Organization and management of design;

a cultural industry currently

characterized by massive change,

numerous challenges and a blue

ocean of untapped potential

Steinar Valade-Amland

Managing director, Danish Designers

RationaleFrom arts and crafts based to strategic competence

Design has evolved from being arts and crafts based to

increasingly playing a role as an integral and strategic

discipline with relevance to manufacturing industries as well

as private and public services - yet it is still fundamentally

creative.

The hallmark of design and designers remains that of

reading the weak signals and adding value through

attraction.

ChallengeNew management and organizational practice

However, as contexts change and expand, so does the

scope of design's output and design practice - inevitably

posing new challenges with regard to the management and

organization of the underlying processes, the building of new

competencies and the communication of design.

Anna Valtonen, UIAH, Helsinki

Six decades of design

Promoting national aesthetic ideals

The fifties

Enhancing hard core industrial products

The sixties

Focus on user involvement and ergonomics

The seventies

Emergence of design management

The eighties

Corporate identity, branding and communication

The nineties

Design as driver of innovation

Today

calls for new insight and ways of dealing with design

This development

• new political measures

• new approaches to design education and research

• new ways of promoting design

• new vocabulary

calls for new strategies

Increased complexity

• Is design still a “creative industry”?

• Is it just expanding or is it changing its fundamental

character?

• Is it rather a business strategy than a business needing

new strategies?

external factors influencing the change of design

Contextual parameters

• Globalization

• Economic growth

• Technological developments

• Focus on user driven innovation and user centered design

• Focus on cutting costs and time to market

• New paradigms like CSR, climate changes, sustainability

and ethics

factors deriving from how we manage design

Organizational parameters

• On individual designer or design studio level

• On design industry level

• On design policy level

on individual designer or design studio level

Managing design

• New competences, professional profiles and professional

identities

• New alliances

• New market possibilities

• New competitive landscape

on design industry level

Managing design

• New professional identities and more inclusive peer criteria

• New roles in terms of what and whom to influence

• New educational programmes, further education and research

• New sources of relevant input, new networks and alliances

• New ways of discussing design

on design policy level

Managing design

• Choice of policy domain

• Co-ordinated and coherent policy development

• Strategies both on local, regional, national and supra-nationallevels

initiatives needed on joint European levels

EU

• Identifying the key roles of design first - then design political

measures; competitive tool, innovation agent, cultural

differentiator as well as integrator, social welfare

methodology, brand building devise or policy process

facilitator...

• Developing a coherent strategy for education in - and research

on - design

• Promoting the value of design to European industries,

organizations, private as well as public service and to policy

makers on all levels

• Facilitating professional design practice and an open design

services market

at the major challenges for the design profession

Looking inward

• Adapting to changing paradigms

• Building competences within - and advocating - a more

socially responsible and sustainable development

• Managing transfer of methodologies and processes from

private enterprise contexts to public services

• Discussing and managing IPR and open source issues

• Becoming more profitable, thus more interesting to

investments, seed capital, potential partners etc.

contributing to, maintaining and encouraging

...while still

• Cultural diversity and inclusiveness

• User advocacy, relevance and value

• Relevance of traditions and values, crafts and artistry to a

new age

• Focus on emotional values, aesthetics, beauty and

attraction

Thank you