Our latest Briefing is in the house and ready for order! If you’d like a copy, just write to socialmedia@designit.com with your address, and we’ll pop one in the post. Alternatively, you can keep up-to-date on all our publications on our Issuu page.

This Briefing looks at Mobile Services. How can you leverage the thousands of opportunities mobiles present for maximum effect? Is data really all that important? What can you do with it? And where do Apple, Google and Microsoft stand, exactly?

Here are some shots to whet your appetite…

It’s all yours if you want it!

Yes, it’s time for more welcomes as we, er, welcome some new faces to the flock.

First up, in Copenhagen, we welcome Nora Køster Hansen as the other new part-time Office Assistant. Nora comes to us eager to be inspired by the creative juices that pump through the studio, and to lend her helping hand to keeping the zoo under control. Nora is a fan of football, and has played for a number of years. Maybe she can show us some tricks on the foosball table at the Christmas party that’s coming up…

Copenhagen also welcomes Puk Sjeldan as the new Operations Manager. Puk has been working at the design agency 1508 for the last 7 years, where she handled just about every aspect of the business, from administration to marketing and human resources. She loves being part of a team, and saw Designit as a chance to continue being part of a team in a highly creative, passionate and international atmosphere. She’s motivated, loves gadgets, has a zero bullshit attitude, and one heck of a grin. She’s just our cup of tea.

Be nice to them if you meet them. We’re looking forward to making the most of them!

Yup! Briefing number four is in the house! It’s shiny, it’s new, it’s smooth, it’s beautiful, and most of all – it’s packed with great stories, ideas, truths, and ways through which your company, business or brand can really differentiate from competitors.

Check out some lovely photos here, and if you’d like a copy, just drop us a line at socialmedia@designit.com, on our Facebook page, or tweet us at @SocialDesignit. You can have the PDF or a hard copy, and it won’t cost you a dime. Go on – what have you got to lose?

See? Lovely. Get in touch now and grab a copy while it’s hot!

Yes, just as with Aarhus and Munich, our Oslo studio has grown and grown and ultimately, has had to move.

The studio is now located between the central station and Grünerløkka, which is one of the most vibrant areas of the city, which suits the team right down to the Norwegian ground.

To get the new era off to a good start, and to show off the beautiful new studio to our collaborators, clients and friends, a housewarming party was arranged. Start as you mean to go on, right?!

It took place Thursday October 13th, and even had a theme for the first hour; Designit! Food and drink were served which came from all the other studios around the world, from Denmark to Spain!

Around 100 people showed up over the course of the whole evening, and Designit Aarhus even let their IT guy, Morten Thomsen head over to DJ (we should point out that he is actually a DJ).

There was even a competition where first prize was a three course dinner for two. All you had to do was guess the amount of sweets in the jar – or at least come close to it! The lucky winner was Andreas Kjensli Knudsen. Enjoy, Andreas!

All in all the new studio was definitely warmed, new friends were made, food was eaten, drinks were drunk, and everyone had a very merry time. We hope that you’ll make it over to Grünerløkka one day, and pop in to say hello. To tempt you, here is a little video featuring the crew and their crazy antics. Those funny Norwegians…whatever next?

For more pictures, check out the album on Facebook or Flickr.

While searching YouTube for something completely unrelated, I came across this video from the old Munich studio. It’s possibly one of the best things on YouTube.

I have no idea who made it, but I’d like to shake their hand.

For those of you who have no idea what’s going on, it’s (obviously) a tour of the studio with the audio provided by one of the most viral videos of 2010. YouTube user Hungrybear9562 spotted a double rainbow over Yosemite National Park, videos it, and provides an…interesting commentary to it, eventually breaking down in tears. See the original video below. It’s bizarre, entertaining, and meme-making (over 30,000,000 views at time of writing!).

It’s Tuesday morning and we’re all back in our offices. Or getting there. 4 days of non-stop Spanish goodness has left us weary eyed, full of fantastic food, oiled up by outrageously large drinks, inspired by wonderful new colleagues, and buzzing all over. Madrid is a city packed full of inspiration. From looming, deco buildings to dark, twisting back alleys, Madrid is alive with sights, sounds, smells and people.

We were overwhelmed by the friendliness and hospitality of our new colleagues. Showing us the new office (they have a cinema. We think this should become standard at Designit offices), laying out tapas and drinks, taking us out for more drinks and various Madrid nightlife experiences, and being there for us whenever we needed them. Thank you :)

Friday night was spent at the new Designit office, meeting colleagues from near and far, and having guided tours around the office (their building has crests. Any suggestions for a Designit crest?). Later on, we headed out in to Madrid, sampling food and drinks until the wee small hours.

Saturday morning was about exploring Madrid, then in the afternoon we all met for a 4 hour workshop inside the magnificent train station. It was a great afternoon, with laughs, more tapas, creativity in every corner (some slightly more Star Wars inspired but still creative!) and altogether extremely inspiring. Saturday evening was a night at the Danish Ambassador’s home with more tapas (no Ferrero Rocher, for those of you wondering), more talking and getting to know everyone, and then a night out at a swing dance club – a truly inspired choice!

Sunday morning (or early afternoon) was met with puffy eyes and big smiles as we talked about the night before and set off to get lost in Madrid. The beautiful Retiro Park provided warm grass, dappled shade and wonderful sights for a late breakfast, and the rest of the city provided the playground we needed for the remainder of the day. Coming together in larger groups in the evening, we went out for our last supper. Despite being a bit sad about leaving, we managed to make the most of the evening (some more than others!), and can safely say we made the most of our time (note the piglet head in this photo from the oldest restaurant in the world!).

We’re so happy to have been to Madrid. Not just because it meant we got to meet our new Spanish friends, but also because it’s a city that needs exploring and investigating. It gave us a wonderful (warm!) break, the chance to experience the new, and not least, it gave us a wealth of inspiration.

Check out more photos on Flickr or Facebook!

Hola! Yes, today we’re off to Spain for our annual Inspiration Trip. 150 Designits will descend on Madrid, from all corners of the world(ish) and spend 4 glorious days exploring the city, getting lost, eating tapas, maybe having a drink or two (or three), trying out our Spanglish, and (the two most exciting things) meeting our new Designits and taking part in a big workshop!

As you may know, Designit has recently merged with the Spanish company dnx, and to celebrate this and meet our new colleagues, we’re all off to sunny Spain. What better way to seal the deal than all getting together? We’ll have time to explore, time to investigate, time to talk and time for our traditional workshop on the Saturday. We can’t wait!

We’ll be sure to give a good recap once we’re back on Tuesday, but be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to keep track of what we’re up to and to see just how lost we do get…

Adios for now!

More friendly faces have joined our ever increasing ranks recently. In Copenhagen, we’ve welcomed Christina Hauge Lauritsen, as a Brand Design Intern. Christina is studying a BA in Brand Design at The Copenhagen School of Design & Technology.
Previous to this, she studied E-Design with a focus on graphic design and business approach. She’s a creative soul, who values her family and when it all gets too much, she can be found out pounding the tarmac. That’s running, not with her fists.

Also in Copenhagen, we’re finally getting our own IT guy! He’s a gift from above, as poor Morten in Aarhus can finally stop running back and forth between the two cities, and rest in peace, knowing that we won’t be calling him at all hours asking what are probably pretty silly questions. Instead, we can call Daniel!

Daniel Michalik, our new IT Support dude, studied English Linguistics at Aalborg University, and took a 6 month business school course. Although starting out as a shipping trainee, his natural ability for IT skills began to shine through, and he was soon offered a full-time job in the IT Department. When he’s not working his magic with computers, he can be found out kitesurfing or speed skating.

No doubt more will follow :)

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.