Official report of the “Design Policy Conference, make a plan”

Report of the “Design Policy Conference, make a plan”, 17 & 18 October, 2014, Cape Town, South Africa. http://wdcdesignpolicyconf2014.com/

In 1994, a research project was instituted in Colombia to study design policies and approaches. The study revealed that 97% of businesses were small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Only 5% of these had a body in place to implement design in their business, and just 2% had funds to invest in design. Believing that designers need to understand the user, and build a bridge between the user and the designer to design workable products and services, there was a need for design, academia and SMEs to lead and catalyse the process of implementing design in business.

A systematic way was needed to apply design to SMEs: design is not only operational – it must be strategic, too. With this understanding, the design policy comprised three steps: knowledge transfer about design through handbooks, manuals, diagnostic tools and workshops to explain the value of design; viewing and promoting successful case studies of local design; and hosting an international co-creation roundtable and other events to ask what the policy should contain.

(Text from the official report of the “Design Policy Conference, make a plan”, 17 & 18 October, 2014, Cape Town, South Africa).

Presentation

The full original document: Design-Policy-Conference-Report

Javier Ricardo Mejia Sarmiento