Body

(NDPB) co-sponsored by the Departmentfor Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS),

which provides grant-in-aid funding, and

the Department for Culture, Media & Sport.

We are run by a non-executive board of

trustees – our Council – led by our Chairman,

and an Executive Board of directors, led by

our Chief Executive.

Our current three-year strategy and objectives

are set out in The Good Design Plan, which is

available at:

www.designcouncil.org.uk/gooddesignplan

Presentingthe evidence

Decisions, whether they’re on business

strategy or public policy, should be based

on strong information and up-to-dateknowledge. The same goes for academic work.

That’s why we conduct unique research

on design and share design information with

all our audiences in business, education,

government and design.

Conducting our own research gives us rich

information on design, whether it’s how

the design industry is functioning or whether

businesses are using design to comp ete.

It integrates with our online content to create

a world-leading knowledge resource on

design. It also gives us a rm evidence base

for programmes and projects.

Our major research projects have included

The Business of Design, a ground-breaking

survey of the scale, scope and signicance

of the UK design industry, and the Value

of Design Factnder, an online resource

demonstrating the link between business

success and the effective use of design.

In 2007 we conducted a large scale project

looking in depth at how design is used

within some of the world’s most successful

businesse s, including Microsoft, Sta rbucks,

Whirlpool and Virgin Atlantic. The ndings,

published onlin e as Eleven Lessons of

Design, have attracted international attention.

Our website is the key platform for sharing

not just research but also knowledge and

information on design issues, methods and

disciplines. In 2006, we redesigned and

relaunched it to build its status as a world-

leading resource on design. The site contains

case studies, learning resources, content

by inter national exper ts and sig npostin g

to more information and advice, as well

as offering a forum for debate on design and

policy issues.

Stimulating debate is also the objective

of our magazine DCM, launched in 2006,

which positions design as a key part of

business thinking on economic competitiveness

and innovation.

Design Returns8

Design Returns describes our programmes to raise the profile

of design in business and education, make the UK more

competitive and boost the creative economy. But there’s more

o our work than that.

The current councilmembers are:

Sir Michael Bichard,ChairmanRector of the University ofthe Arts London

Bonnie Dean

Penny Egan,The Fulbright Commission

John Hollar,The VYPoint Group

Jonathan Kestenbaum,NESTA

Geoff Kirk

Jonathan Sands,Elmwood Design

Janet Walker,Ascot Racecourse

Peter Williams,Alpha Airports Group

Richard Williams,Williams Murray Hamm

Chris Wise,Expedition Engineering

The ExecutiveBoard is:

David Kester,Chief Executive

David Godber,Deputy Chief Executive

Ruth Hasnip,Dott National Programme Director

Helen Jacobs,Finance & Resources Director

Wendy Lanchin,Director of Media, Marketingand Partnerships

D e s i g n a n d a r t d i r e c t i o n b y B i b l i o t h è q u e

S t u d i o p h o t o g r a p h y b y D a n T o b i n S m i t h

C h a i r m a n / C h i e f E x e c u t i v e p h o t o g r a p h y b y P h i l S a y e r

W r i t t e n b y P a u l S i m p s o n a n d J a n D e k k e r

P r i n t e d o n R e v i v e 1 0 0 U n c o a t e d , a

r e c y c l e d g r a d e ,

c o n t a i n i n g 1 0 0 % p o s t c o n s u m e r w a s t e a n d m a n u f a c t u r e d

a t a m i l l a c c r e d i t e d w i t h I S O 1 4 0 0 1 e n v i r o n m e n t a l

m a n a g e m e n t s t a n d a r d . T

h e p u l p u s e d i n t h i s p r o d u c t i s

b l e a c h e d u s i n g a n E l e m e n t a l C h l o r i n e F r e e p r o c e s s ( E C F ) .



Design Council

34 Bow Street

London WC2E 7DL

United Kingdom

Tel. +44 (0)20 7420 5200

Fax +44 (0)20 7420 5300

[email protected]

www.designcouncil.org.uk

Registered charity number 272099

© Design Council 2008

design council annual 2004_2008

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