During the event we had a selection of presentations and provocations related to sustainability and design (see presentations below). Leyla Acaroglu, a visiting research associate from Australia, gave a presentation on planned obsolescence and design. Julian Skyes, design director of Hoffi, made a presentation on a project exploring the possibility of opening a retail space dedicated to cradle-to-cradle products. This project is related to his MA. Angela Gidden of attic 2 gave a personal reflection on design and role of brands in consumption.

I made a short presentation on some personal reflections on the debate and discussion on the role of design in sustainable development. As usual, I ran out of time!! I also made a presentation highlighting some of the main elements of the proposal we developed for the ECONetwork. This proposal was largely based on the ideas discussed at the last “ideas lounge”. Following this, we had a number of suggestions and discussion points on the merits of the proposal.

Overall it was a very good meeting. I felt we were moving past rough ideas and people could see some shape to the network. Many of the suggestions and idea were inspiring and showed the potential of such a network. It will be of value to Wales.

Some additional themes that the network should consider included;
•    develop a strong “made in Wales” brand defined by sustainable principles
•    demystify the definitions, language and jargon of ecodesign
•    improve public understanding of good design (ecodesign) and sustainability
•    use good design to drive economic resilience and growth of the Welsh economy
•    use good design to develop local economies
•    drive the renewal of the design sector

Some specific issues to tackle include
•    design timebank (volunteering/collaboration)
•    identify suppliers/manufacturers – clustering support and joining up
•    public transport – longer term view – joined up understanding of mobility

Some of the real value of these meetings will be the connections made within the network and how the network maintains momentum over the coming years. We will strive to improve the collaboration across the network as it develops. We are already getting some great suggestions from attendees on how we can achieve this. There may also be scope for joint events with other networks in Wales such as Nocci and Bloc.

Presentations

Leyla Acaroglu

Julian Skyes

Simon O’Rafferty

Photos

leyla-presenting

simon-presenting

luke-presenting

discussion

some interesting things I wrote down to reflect on for the  ECONetwork..

• pop-up design studios
  students designing their own curriculum
  accidental leadership
  business model innovation to reflect the NOW
  socio-enterprise training for design professionals
  creating real experiences
  convergence (communication/time)
  “the future is unknowable but not unthinkable”
  role of interaction design
  strategic capacities for new designers (identified by Nokia etc) – empathy, humility, curiosity, responsibility
  attitude of design
  undoing pre-conceptions
  new design for new economies
  napkin manifesto of D-School
  mobile pop-up classrooms
  radicalisation of education (away from modernist mindset)
  T-shaped skills profiles but with broad knowledge and deep moral values instead of technical specialism

“try to relax and enjoy the crisis”

Are there other networks or groups that you can add to the list? please add these as a comment.. (we would also like to you to link up your international networks of interest)

Naked Wales (Wales)

Bloc (Wales)

[re]design (London)

EcoLabs (London)

ACID (Gloucester)

British Design Innovation (Brighton)

British European Design Group (Surrey)

Design Connect (London)

Creative Industries Network (Derby)

D&AD (London)

Design Business Association (London)

Hidden art (London)

Design Initiative (Manchester)

DesignTalks (UK)

Futures (Manchester)

Oube (UK)

RSVP London (London)

Sizzle (Blackpool)

West of England Design Forum (Plympton)

You are invited to respond to these questionnaires.

In-house designers – click here
Design consultants – click here
Support organisations – click here

More details of the study can be found on the “About” page.

You can also find some resources and links to extra information on the “Resources” page.

The Ecodesign Centre would like to extend its thanks to the Welsh Assembly Government for providing the resources that allow us to conduct this study.

Please comment and add more items that you wanted to contribute and we will add them.

Click on image for full size version..

mind map

While it isn’t precise it gives an indication of the themes that were being discussed on the day.

click  on the image for a bigger version..

wordle

The agenda was:
16.00 – 16.10 : Introduction by Simon O’Rafferty
16.10 – 16.40 : Jonathan Crinion
16.40 – 17.10 : Rob Brown – Sprout Design
17.10 – 17.40 : Q&A – debate – challenge (take notes!)
17.40 – 18.30 : Food
18.30 – 20.00 : 60 minute design challenge

The event was introduced by Simon O’Rafferty. Presentation below.

Following this, there were two presentations from Jonathan Crinion and Rob Brown. These presentations set the context for the following discussions and workshop.

Jonathan’s presentation focussed on some of the insurmountable problems related to climate change, peak oil and resource depletion. By putting these issues in the context of design practice Jonathan was able to challenge everyone in the room in terms of personal perspectives, commercial expectations and potential social/political complacency. Jonathan’s perspective on the future of design mirrors a lot of the discussions stemming from the transition movement. food for thought indeed.

Image by Jonathan Crinion adapted from Transition Network / Transition Training

Following this, Rob Brown from Sprout design in London shared his experiences and the experiences of his agency in tackling the joint issues of sustainability and inclusive design. Rob put forward a strong case for making some of the complex issues of sustainability more tangible. By portraying an intelligent and design-led approach to sustainability, Rob managed to highlight the opportunities for agencies in Wales aswell as their clients.

After the discussions, Frank O’Connor facilitated a Q&A session with the audience. The questions from the audience reflected the depth of knowledge of the speakers. The questions ranged from the broad challenges for design policy, the potential for standards in ecodesign, the role of communications and eco-labels, the challenging of existing approaches such as cradle to cradle and very practical discussion on how design agencies in Wales can start tackling this issues now.

These discussions led into the later workshop. We decided to call this workshop the “60 minute design challenge”. While it didn’t set out to design anything the workshop allowed for a greater depth of discussion on what opportunities there are for a network in Wales, what the network could do and how it would operate. Some of the outputs from this workshop can be seen on the wordle and mindmap posted elsewhere in this blog.

Some images from the event (all photos by Mei – www.meilewis.com):

The 4 months feasibility study will assess the gaps in capacity for ecodesign and eco-innovation among professional designers in Wales and also the current and future support requirements of the design sector. It will explore how support requirements could be delivered through existing or new knowledge exchange mechanisms and intermediary organisations. In the context of this study, professional designers include independent design consultants and in-house designers in manufacturing companies.

The results of the feasibility study will contribute to the development of a potential knowledge exchange network for ecodesign and eco-innovation in Wales. This will be a strategically significant activity as it will incorporate the Welsh Assembly Government priorities of sustainable development, creating an innovative region and developing the creative industries.

EDC will share the results of the study through its website and email updates. It is expected that the improvement of design competencies will significantly contribute to innovation in Wales while projecting an international image of Wales as a region focused on sustainable competitiveness.