Jeremy Myerson, Director, Helen Hamlyn Centre and InnovationRCA, Royal College of Art
Design sits on a faultline between public and private. Between arts and science models. We used to have Department of National Heritage (which designers didn’t want anything to do with). Then the Department for Trade and Industry: John Butcher was a good minister for design, but others were increasingly incompetent. Then design became a cultural phenomenon. Designated a creative industry by New Labour [when it came to power]. Design hasn’t found a distinct place. Smaller design firms [missed comment]. When I look at this report “I am filled with gloom”. Apprenticeships in Monkey Devil Design along with famous brands. [Design an afterthought?] What fills me with hope is the DIUS research into creative industries. Design is still struggling for its space. These initiatives are too big and broad to be useful to SMEs. But Knowledge Transfer Networks (KTNs) may be useful. (See John Cass’s remarks.)
Jon Kingsbury, Director, Creative Economy Innovation Programme, NESTA
We talk about the Creative Economy as it is more trendy than creative industries. We aim to make the most of UK talent and avoid risk of being sidelined by China, India, etc. [We are aware of the need] to operate at scale. How to help companies without current skills to [scale]? [Significant that] DIUS and DBERR involved, and Gordon Brown wrote the foreword. Recognises wider benefits. See NESTA research from February: lots of creative activity in areas such as finance. Skills of creative people are very important. See Richard Florida on the creative class bringing in other useful people from the knowledge economy, including science, healthcare, technology. NESTA is running pilots in: fixing fragmented [missed], lack of access to business skills, mentoring, lack of heroes, lack of time for training. (See KTN disucssion). Opportunities in collaboration, inter-disciplinary [issues]. What is the digital demand impact on film? Hollywood won’t look into this. But we [in the UK] can. £3M NESTA fund on how industries should prepare. [New development of] designers going straight to market, such as my wife, who is a textile designer maker.
John Cass, Business Development Manager for Creative Industries, Imperial College London
Categorisation of creative industries [into one group was important] in order to map to sectors such as construction [in scale]. As such, it should be able to leverage stronger voice. But design is only a small part. Challenge of generating a common narrative about what affects us in order to leverage big policy changes, without losing specificity. And role of KTNs. See also the Design London programme. Design is an enormous consumer of technology innovation abut also a lever for innovation in other sectors. Innovation takes place within industry and also in partnering to deliver innovation in other sectors.
Lesley Morris, Head of Design Skills, Design Council
Should design be involved in creative industries? Creative industries is largely about visual arts and performing culture. The is not a faultline but a huge crack [between them and design]. Design is an industry of two halves: in house designers are not part of the creative industries but agencies are. Benefits of connecting [missed comment].
Discussion
Garrick Jones, LSE/The LUDIC Group: Ghana UNCTAD Creative Economy report fed by New Talents for the New Economy. See Andy Pratt work at the LSE. Design and education: design next to flower arranging, heritage. Need to established that design has generative impact, measured by economists, then it gets funding. Creative functions: have generative impact, that is: people with these skills can go anywhere [and play other roles].
Ben Terrett, The Design Conspiracy: hard to think what government has done [for SMEs]. Anything would be helpful. We have no problem finding young talent. But it is a problem getting business to understand what design is. Where are examples of good design practice in government?
Richard Ward, ex-creative director, The Team: [ordinary] people don’t know what design is. But they know what advertising is! There is not a crack but a ravine. [In response to question from the chair…] My criticisms are of the report per se.
Martyn Perks, design consultant and speaker: but it is your job to sell to clients
Chair: is it role of government to play this role?
Martyn Perks: we should be pleased design is being talked about. But the bigger question is: are we innovative at the level of industry? Design is only part of the question. Industry is now obsessed with metrics. But how about creative decision making? We need to go beyond design, [take] longer steps.
Liz Yates, works with post-graduate students at University of the Arts in professional practice: the report assumes there is a problem with supply. But the problem is with demand! We need to stimulate demand. See Design Council [work] on public sector procurement.
Pippa Crawford, Designer Breakfasts: less about what design is but what design thinking is: the strategic power of design as problem solving
Richard Ward: it is about comprehensive [missed comment]
Chair: educating clients is not a new problem. The Design Council been doing this for 15 years.
Mat Hunter, IDEO, adjunct professor at Tanaka Business School: the d.school at Stanford is as much about educating next generation of clients [as educating students]. Only 25% of our business is in UK as it is hard to get [innovative clients]. [With respect to our] role in investing in intellectual property (IP) and deferring fees: hard to pick winners [thus not easy for small design agencies to do].
Chair: report doesn’t actually pick up on this IP model
Mike Abrahams, Designer Breakfasts: small businesses create 70% of the income [of the design sector]. There needs to be a report aimed at small business. We have a model of payment by increase in sales. Chair: the report notes that ‘UK Trade & Investment will lead a five-year strategy to enhance the international competitive position of the UK’s creative industries’. Mike: but I would have to be consultant to play that role and would lose hands on design experience. New technology doesn’t help [as it makes work more fragmented (?)].
Naomi Gornick, University of Dundee, and works with Lesley at the Design Council: Liz’s premise of working with small teams of designers and clients’ lack of understanding of [missed comment]. Report needs to focus on education teaching designers to communicate better. Chair: the report proposes that ‘further and higher education to provide end- to-end development of creative skills for people aged from 14 through to 25’. Does this address communication? [Need to check]
Lydia Thornley, designer: designers are natural consortium workers. [Importance of] informal knowledge transfer. More ways to compete globally than as a consortium. Chair: where would one go to find out what is happening in a particular area?
Amanda Tatham, Designer Breakfasts: work for a fee is going out [of fashion]. Strategic thinking is more important. Design thinking is practiced in business schools. At the Sir George Cox Designer Breakfast event in January we talked about designers talking business and articulating value. It a training issue? Chair: at Design London designers learn about business, and MBAs learn about design.
Lesley: the Design Skills Alliance is looking at skills and how to explain design process and methods. It is also collecting examples.
Liz: I don’t understand why we don’t teach marketing as part of design curriculum
Madeleine Cooper: we have moved from Dip AD to BAs. We design a milk carton, but what do we know about the milk in the carton we create [check]. People don’t know their value as it is never measured against another industry. We don’t engage with clients as we are an auxiliary practice.
John Cass: look at how management consultancy successfully evolved in 90s. A management consultant is a business person: maximising, passionate, looking at cost saving or growth strategies. Design is often about lifestyle, creative control, respect. At the heart of the communication problem.
Chair: [On lifestyles] Impact of recession: positive (companies look for more consultancy) and negative (suppliers are easiest to cut). Do we need government help?
Tobi Schneidler, Maoworks: who is running the economy? Never see any designers! Why is that? From low cost designers to strategic. We need to move design further up value chain. Examples in business highlighted, features business in design schools.
Sam Howie, BA in furniture and product design, New Creative Ventures with London Business School: putting together business plan. Looking at using creative graduates in consultancies for two years after graduation. How to speak to these markets/small businesses and marketing to those people. [To find out more contact creativegraduates@googlemail.com]
Mat Hunter: whether you recruit or network your way to this. Depth and breadth. See Tom Hume and Jame Moed who are MBAs at IDEO London, who communicate to clients better that designers do, but we design better. Hire beyond th design discipline. But how might his work for five person agency. Networking or hiring people. Jon: will the non-designers they end up being the leaders of IDEO? Chair: didn’t Wolff Olins follow a similar strategy in the late 80s/early 90s.
John: no one ever got fired for hiring PwC or IDEO. Need to scale up in UK design industry.
Chair: could discuss further: Does the Creative Economy Programme indicate an understanding of current design thinking? Are the terms creative industries and cultural industries meaningful and useful? Is there a credible model for UK plc operating as a 'creative island', servicing manufacturing-oriented economies? What are the (other) barriers to the application of creativity and innovation in the UK economy?
Technorati Tags: NewTalents
Comments