On Monday just gone we went to a conference as part of Copenhagen Design Week entitled What Keeps You up at Night?

This was the question posed to a handful of leading international companies, and it was there answers to this question that would form the 4-hour conference at The Danish Design Center. It sounded pretty interesting, and it didn’t disappoint.
We were treated to talks from Alice Rawsthorn, Design Critic from the International Herald Tribune; Clive Van Heerden, Senior Director at Philips Design – Design Probes; Francois Lenfant, Manger of Global Product Design, Developed Markets, GE Healthcare; and David Kester, Chief Executive, Design Council UK.

Although each had their own particular spin there was a very evident dominant theme – and we don’t just mean design.

Designing for people, for humanity, is what these companies see as the future of design. As Francois put it, GE Healthcare’s designers’ ultimate goal is human benefit – what better goal can there be?

It was clear to see how designers are being involved in societal aspects today – they’re being recognised as beneficial for governments – even the UK Cabinet has a behavioural insights team. Designers are no longer just called in to make a leaflet look pretty and fold the right way, they are used, as David Kessler said, to nudge social behaviour and encourage changes within society, changes which focus on the fundamental ways we work, play, and live. By focusing on user-centric solutions the hope is that problems we witness in society today can be totally avoided in the future – even before they even begin.

The sobering fact presented to us by Clive was that 70% of populations will live in cities by 2050, highlighting the immense urban sprawl we’ll soon be facing. The way today’s comparatively small cities function, from power plants to water treatments, just won’t work in the future. Bu it’s not just industrial processes and solutions that will have to be redesigned – it’s just as much how society will function and cope with such a huge amount of people being crammed into urban spaces – not to mention the millions of youths that feel neglected by governments and the rest of society. This is where designers can make a difference. They can be involved in entire projects, from start to finish, projects that involve, empower and enrich, projects that range from a closed loop toilet water treatment process to youth projects.

Examples during the conference were;

Studio H

Studio H is a high school design/build curriculum for rural community benefit. Based in Bertie County in North Carolina (the poorest county with one in three children living in poverty and only 27% of 3rd-8th grade students passing the state standard for both English and maths), the one-year programme is offered to Junior-year students and provides college credit, a summer job, and a hands-on opportunity to build real-world projects for the community.

Loops by Participate

Loops is a project involving young people who are typically regarded as trouble by society and the media. They are locked in to their communities and never have a chance to break free from the downward spiral they are so often caught up in. Loops is a social enterprise that aims to expand young people’s purpose and possibility. Piloting in 2009, and now going live in 2 locations, Croydon and Brighton, it is now preparing to roll out nationally.

FARM: shop

As part of a council supported project to help regenerate parts of Dalston, FARM: shop is a groundbreaking urban agriculture centre which will include a community café, an events venue, and workspace, and will offer fresh produce directly traceable to a farm or grown in the shop itself.

It was fascinating and incredibly encouraging to realise these themes were running through every talk regardless what sector or country they were from. Design and society is a theme we’ve touched upon here in this blog in regards to Denmark and there are many, many other initiatives going on around the world – not least in the UK.

They say design can’t save the world, that it can only help, but if these projects and this passion were anything to go by, we’d say design can come pretty damn close.

“Change before you have to.” Jack Welch, ex-CEO GE

The strength of good strategic design is at last being recognised. Currently, the hunt for a national design strategy aimed at innovation and growth in Denmark is well underway.

“Design has evolved from being able to create beautiful and functional products to be a process that can drive the evolution of services, products, business models, organizations and ways of thinking. Therefore, design is an important part of Denmark’s future.”said Eskild Hansen, head of European Design Centre at Cisco, one of the participants at a summit held by the Social Liberals.

Denmark has a strong history of design that has evolved from design and aesthetics to a strong strategic power through which companies are able to innovate and grow. It’s this strategic design power that has recently sparked a debate in the political world and within the design industry.

The Danish Design Association (The DDA) have, as a result, invited all parties concerned to a meeting on April 26^th 2011 in the hope of coming to an agreement, and to make a start on the road to a stimulating and bold design strategy that will fully benefit all of Denmark, on national and international levels.

The concern is that by effectively working against each other, the potential power and strength of a national design policy could be hampered. The DDA believe that by working together, and including the knowledge, experience and strategic thinking of professionals both from within the industry, and outside the industry, a true visionary design strategy can be created.

Two political parties (the Social Liberals (Radikale Venstre)) and the current government of the Liberals and Conservatives (Venstre and Conservative) are working on their own national design strategies.

The Liberals recently unveiled their ‘Design the Future’ (Design Fremtiden) which focuses on four areas; design education, internationalisation of Danish design, public Design challenges, and growth in the creative industries.

The government have formed a ‘Vision Committee Design 2020’ comprising of six members, selected based on their personal qualities, professional activities and knowledge of the design area. The committee will recommend strategies and to strengthen conditions for design until 2020.

Denmark was the first country in the world with a design policy in 1996, and the time has come to reformulate this in order to keep Denmark as a leading design nation. It’s an exciting time for Danish design, and needless to say, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the matter.

If companies really want to innovate, it’s time they invited designers to join their boards of directors.

Denmark should almost design its BNP, according to the government. Growth and welfare should largely be borne by design and ideas in our ‘creative nation’, where innovation is on all businesses’ strategic agenda.

But how many businesses have innovation experts on their board of directors today?

I mean really idea-centric people who live from seeing possibilities everywhere? Design types with a Richard Branson gene who dare use their intuition to drive growth?

Few, in reality. Most boards of directors at Danish companies are ‘cast’ on a self-affirming and not necessarily idea-generating principle: too many people who think in the same way, even though they seemingly often disagree. Too little contrast and too much ‘group think’.

The idea person is missing

Funnily enough, one profile always seems to be missing – the idea person. Him or her whose natural instinct is to think off-the-wall from a business perspective. A professional who gives decision-makers the courage and ideas to grasp new opportunities, even when this requires a change in strategy. Someone whose job is to innovate – to generate ‘the next big thing’ by creating tension between opposing fields of expertise.

Look at the new generation of big Danish design companies who are growing rapidly in terms of business and competencies right now. Here are some of the most strategic-creative talents Denmark has to offer.

On board already

Many of them already work strategically at management level in businesses in Denmark and abroad. This is a huge potential that’s merely waiting to be harnessed as a catalyst on boards of directors. If this happens, the design mindset will be well and truly anchored in the mindset of boards of directors – and contribute strategically at a far higher level than is the case today.

Look also at the Danish Design Association, recently founded at the Danish Chamber of Commerce’s offices at Børsen in Copenhagen. This trade association will put the new, more international and more business-orientated design concept on the nation’s business map. At the same time it will move much of the design sector out of the ‘drawing office’ and in a more professional, strategic and market-orientated direction – namely, by joining boards of directors.

In other words: let the designers in – it’s time for business as unusual.