Commission announces Leadership Board for the European Design Innovation Initiative

After much speculation, the European Commission has announced the 15 members of the European Design Innovation Initiative (EDII):

- BEDA - Bureau of European Design Associations - Deborah Dawton, President
- UEAPME – European Association of craft, small and medium-sized enterprises represented by Gerin Trautenberger, Vice-President of Austrian creative Industries - member of UEAPME
- TAFTIE – the European Network of Innovation Agencies - represented by Andrea Siodmok, Technology Strategy Board - member of TAFTIE
- German Design Council, Andrej Kupetz, Chief Executive Officer
- Barcelona Design Center, Isabel Roig, Directora general
- Hungarian Design Council, Dr. Miklós Bendzsel, Chairman
- Christian Bason, MindLab Copenhagen
- Giovanni Antonio Cocco, Managing Director ISNART S.c.p.A, Istituto Nazionale Ricerche Turistiche
- Rachel Cooper, Professor of Design management, Chair of Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts and Chair of Imagination Lancaster
- Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Chairman of the Committee supporting World Design Capital Helsinki 2012; former President and CEO of Nokia Corporation
- Stefano Marzano, Chief Creative Director, Philips Design
- Klemens Rossnagel, responsible for Design Research Audi Group
- Livia Tirone, TIRONE NUNES, Founder of TIRONES NUNES dedicated to designing and promoting "bio-climatic" & "sustainable buildings"
- Roberto Verganti, Visiting Professor in Copenhagen Business School, Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy and Professor in Politecnico di Milano
- Thierry Wasser, Perfumer, Guerlain

The EDII was launched in 2011 by the European Commission as part of the Europe 2020 strategy Innovation Union.

The EDII aims to:
- Raise the awareness of design as a driver of innovation in Europe
- Enhance its role as a key discipline to bring ideas to market transforming them into user-friendly and appealing products, processes or services by enterprises and public services in the EU.

The Board, the Secretariat (Aalto University – Finland) and the European Commission will work together to develop a joint vision to better integrate design into innovation policy.

The first meeting of the Leadership Board took place on 27th May 2011 in Helsinki; Deborah Dawton, BEDA President attended and reports:
“The significance of design in European innovation policy is now established. With 46 organisational members in 23 Member States, BEDA is delighted that its lobbying over the past decade has encouraged the Commission to integrate design as a key driver for Europe’s competitiveness and innovation. The policy is now converting to action and BEDA looks forward to playing a full and active role on the European Design Leadership Board as it continues in its task.”

Service design event scores in Cardiff

Left to right: Paul Thurston (Design Wales), Hugo Raaijmakers (Philips), Mark Hartvelt (Philips), Andie Mudie (Nuaire), Phil Morgan (Aggrelek), Gavin Cawood (Design Wales)

The Design Wales Service Design Programme held a succesfull event at the end of last week with 80 delegates registered to take advantage of the excellent facilities at the Cardiff City football ground.

With an emphasis on demonstarting how manufacturing companies can realise the benefits of moving from being simply product led to understanding the needs of their end users in the form of developing innovative services, the event included a key note presentation from Philips Design alongside Nuaire of Caerphilly and Aggrelek of Swansea.

Philips Design employ over 450 designers and engineers in studios around the World, primarily serving the product design and innovation needs of Phillips and its key partners. Established almost a century ago Phillips have grown as an innovative but product/manufacturing-led business, but over the last 30 months they have been undertaking a process of cultural change (led by the most senior management) to shift towards a greater service-led approach that is transforming their business model and broadening opportunities as they explore working with new partners and exploit developments in communications technology.

The presentation by was given by Hugo Raaijmakers (Creative Director for Service Deisgn) and Mark Hartvelt (New Business Director), both based in Amsterdam, who have been given the task of integrating this new approach into Philips. The story of how Philips are progressing towards being much more service-led in their drive to deliver innovative offerings to their end users has not necesarily moved them away from being manufacturers but changed fundamentally how they work with external partners, make use of existing and emerging communications platforms and where value can be found in their business models. Rather than being a threat to manufacturing, seeing how such an established business are shifting towards being more service-led should act as an inspiration for how the sector can find long-term sustainability.

How such a shift is possible in a small and a medium sized business was demonstrated by complimentary presentations from Phil Morgan (MD) of Aggrelek and Andy Mudie (Marketing Director) of Nuaire. Aggrelek and Nuaire are two of “The 90” businesses the Service Design Programme are seeking to work with over the three years in order to help build upon their manufacturing expertise by raising awareness and application of service design.

Design Welcomes French intern

On the 23 of May a French student of Brittany, Maryline Danielou joined Design Wales for 6 weeks to do a work placement as part of her 2 year-course of Personal Assistant. Before it she studied for one year English at the Quimper's University.

Maryline will help with administration on the Service Design Programme and with the running of the Design Wales Forum.

In 2004 an agreement (The Memorandum of  Understanding) was signed between Welsh First Minister and President of Regional Council of Brittany. The MoU  was to explore how Wales and Brittany can work together in the 21st Century. These two regions have many things in common; they are Celtic peoples on the West of France and Great Britain and they each have also around 3 million people.

Moving From Products To Services with Philips, Nuaire and Aggrelek

Design Wales Service Programme will bring leading industry voices to Wales, the first of our keynote events is due to take place in May and focuses on companies that have shifted from being product focused to service focused.

Book your tickets now: www.fromproductstoservices.eventbrite.com

The event will also showcase examples of great service design within Welsh industry through two manufacturers that have already joined The 90 companies that care about good quality service.

Three questions on design policy for the Philippines.

Tonight (15th March) we were able to contribute to an event taking place in the Philippines called: The State of Philippine Design.
In preparation the event organiser, Brian Tenorio, asked us three questions about design policy. Rather than fly out there we were able to make a short film that he could edit for the event.

The three questions he asked were:

1. Would you think that having a Design Policy -- or design policies -- in a developing country such as the Philippines help in National Development? If yes, how?
2. What are the special concerns in Design Policy Initiatives and Formation that may be specific to Developing Countries (and, even more specifically, the Philippines)?
3. What advice can you give to the different representatives from the design industries, academe, government trade offices, and businesses present in this forum regarding Design Policy work? Regarding Design as a tool for National Development? Regarding Design as a provider of sustainable strategic advantage for a country?

You can find a raw version of the film on you-tube (its about about 14 minutes long so grab a coffee before you start).

The Service Design Programme...for designers

The Service Design Programme is a new package of support for the creative industries in Wales.

So, what is service design and why does it matter to you?
Well, it matters because we live in a service economy. 66% GVA comes from this sector in Wales compared with 32% from manufacturing. Services are all around us, they play key roles in our lives and generally they aren't designed very well.

But it matters to you because whether you're a freelancer, artist, designer, or run your own design company then you're a service provider. Start by asking yourself these questions; What is the quality of your service like? What do clients say about your service (not your work)? Do clients buy from you more than once?

Service design is a process and set of methods, tools and approaches that can help you answer all of these questions and help you design a better service for your business and your clients.

Design Wales have been funded by the Welsh Assembly Government to provide support and training to businesses that want to innovate their existing services or develop completely new services. Paul Thurston, who leads the programme says "It's come about due to combination of two factors, firstly the growth in the practice of service design across Europe and secondly, the need for companies to think beyond the products they produce and start thinking about the service they provide".

Get involved with the programme
The 'Service Design / For Designers' training programme will launch later this Spring and we are currently looking for 6 Welsh companies from the creative industries to apply for the 6-month course. More information will be available by the end of March but if you would like to register your interest now we will let you know as soon as the application process is open. To do this please email: pthurston@designwales.org

Find out more
These upcoming events will introduce you to the core principles of service design.

Breakfast Seminar
Swansea on 23rd March
Book your place now

Breakfast Seminar
Conwy on 8th April
Book your place now

Policy, Innovation & Design Conference

The SEE project, led by Design Wales, is a network of 11 European design organisations engaging with regional and national government to integrate design into policy, particularly innovation policy. The project runs from September 2008 to June 2011, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the INTERREG IVC programme.

This conference is the project’s final event and aims to provide delegates with an overview of design’s role in innovation, recent design policy developments in Europe, examples of successful design policies and promotion programmes. The programme will be opened by Polish MEP, Jan Olbrycht with reflections on design as part of the Europe 2020 strategy. Other highlights from the conference include:

Design as part of innovation policy in a global context

Gavin Cawood / Operations Director, Design Wales

Making design policy happen in Denmark: the journey since 1997

Anders Byriel / CEO of Kvadrat, Chairman, Danish Design Council

Innovate and integrate: Design support for companies in New Zealand

Judith Thompson / Director, Better by Design

Design policy in practice: innovative strategies for local authorities in Flanders

Patrick Janssens / Mayor of Antwerp

Jan Van Alsenoy / Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities

Design as a Government capability

Bryan Boyer / Strategic Design Lead, SITRA – the Finnish Innovation Fund

EU Design and Innovation Initiative: What’s next for design in Europe?

Christine Simon / European Commission DG Enterprise and Industry

During the day, the SEE project lead partner, Design Wales, will briefly present the project’s achievements over the last three years, we will screen 11 short films about design policy developments in the SEE partner countries and delegates will receive the ‘Service Design Toolkit’.

This is a free event but delegates are required to register. The programme, logistics and registration can be found at www.belgiandesignforum.be