On Tuesday (10/05/11) we went along to Community Conference 2011 here in Copenhagen. Arranged by Seismonaut and Update, the day focused on the business value of social media and communities for both established brands and organisations, as well as emerging companies. We were lucky enough to hear from (deep breath); David Armano from Edelman, Bill Johnston from Dell, Astrid Haug from Berlingske, Max Schorr, from GOOD Magazine; Lars Damgaard Nielsen, from DR; Christian H. Kamhaug from SAS,Oliver Majumdar from Lufthansa, Benjamin Elberthfrom The Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterne), Susanna Rankenberg from DR, Mette Lykke from Endomondo, Rolf Ask Clausenfrom Ingeniøren, and Filip Rasmussen from Gyldendals. Every talk was inspiring and involving, and with an audience keen to be involved, the core conversations were highly interactive.

Mogens Dahl Concert Hall was the location, well-chosen for it’s wonderful acoustics. It also boasts a large courtyard, perfect for the glorious weather we were lucky enough to have. The mix of location, weather, audience and speakers meant that the day was a total success – we really hope they hold another conference in 2012.

The highlights for me were the keynote speakers, David Armano, Bill Johnston, and Max Schorr. They were passionate and clearly dedicated, and you couldn’t help but get caught up in their wake. They hammered home the point of community, and just how important it is in the digital age – which, in case you hadn’t realised – is now.

I won’t go into detail about the keynotes, as their presentations are available (below), suffice to say the importance of online communities has been realised (in the US), and the shift is moving from ‘should we have a community?’ to ‘how can we make this community even better?’ Reputation and trust are becoming measurable and are therefore becoming major factors that influence consumer decision making processes; companies must become more human, and therefore more social. Bring your customers in, take care of them, and they can make your company, your products and your brands better.

Check out David Armano’s presentation, Bill Johnston’s, and Max Schorr’s. You can also do a search on Twitter using #ccdk – hundreds of great tweets in both English and Danish.

Try to make the next one – it is most definitely worth it!

Yes, it’s time to welcome more new faces to the zoo!

First off, we’ve opened our arms in Aarhus to Kasper Ulvedal as our new Accounting Assistant. Kasper is studying a Graduate Certificate in Business Administration at Aarhus School of Business, and will graduate in 2013. Before Designit, Kasper worked at Ernst & Young as a Junior Auditor, crunching numbers, studying tax laws and working with Excel. He’s also worked at Zitcom/Wannafind developing web solutions.

He loves a bit of scuba diving and golf. Although not at the same time.

Lene Wiborg joins the Aarhus team as an Instructional Designer. Lene holds a BA in English from Aarhus University, and was a Patent Coordinator at Plougmann & Vingtoft, a Danish company in Munich. Before she moved over there, she was an Instructional Designer at….Designit! We’re happy to have her back.

Also joining Aarhus in their beautiful new office, is Miriam Nejsum. She’ll be a Motion Graphics Project Manager, and holds an MA is Media Studies with degree in Multimedia from Aarhus University. Since 2007, she’s worked as a producer and project manager at Ja Film, working with animation and motion graphics. In 2006, she could be found making a weekly spot for DR-Ung, at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR).

She’s a fan of yoga, dogs, cooking and wine. So namaste and bottoms up!

Finally, in Copenhagen, we have Simone Strandsbjerg as our new Office Assistant. Simone is still in high school, and is in to photography, art and music. She loves to travel and has even spent time working with HIV positive children in Cambodia.

We’re happy and lucky to have them all.

Dnx, Spanish design and innovation consultancy, and Designit have merged! We’ve been biting our nails and counting down the days to be able to tell you all this, and the day has finally come.

We’re extremely excited, proud and happy to be able to make this merger public. It marks a real milestone in our history, and together, we are now able to call ourselves Europe’s largest design consultancy. As of today, May 2nd, we are made up of 180 employees, and can add Madrid and Barcelona to our studios.

The story starts with dnx. Made up of around 40 employees, dnx has become Spain’s leading innovation and design consultancy in just nine years. Their client base includes many of Spain’s largest companies, but in this day and age where national borders are becoming obsolete, it became clear that if they wanted to maintain relations with their larger, international clients, they would have to make a break for the border and establish themselves as a true pan-European player. In order to do this, they’d have to try to find a company outside of Spain that didn’t just share the same beliefs, the same values, and the same passion, but also be interested in entering the Spanish market.

With this decided, Denmark was soon chosen as the ideal hunting ground. Danish design companies have a strong presence in the international market, and are also known for their love of user-driven innovation – one of the most important values for dnx. So, the search for the perfect fit began. However, it took much less time than expected.

As Joaquín Guirao Sagi-Vela (CEO of dnx) says, they were originally on the lookout for a small company; the kind of company they could use as a platform for their European base, and then maybe later for their global base. Instead, they found us. At 140 employees, we were maybe a little larger than they had originally expected, but with our already international presence, and more importantly, our love and belief in user-driven innovation, it didn’t take long before we all knew that this match was meant to be.

The merger not only enables dnx to realise their need of establishing a base outside of Spain, but it also enables them to offer their clients a much broader service range via Designit’s studios in China, Sweden, England and Germany. Needless to say, Designit is hardly being short changed on the merger.

Already looking towards further global expansion, the meeting of minds between dnx and Designit came at a perfect time. South America and the Spanish speaking market have long been of interest to Designit, but with the fact that Spanish speaking businesses tend to lean towards Spanish speaking consultancies, the big question lay in how to break the market. Enter our friends at dnx.

Of course, expansion is not the only reason for the union. Dnx specialise in design research and interactive design, and while these are areas Designit is quite proficient in, bringing specialists on board is something we’d never say no to. Opening our doors and minds to the expertise of dnx will enable us to offer both existing and new clients an even deeper level of service, as well as adding the well-known Spanish passion and unique flair for creativity to Designit’s portfolio.

Both dnx and Designit are well aware that together they are stronger and that today collective creativity, rather than your traditional silo-based processes, is far more effective and innovative. Although you’d be forgiven for thinking that Spain and Denmark aren’t too alike (we’re yet to introduce them to the joy of pickled herring and schnapps) both companies are open, flat, fun, and passionate; characteristics that are essential in user-led strategic design, and of course, essential for the kind of close collaboration we both seek.

We have no doubt that this is going to lead to some very interesting projects for us, and will soon be adding examples of projects dnx have been involved in under the Madrid studio to give you an idea of the things they are capable of. We can’t wait to get know our new colleagues, to find out what they can teach us, share our knowledge with them, eat tapas, and work together on international projects further afield than ever before.

If you’d like to know more about the merger, check out our press release – unfortunately it’s only available in Danish right now, but the English version will soon be uploaded.

For more info on dnx, check out their site, their Twitter profile, and their Facebook Page.

By Jim Dawton, of Designit London

They tell me that this year has been a good year for wasps; I found that of little consolation sitting in a London A&E on the night of the World Cup Final, having been attacked by a swarm of them after inadvertently chopping the top off a nest. Despite the game being shown on a rather tired-looking TV in the waiting area, I found myself more engrossed in the production line that I was being processed along. And being processed was certainly how it felt. The mark of lean production was stamped all over it, all in the name of service innovation.

Innovation is a well used word these days, and rightly so, if we go with the old Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) definition as being “the successful commercialisation of a novel idea.” We need new ideas and we need to get them to “market” (a term I use in the very broadest sense) – perhaps more so now than ever. And whilst a huge amount of energy and money has been spent in this arena in recent years, my instinct is that we have been looking in the wrong place. I say this partly as a result of working in the health innovation space in recent years as a design consultant, and partly because when the DTI was reshaped in 2007, it became the Departments of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). You see, I can’t help thinking that Innovation should have gone in with Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Universities, amongst many other sources, have the ideas, but it is business that commercialises them within the boundaries of regulations. Spinning out technology start-ups invariably leads to a well-trodden path of technology push rather that needs pull. Successful commercialisation (again, a term used in its broadest sense) really only comes about when it meets a demand. Some say it has to meet a need or solve a problem, but I’m not convinced. I didn’t need an iPhone, life wasn’t a problem without one. Once it appeared, however, and I understood what it could do for me, I wanted one.

In healthcare, we have rather neglected to consider what people might want – not just the patient, but also the people who work within the system. In recent years the Design Council tried to address this with projects such as Design Bugs Out and Patient Dignity – although the former was a rather grand title for what was really a design-better-bedside-furniture challenge. And, on reflection, that is a shame as it detracts from the fact that having better functioning, better performing and better looking hospital furniture must have a positive impact on staff moral and patient recovery. It’s about delivering things that actually work, in every dimension – in this case wiping it, working it and wanting it. Therefore, when asked, as I frequently am, what design is, I use two words – usability and desirability. In a recent article in the Financial Times, entitled ‘An experiment in design’, Andrew Jack explored how pharmaceutical groups are using consumer industry techniques to better understand their patients’ needs. He cited the example of Unilever’s development of Clearblue, the now de facto standard home pregnancy test. It was the designers, more than the scientists, who really understood the customer and made the difference.

Perhaps one area of healthcare where the patient should really be at the heart of the matter, but where they are rarely even mentioned, is telehealth. I’ve known about telehealth for as long as I can remember. It was one of those classic Tomorrow’s World case studies – in the future we will be able to do this! Of course it is here now, and people will tell you that it saves money, it means the clinician can be in several places at once, it’s completely technically feasible, it can generate income through bandwidth, it benefits the local authority or the community nurse… But what about George, wouldn’t he much prefer it if someone popped around more often now that he is on his own? What about Sue? She actually quite enjoys chatting with the practice nurse, and really benefits from getting out despite it taking a bit of effort. Whose health is it anyway?

Our health services have largely evolved around the people who work in them, with the clinician at the top of the tree. My recent experience in A&E made that very evident. I didn’t enjoy the fact that I had to interact with five different people and a self-service vending machine for the tablets I had to take away with me. I didn’t enjoy the fact that I had to sit back in the waiting area once I had a canuala in my arm, just in case I needed drugs administered intravenously at a later date, as it would save time. Of course one doesn’t go to hospital to have fun, but it would certainly help if the experience was more enjoyable – everyone would benefit.

The Coalition Government has thrown down the gauntlet to the health service to save money, but at the same time as being more accessible and more accountable. We will have to come up with new ways of doing things, and get them adopted and diffused around the system quickly – perhaps like never before. We will have to innovate. We will have to successfully “commercialise” novel ideas. We will have to both create and satisfy demand. We will have to put the patient, the “consumer” first. We will have to create a “consumer” health service.

It’s the abbreviation post. Actually, it’s a post about two events. The first, held yesterday, was a joint event between Aarhus School of Business (ASB) and The Danish Design Center (DDC), and was titled ‘How to Use Social Media to Boost User-Drive Innovation.’ We hosted the event at the Copenhagen office, and also participated in it.

The speakers were Yun Mi Antorini, Assistant Professor at Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, Malene Sihm Vejlsgaard, Founder of boblr.com, and Troels Nørlem, Senior Communication Strategist at Designit. Each gave motivating, detailed cases on how social media can play a pivotal role in user-driven innovation. Through examples such as LEGO Mindstorms, Quirky,  #18DaysInEgypt, Boblr, and more, Yun Mi, Malene and Troels argued the case for involving the users in innovation.

Malene highlighted four points she learnt on her journey founding Boblr. Don’t try to map it out – creativity and innovation are chaotic. There’s no point in trying to make a definite plan as the chances are things won’t go as you expected – take a leap of faith. No one is permanent – there is no definite structure or hierarchy. Neither is it strictly local – if you have a global user base – use it! Finally; just do it – you have to leap in, head first, and see where the flow takes you. Each presentation reflected these points. Companies, brands and organisations must tear down their walls and open up to users. As Malene so rightly said; if your service or product doesn’t fulfill users’ needs, they’ll find a way around this. You might as well learn from them.

It was a super afternoon that ended with some networking, wine, and sandwiches in the sun. Thanks to all that made it.

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Today we headed off to Open App 2011, an two-day event held by The IT University of Copenhagen. The first day focused on developing apps, the second on the market value of having an app. Unfortunately we could only attend for a short while on the second day, but we made it! Martin Delfer, partner and Director of Brand and Communication, gave a 30 minute talk on Designit’s role in the app world.

Covering the transition from print to web and from web to app, Martin demonstrated the benefits and value of creating an app through cases Designit has worked on. Martin can’t talk for more than 10 minutes without making a joke, so needless to say, on more than one occasion he had the audience in laughter, and his fellow Designits shaking their heads.

It was a great morning, and if you didn’t catch us this time, hopefully you will in the near future! Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with events, and check out Designit.com too.

Yesterday we went to The Danish Design Centre’s (The DDC) opening of their new exhibition ‘Challenge Society.’ The exhibition looks at how design can help solve many of the current and future problems of society. As their website says, “The world is transforming, creating complex societal challenges. The future sees fewer hands to care for the increasing number of elderly. The school systems fail, hospitals are down with billions in deficit and the welfare model in general is under pressure. Just to mention some of the future challenges. The situation needs immediate action and new, creative solutions.”

We had a couple of projects on display there, one showcasing our digital communication work as a part of new midwife practices, and a conceptual case for Odense Hospital, reimagining it as a patient hotel concept. While it was great to have Designit represented at the event, it was also the perfect opportunity to hear where others believed design was heading. And boy were we inspired, and happy.

Strategic design has been making headlines all over the place recently, from the ‘creativity crisis’ in American schools to the Danish national design strategy, and as yesterday proved, it’s a bit of a worldwide movement.

We were lucky enough to hear from Chris Luebkeman (Director for Global Foresight and Innovation, Arup), Christian Bason (Director of Innovation, Mindlab), Chris Hacker (Chief Design Officer, Johnson & Johnson), Mikkel B. Rasmussen (European Director at ReD), and Josephine Green (speaker and consultant). Each and every one of them gave inspiring and insightful presentations on how society is changing irrevocably, and how as a result, design and creative processes must be incorporated into just about everything, from packaging to organisational mindsets.

Design thinking has been around for sometime but in the last few years we’ve seen it become a bit of a trend. No wonder really. We are moving out of the economic, mechanistic worldview we’ve had since the industrial revolution and beginning to recognise this flat, social, communal, socio-ecological world we now find ourselves in. Design, a creative, chaotic process, clearly stands as an innovative way through which organisations and businesses can grab a little creativity. The problem here is that through the implementation of design thinking, or any creative processes, through all the management and administration that must be crossed, much of the failures, chaos and mess that creativity thrives on is lost. It’s removed, or minimised to ensure efficiency so that the creative process or design thinking you are left with isn’t anything similar to that you started with.

Today, design thinking – as a term – is on the way out. While we still need this overall mindset (of that there is no doubt!) what we do need to do is to leave behind our hierarchies, our traditional organisational structures, our linear processes that stifle creativity and innovation. We need to focus on the bottom of the pyramid – there shouldn’t even be a pyramid. As Josephine Green put it, we should all be pancakes.

In the socio-ecological world we find ourselves in, the focus is now on the social and the community, and solutions to problems in this world can be found in the social and the community. The focus today is on community needs and social solutions. Solutions which can be found through open collaboration, multiple stakeholders, multidisciplinary innovation, and co-creation.

Co-creation is what Designit does. It has always, from day one, formed the basis of what we do. We believe in user-led innovation – meeting and interacting with those people who have the problem or need on their turf, and including them in the whole process. We don’t have the answer. Our clients don’t have the answer. The consumers don’t have the answer. It’s only by coming together and collaborating that we can find solutions.

Designit believes in collective creativity and we will always believe in collective creativity.

We’re all grown up. After 20 years, we’ve finally outgrown our old chocolate factory in Aarhus. Things got pretty messy towards the end, but eventually everything was sorted through, packed up, and shipped out.

It’s been an emotional move (not to mention chaotic, messy and mad). 20 years gives ample opportunity to get quite attached to a place, especially when it’s the birthplace of the company we know and love today. But of course, it’s all good. We have, after all, outgrown the office. Designit has been bulging at the seams with fantastic people and work for some time now, and we’re finally bursting out. Our new home is not only roomy enough for all of us, but also brand spanking new. So new, in fact, someone will probably end up with paint on his or her sleeve by the end of the day…

Things are a bit hectic right now, things are still being unpacked, and people are getting to know their new surroundings, but business is running as (un)usual though, and spirits are high. The new location is awesome; massive, open, and light. Absolutely fantastic! Check it out!

If you fancy checking it out in person, drop by for a coffee and a chat – we’ll be happy to show you around!

As some of you eagle-eyed fans might have noticed, we’ve got a new website! It’s been in the pipeline for some time now, waiting for this, waiting for that, but we were finally able to launch on Friday. We’ve been waiting a little while before letting everyone know to make sure it would appear the same worldwide. Bear in mind though that it’s not 100% finished; some pages are more polished than others. For example, we’re waiting for the final go on a lot of cases, so that page is somewhat sparse. Rest assured though – everything is on its way.

Our faithful old site has been keeping us going for about 5 years now, and although we were sorry to see it go, we all agreed that a change just had to come.

It’s been a tremendous time for Designit recently – we can’t seem to stop growing. Growing in size, growing in client base, and growing in knowledge.  We’ve changed. We’re still the same old zoo of course, but all this growth and movement has opened our eyes and given us a fresh perspective on things – on us.

Designit has always been, and will always be, a people company. As one of our team put it we’re a ‘no-asshole-fun-loving-people-company’ and we want to keep it that way. The new Designit.com reflects us – our identity, our language, our people and our state of mind.

Our old site was becoming too busy. We had so much to communicate that we were becoming too intent on getting everything out. We had to take a step back and rethink our approach. We don’t want to shout – that’s not how we communicate. We realised we had to cut away the fat, and create a leaner, cleaner site, a site that could relay all our information in a minimal, un-shouty way.

The new Designit.com is a complete overhaul of the site, presenting a much more focused image of the company. The international departments (will!) have their own local site in their local language, and have cases and news related to them listed on the page too, which makes, well, it makes a lot more sense (there will also be an English version of each site). Designit.com now truly embodies the whole company, with each department being fully represented within it.

Virtually everything has been given (or is being given) a new look and feel, from our jobs and internship pages, to our services. All news and cases have been given a more prominent spot than our previous site. We are, after all, immensely proud of work we’ve done as well as the work we’re currently involved in so it only makes sense to communicate this. It’s much easier to see what kind of projects we are working on (and have worked on) which means that it’s easier to see just what it is we do.

It’s minimal, it’s clean, it’s fresh, and there’s no bull.

We really hope you like it, and we’re very open to feedback. We’ll be updating as we go along – there are areas that will definitely be tweaked and tuned, and your input will only help.

Yes, today we welcome even more members to our lovely team.

On April 8th the Aarhus office will be moving to a new location after out-growing the birthplace of Designit. It’s a bit sad after all those years, but the new location is looking pretty sweet – no doubt I’ll write more about when I get the chance to visit!

Anywho, welcome new people! Anna Petlina will be our new People Assistant in Aarhus. Anna holds two MA degrees - the latest is an M.Sc. in Business Performance Management, from the Aarhus School of Business and the other is an M.Sc. in Applied Mathematics, St.Petersburg State University, Russia. Anne, enjoys ice-skating, and swimming in the sea, come rain, shine, or snow. I think she’s crazy enough for the Aarhus office.

Simon Henning joins us in Copenhagen, as a Senior Product Designer. Simon holds two degrees; a foundation course in Design from the Norfolk College of Arts and Technologies, and an MA in 3-Dimensional Design from the Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication. Simon likes wood (ahem) as well as classic BMWs and anything that gets the adrenaline pumping around.

Marge Aru joins us in Copenhagen as a Digital Designer. Marge is a self-taught pixel maniac and multimedia designer, which sounds just about right for us here in Copenhagen. She’s in to typography, music, and learning cool things everyday. I reckon our diverse zoo can satisfy that last one for sure.

Signe Nørly also joins us in Copenhagen as an Information Architect. Signe holds an MSc in IT, Digital Design and Communication from the IT University of Copenhagen and a BA in Musicology also from the University of Copenhagen. Signe can either be found trying to fix her Xbox, or working on her bike. If she’s not doing either of these, check the local ER as she might have broken something trying to learn to skateboard.

So welcome them all! We can’t wait to get to know them better.

On March 24^th (last week) Copenhagen Twestival took place. Of course it wasn’t just Copenhagen Twestival, it was Twestival all over the world.

Twestivals (stick Twitter and festival together and what have you got?) are held globally each year, in cities and towns all over the place. Although organized via Twitter, they are of course open to anyone and everyone. They are strictly non-profit events and each year the proceeds go towards non-profit organisations which make an impact in the community. This year, in Copenhagen, the profits went to The Children’s Cancer Foundation (Børnecancerfonden). The aim was to send 25 children off to a summer camp, where they can hang out, play, and spend time with other children like them, giving them the opportunity to just be kids for a while.

The powers that be at Designit are nice chaps, and of course were more than happy to provide some sponsorship for the event, as did others such as 1508, 23, Klean, Bezzerwizzer and more. A few of us at Designit went along to spend our cold hard cash on the lottery tickets (where tickets to Roskilde Festival were up for grabs!), and perhaps on a beer or three,

Twestival took place at KB18, a new club in the Meatpacking District (Kødbyen) that has just opened (the 24^th was actually their first ever night!), and who very kindly allowed Twestival to use the location for free (always a bit hard to find that!). People swarmed in, and we all topped out at about 220 people. A good number, if you ask me!

After a brief welcome, and an inspiring introduction to The Children’s Cancer Foundation by the director, Marianne Nielsen, the music began. Over the course of the evening we heard a set from 2tru, Panamah, DJ Hvad (formerly known as Kid Kishore/Trentemøller/Albertslund Terror Korps), The Freudian Slip, and a set from Waqar. Great stuff!

It was a super night. It was so fantastic to see so many there and supporting the cause. All in all, just under 70,000 kroner was raised. 70,000! It’s just magic.

We’re already looking forward to next year, and have no doubt that it’ll be bigger and better than ever before.

Marianne Nielsen from The Children’s Cancer Foundation.

DJ Hvad doing his thing.

One of the prize sponsors – Bezzerwizzer – and the lucky winner!

A magnificent LEGO ‘fail whale’ – that’s what I wanted to win.