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

European Design Innovation Initiative Project Approval

We were very pleased to hear today that we have been successful in our project proposal made under the 1st action of the European Design Innovation Initiative (EDII) by the European Commission. "Thank you" to all of our partners in helping to put this exciting project together.

The project will continue some of the activities of the previous SEE Project but also broaden its scope with ten other partners across Europe to build a new pan-European SEE Platform that will engage with regional and national organisations currently active in innovation support and policy and help to build their understanding and use of design for user-centred innovation.

The partners for the new SEE Platform are:

Design Wales / Cardiff Metropolitan University (UK)
Design Flanders (BE)
Regional Development Agency of South Bohemia-RERA (CZ)
Danish Design Centre (DK)
Estonian Design Centre (EE)
Aalto University, School of Art & Design / Designium (FI)
Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences (FI)
Business and Cultural Development Centre (KEPA) (GR)
Border, Midlands and West Assembly (IE)
Castle Cieszyn (PL)
Design Council (UK)


There is still some paperwork to do before the project can be officially launched - when this is done we will let you know.

UK Design Alliance Meeting in Cardiff

Gavin Cawood (Design Wales), Kathryn Woolf (Cornwall Design Forum) and Roger Procter (South West Design Forum)

Jocelyn Bailey Policy Connect sharing her tips for connecting policy makers with design.

Colin McKeown of the Northern Ireland Design Alliance and Alison Merrifield of the Sector Skills Alliance

On the 26th January Design Wales hosted a meeting of the UK Design Alliance (UKDA) for the second time in Cardiff. The UKDA is a partnership of national and regional stakeholders who come together to strengthen the UK design sector. Such as through our work via the Design Wales Forum many of the active  members are regional design networks who are engaging with the UKDA to both understand how they can influence the national design agenda and to provide a voice for the design sector in their region.

The meeting discussed strategies for keeping design on the local political agenda. Jocelyn Bailey of Policy Connect was invited to share some successful strategies she had witnessed, of ways of connecting policy makers with design. Gavin Cawood of Design Wales and Colin McKeown of the Northern Ireland Design Alliance shared their experiences of trying to keep design on their local political agenda. Gavin discussed outcomes of the Design Wales manifesto and petition and a debate in the Sennedd where design was added to the innovation agenda. Colin talked through the Northern Ireland Design Alliance's future ambitions and how Design Wales had supported them in lobbying their government about design.


In further understanding the needs of the design sector Anna Whicher (Design Wales) presented an analysis of design sector skills reports developed by The Design Council and Creative and Cultural Skills while Victoria Jones (Design Wales) presented the results of a survey of UKDA members. A discussion followed where Design Wales agreed to send out an updated version of the survey, asking UKDA members to highlight content and resources that they are willing to share, sell or that they need in order to highlight the economic benefits of design to business.

Design Wales are to host the UKDA for a twelve month period, after which it is hoped another regional forum or organisation will facilitate the activities of the partnership. Still organised by Design Wales, the next meeting is to take place in Birmingham on the 23rd May.

Design Management Europe Award - Board meeting in Brussels

The Kings House, Grand Place, Brussels.

Representing the National Centre for Product Design & Development Research (PDR), where Design Wales is based, last week we attended the latest Board meeting for the Design Management Europe Award (DME). Members of the Board from PDR, The European Design Centre, Dutch Design Week and The Red Dot Award gathered in Brussels to discuss proposals for the Design Management Award 2012.
To be formally launched later in the Spring, the DME Award will this year be hosted in Portugal with the judging, presentations and final award ceremony being shared between two cities; Viana de Castelo and Guimaraes.
PDR are one of the founding consortia members behind the DME Award and provide the analysis of the annual entries that come organisations across Europe that range from local micro businesses to multi-national corporations in the private sector as well as those in the public sector.

Service Design Workshop for Design Silesia

 

For most of this week we have a group from Silesia (Poland) here in Cardiff attending a workshop on how to run design-led innovation projects in public services.
The group includes Polish designers and representatives from Design Silesia, who, as part of the Silesian Marshall's Office, are supporting the project. In delivering the programme of training for the Polish designers Design Wales invited Age Cymru into the workshops to provide a real project case study that the delegation will work on to develop their understanding and use of service design tools. At the end of the week the group will return to Silesia to work with three target public services but continue to have support from the Design Wales service design programme as their live projects develop.
With a similar industrial heritage and economic objectives for the future the Welsh Government and the Region of Silesia have a long-standing Memorandum of Understanding to work together and on their first day the group were formally welcomed to Wales by the office of the First Minister from the Welsh Government.


Design Silesia identified this opportunity to work together after hearing about the service design programme that was launched by Design Wales in July 2010. With support from the Welsh Government the service design programme provides both an advisory service to manufactures as well as building capacity for service design in the Welsh design sector.

Looking for a design manager

The PDR Building in Cardiff

Design Wales are looking for a new member of staff with experience of design management to help us advise businesses in Wales (particularly SMEs) how they might best manage design.

Based at our offices in the National Centre for Product Design & Development Research (PDR) at Cardiff Metropolitan University this is going to be a fixed-term post that runs until 31st July 2015.

Full details of the post (title: Design Advisor-Design Management) and application forms will be available from next Tuesday 17th January via www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/jobs

If you have any questions about the post then please e-mail gcawood@designwales.org