The Design Council have been a source of inspiration for me since my undergrad uni days and I have always used their knowledge pools for my study and work. So you can imagine, I was very excited (and a little nervous) to be visiting them!
On Monday afternoon I set off by train with my supervisor to London. After checking into our hotel we parted for dinner engagements. I caught up with an old UTS friend of mine Karen for dinner. We have not seen each other in years and it was the one-and-only Facebook that put us in touch again (may I add that Facebook is a wonderfully stupid thing. Wonderful for putting you in touch with long-lost friends and stupid because it’s the biggest distraction ever!). Karen and I dined in the quaint Covent Garden and had a fantastic catch up on life, work and design.
Tuesday marked my introduction to the Design Council. Our first meeting was at 1pm so Bob and I went to the British Museum in the morning to enjoy the space, light and architecture and also discuss the PhD and tactics for the upcoming Design Council meetings.
We arrived at the Design Council offices at Covent Garden at 1pm.
I was given a tour of the light-filled two-storey office space, with its high ceilings, punctuations of primary colours, meeting pods and lounges, library (pictured below), full-time kitchen/café and internal lamp posts (in recognition of the building’s heritage and ownership by telco company BT). The offices were much bigger than I had expected and the Design Council was far more influential in the UK than I had imagined.
The Design Council employs around 70 people and sits under the DTI (Department of Trade and Investments) a government agency that is responsible for supporting and promoting UK businesses. The Design Council describe themselves as the national strategic body for design in the UK. They don’t do design projects, they design and advise on programs, research and policy to raise the awareness of design and how to use design in business, government and education.
After my tour (which was tonnes to absorb), it was back-to-back meetings with the stakeholders of my PhD. This included Andrea, Head of Design Knowledge at the Design Council, who is my second supervisor, and the leadership team of Dott07 (Designs of the Time 2007), the regeneration program happening in the North East that I shall use as a case study in my PhD. Dott07 is sponsored by the Design Council and regional development agencies, and uses design to effect social, community and environmental change in regional England. Dott07 is a high profile program for the Design Council and its projects have encompassed innovative approaches to solving social and environmental problems.
During our meetings we were also joined by Mary, a PhD student from East London University. Mary came into touch with the Design Council, Northumbria University and Dott07 as her PhD subject matter has taken a similar form to mine and she is to use Dott07 as a case study for her paper too. Mary is doing her PhD part-time while she is establishing her own design company called Uscreates.
By the time 6pm rolled around, I was feeling drained from being a big sponge and soaking it all up, but it was onto drinks night at the Design Council for a panel discussion with the Design Council’s Chief Executive, David Kester and the Program Director of Dott07, John Thackara. It was an interesting event to watch and also hear, as invited designers, design managers, design students and design clients, participated in a discussion about where design was heading and the state of design in the UK.
After the panel, Bob and I were off to the train station as we had a 3 hour train ride back to Newcastle. We settled into our first class seats, exhausted from the day, as the train pulled out of London and into the night.
