Articles
Search previous Design Council news and articles.
Design in the Public Sector ‘Climate Action’ Final Showcase
27 May 2021
The Design in the Public Sector programme, delivered in partnership with the Local Government Association, supports public sector leaders to explore key challenges affecting their local communities and identify innovative...
Design for all: Broadening use and understanding of design by the public and public sector
27 April 2021
Over the last year we have seen communities create new support networks to help their neighbours; young people produce signs in celebration of the NHS; and public-sector organisations innovate to create pop-up vaccination...
Designing for net zero is not ambitious enough warns Design Council
22 April 2021
Design Council launches new framework enabling designers to respond more effectively to climate crisis and other systemic challenges. A new framework enabling people to work together to address the climate crisis and other major...
Adding Value: Capturing Design’s Social and Environmental Impact
20 April 2021
Back in the 1970s the designer Victor Papanek remarked: “there are professions more harmful than industrial design, but very few of them”. His criticism could have been levelled at the design world more widely. The built...
Design Council announces new network of design experts
19 April 2021
Multi-disciplinary, diverse community of practice set to address major social, environmental and economic challenges Design Council has today announced its refreshed network of more than 400 built and natural environment experts...
Extending the brief: furthering our understanding of design and its value
14 April 2021
Since the last version of the Design Economy research in 2018, we’ve seen significant changes in the world in which design firms, designers and others in the design economy are working. For many people, concerns such as the climate emergency, persistent inequalities, and the COVID-19 pandemic have heightened awareness of their work, how they do it, and the value it brings.
How do you measure design?
14 April 2021
When thinking about design’s historic home turf of manufacturing, graphics and architecture, it is relatively easy to find designers operating in sectors which result in industrial products, consumer goods or changes to the built...
Methodology cheat sheet
14 April 2021
To produce the Design Economy: 2021–2024 methodology, researchers at BOP Consulting and UAL have learned from, and built on existing approaches, methodologies and data. In doing so, they have createcreate a new approach to...
Design, Economics and Building Back Better
13 April 2021
In his opening provocation for this roundtable, designer Akil Benjamin asked us to imagine what role design could play in an equitable economy: ‘What does a post-covid business model look like, where design serves both businesses...
Coming soon! Design Economy 2021.
12 April 2021
As the nation looks to ‘build back better,’ the need to show the contribution design can make to enable positive change has never been more important. This summer we’ll be launching Design Economy 2021, the latest in our...
Prince Philip, a true champion of design
9 April 2021
Our thoughts are with Her Majesty the Queen and her family as we all mourn the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. From 1959-2011 the Prince Philip Designers Prize celebrated how designers improve...
Initiative launched to find new ways to overcome inequalities in physical activity
31 March 2021
People with great ideas to tackle inequalities in physical activity are being invited to apply to Ideas to Action – a new programme delivered by Design Council, supported by Sport England and funded by the National Lottery. The...