Summer 2014 Came Early To Cardiff Last Week!

Last week Design Wales Forum had the great pleasure of hosting a trend seminar at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. The trends were presented by Matthew Jeatt of trend forecasting house Promostyl and covered Spring/Summer 2014.

So what does Spring Summer 2014 look like for fashion and textiles? Four trends were mooted. There were some common threads amongst the trends. The colour pallets revealed jewel like colours, raw metallics, strong pinks contrasted with pale watery pallets and washed out limestones. Key concepts within the trends will also have opposing energies. The vigour and energy of protest contrasted with minimalist restraint. A move towards decorative opulence supporting the continuing trend towards artisan made products.


As ever Matthew was a captivating speaker, holding his energy after a marathon of 4 and half hours of speaking. Matthew tells us he enjoyed meeting with the Design Wales audience again, meeting up with old friends and making some new ones.

The audience look through Promostyl's S/S 2014 trend books

Design Wales wins Core77 Design Award

Wow! We have some amazing news to share… Design Wales' very own Service Design Programme has won the Core77 Design Award 2012 (service design category). The Core77 Deisgn International design awards are presented for “excellence in all areas of design enterprise, the Core77 Design Awards celebrates the richness of the design profession and its practitioners”. The jury, made up of academics and practicioners in service design and based in New York explained why were awarded this prestigious award which was won last year by IDEO for their highly acclaimed OpenIDEO platform; “This is a well-structured programme for raising awareness of service design and advocating for it to both industry and the design field. The blend of (and interaction between) the programme’s online and offline elements seems well thought-out. The programme appears to be more government-driven than demand/user-driven; thus, the jury would have liked to see the designers place heavier emphasis on employing the design processes they are promoting. The jury applauds the impact the programme has achieved since launch, and looks forward to following its progress.” We hope that this award will showcase the efforts of the Welsh Government in supporting design-led service innovation and present the programme to an international audience. We also can’t wait to get hold of the trophy and see our work in the 2012 awards gallery on Core77. Thanks to… Special thanks go to The Welsh Government for funding the programme, View Creative for designing the brand and initial marketing material, FK Create for developing the Service Test, S8080 for creating this website and the explainer animation, On-Par Productions for editing our SD4D videos and everyone else that has supported the programme to this point. To find out more about the Core77 Design Awards go to: www.core77designawards.com/2012

SEE Platform launched by Welsh First Minister

First Minister of the Welsh Government, Rt. Hon Carwyn Jones AM

On the 18th June the First Minister of the Welsh Government, Rt. Hon Carwyn Jones, attended the first workshop of the SEE Platform to officially launch this new European network project.

In his remarks to officially launch the SEE Platform the First Minister highlighted the role of design in innovation and economic competitiveness, describing how Welsh companies had found success through design.

His remarks are timely as the Welsh Government is currently undertaking a consultation on future innovation strategy, within which we hope design will play a significant role. Design Wales will be contributing to the consultation and you can too until 23rd July via the  Welsh Government website.

SEE is a network of 11 European partners, from design and innovation centres along with economic development offices, who have agreed to share their experience to enhance the understanding of design for innovation among policy-makers and programme managers. Over three years SEE will monitor design policy developments across Europe,  support policy-makers looking to more effectively integrate design into innovation policy and engage with 100 regions that have not previously had design as part of their economic, public service or social development programmes.

Service Design in Wales

These interviews were conducted with four companies following the completion of the SD4D (Service Design for Designers) programme by Design Wales. Each interview was conducted between May-June 2012 and features the directors of leading agencies from Wales, including; Michelle Rose-Innes, Julian Sanders, Luke Khan, Huw David.

Design Wales Service Innovation Initative short listed for a Design Week 2012 award

We’re really pleased to announce that our Service Essentials workshop for business has been short listed for the 2012 Design Week Awards in the category of service design. The prestigious awards are judged this year by senior design managers from companies such as; Virgin Atlantic, British Heart Foundation and Fitch.

To find out more about how we are supporting service design in Wales take a look at the programme website: www.theservicedesignprogramme.org

This is the first time that service design has been recognised in the 2012 Design Week Awards, so it’s great to see the practice covered at this level within the more traditional design disciplines such as product design, branding and graphic design.

When we started the pushing service design in Wales we applied the same thinking to our programme about understanding our users, designing it with them and then prototyping many of the touchpoints we created. In doing so we believe we have added real value and provide a well designed service for those businesses engaging with us, it’s great to see that others think so too.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 13th June 2012, you can view the full list of short listed projects here.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 13th June 2012, you can view the full list of short listed projects here.

Co-Design Policy Workshop - Brussels

Design Wales took part in the Co-Design Policy Workshop in Brussels organised by the European Design Innovation Initiative (EDII). The EDII is coordinated by the European Commission to help understand the role design can play in future European innovation policies and must produce recommendations in June this year - this workshop was part of that process.

Led by Chritian Bason of Mind Lab in Denmark the list of 69 attendees included designers, architects, design & innovation centres, academics and policy makers from right across Europe. The three key challenges set for the day were;

• The design innovation process for the benefit of society, enterprisesand the public sector.
• How to develop Europes design competencies and knowledge for the twenty first century.
• How to valorise design & "Made in Europe".

The ideas produced will now be sorted, reviewed and distributed to the attendees before some of them hopefully find their way into the recommendations made in June and ultimatly into future European policy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are recruiting a service designer

We are currently recruiting for a service designer to join our team here at Design Wales and support the delivery of our service design programme. It's a great place to work and an excellent opportunity to play a role in building the kills, expertise and knowledge in service design across Wales.

Job description

The project has so far ensured that Wales is ahead of the adoption curve in providing a service design support programme for industry and unique in developing a regional service design capability; thereby also strengthening the Welsh creative industries. The project also provides a comprehensive support programme for industry through activities that include promotional seminars, intensive workshops with small groups, one to one support and on-line resources.

The post holder must have a strong and broad understanding of the effective use of design, solid visualisation and communication skills and be willing to support the wider activities of Design Wales in relation to service design. The ideal candidate will have experience of working as a service design practitioner within an agency and/or within industry.

If you are interested in applying for this role, full details can be found here: http://www3.cardiffmet.ac.uk