Hasta La Ideas

Last week, I announced on Core77 the publication of the Design for Growth and Prosperity report by the European Design Leadership Board.

Christian Guellerin, president of Cumulus, the International Association of Universities and Schools of Design, Art and Media and executive director of the acclaimed Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique, likes the report but would have wanted the role of design education and design internships to be emphasized much more strongly in this volume.

“Designers will play a key role in new types of economic structures, those that are flexible, adaptable, and mobile. And companies will have to think differently. They will need to adapt their model and their management to industrial mobility. The idea is not to relocate in Asian countries or elsewhere, but to adapt to change where you are.”

He thinks designers:

• are good at mutating and helping companies and organizations develop their ability to do something else with what they already do;
• can help make companies the radical move to an economy of really sustainable products, “designed to last”; and
• with consumers intervening more and more in the design process of products they buy, the management of a contributive economy will have to turn towards design and shared conception.

Read his reaction in full at Metropolis.

Image via Metropolis

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