The second week of September was the re run of the fated Design Management Institute (DMI) European Conference in London at the Royal Medical Society’s impressive headquarters at 1 Wimpole Street, just north of Oxford Street, or behind John Lewis as we would describe it.

The conference was originally due to take place in May but the ash cloud from the erupting Icelandic volcano meant that the large number of visitors who were flying to the UK to take part could not take part so the conference was postponed.

The DMI conference brings together a unique band of design professionals who are mostly involved with managing design within organisations and therefore have several roles including evangelism, directing of creativity, project planning and accountant. I was invited by Thomas Lockwood, CEO of DMI to share the job of chairing the event with Oliver King, of the service design agency Engine.

The theme we decided on for this year’s conference was “Transforming Design”. I felt that this was an important time for design, where new opportunities and challenges for design are prevalent and design needs to examine itself to understand what value it brings to these new situations.

I made two speeches, at the opening and closing of the conference, and below is the gist of my comments, as far as I can remember them from my notes.




The world is in crisis. The economy is slowly climbing from a bruising global recession that has made every business and government re assess their foundations and aspirations.

The planet is in crisis, with resources and ecological stability at risk. Politics is in crises with behaviour, ethics and methods of democracy questioned and challenged.

And, I would suggest, design is in crisis. In the UK we hear that the vast network regional business support is to be cut off. These regional networks ran the highly successful Designing Demand programme. Designing Demand, one of the Design Council’s most successful schemes and one that I helped create, put designers into a company for a day and transformed their understanding of design. It has helped 1,000s to success through better products, services and marketing, but the scheme is about to be shut down after almost a decade of success. Indeed, the Design Council itself is under serious review and may disappear completely.

Last week the Guardian newspaper reported that Art and Design was one of several subjects on an unofficial black list compiled by the top tier of universities of ‘A’ level examination subjects that were not appropriate qualifications for entry. After all this time design is still seen by intelligentsia as something vocational, non academic, that those less academic, not so bright kids, do. It’s a scandal, but perhaps of our own making.

But on the other hand, the reach and transformational power of design has never been greater. The skills of the designer have moved beyond the artefact, the printed page or screen. The core principles that lay behind design, human focused, problem solving, creativity, vision, synthesis of the possible, can be applied to a wider remit, including the context that many design outputs sit within.

Thus we have designers taking their approach and applying it to the less tangible: services, experiences, ecosystems and moving from purely business objectives to those of public services, to change behaviour, increase adoption and solve social problems. And designers have been successful: politicians, government and local authorities are keen to have this new tool, beyond simply building a new school or hospital that brings greater citizen satisfaction and service efficiency. Our top businesses understand design and the role it plays in their success and the public sector increasingly embraces design thinking. Design is no longer a mystery to many.

Not all agree with this extension of deign activity. For some it is “mission creep”, design should simply be about beauty, function and creativity. But design and design thinking is able to point to real success, innovative and inspiring stories of change and transformation.

With this confidence and expansion comes both new opportunities and new threats. Despite the success stories, there are many who are beginning to challenge design and it’s practices.

Because design now has responsibility; to show that it can effect positive change, empower citizens as well as bring success with new business models. And does every designer understand that responsibility?

The business model of design has not changed and for many in the public sector, design is expensive and unsustainable. Designers leave the party at the end of the project and are not able to mentor of facilitate development without what to many seem like expensive fees

Designers are disrespectful and naïve of established professionals and experts. If you are a senior police officer or have been in healthcare for 30 years and scruffy young jean clad person tells you to go forget what you know and go back to basics, whether right or wrong it is challenging and at worse fails to build on deep knowledge and experience. But this does happen, and it annoys many people.

So I think that design is in a crisis too. It is a crisis bought by new opportunities and possibilities, but if we are not able to look at our own practice, we risk that design will be seen by many as a fad. “We tried design once and didn’t like it”. But these issues are far too important for design to be seen as a fad. We must understand what we do and need to do to ensure a better world around us, one that is accessible and understandable to all, beautiful and sustainable at the same time.

I do not want this conference to discuss “what is design”, or “what is design thinking”. I want us to understand how we can transform design into a powerful and effective tool for a better world. If we are not in a crisis now then I believe one is coming. The important thing about a crisis is to use it. Use it to emerge from the other side transformed and stronger.

I believe we are in a crisis, don’t waste it!