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Designing Demand FAQs
What is the Design Council?
The Design Council is the UK’s national strategic body for design. It aims to strengthen and support the economy and society by demonstrating and promoting the vital role of design in making businesses more competitive and public services more effective.
What does the Design Council do?
The Design Council’s work includes:
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Campaigns to accelerate innovation and transformation in industry and the public sector through practical interventions promoting the strategic use of design
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Projects generating new thinking on how design can be used to tackle key economic and social challenges
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A ten-year public design promotion in UK regions
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The Designing Demand programme.
Who is the Design Council funded by?
The Design Council is funded by grant-in-aid from the Department of Innovation, Universities & Skills.
How can I find out more about the Design Council?
You can find out more about the Design Council by visiting the website at www.designcouncil.org.uk or calling the press office on 020 7420 5248.
What is the Designing Demand programme?
Designing Demand is a new design support programme for UK businesses.
It is designed to help businesses become more competitive, increase their profits and boost their performance through the effective use of design.
Who is running the programme?
The programme has been developed by the Design Council and will be delivered in partnership with Regional Development Agencies and others.
Do any other programmes like this exist?
At present there are a wide variety of schemes available to support SMEs. The nine RDAs have identified more than 70 different initiatives which aim to link creativity, design and business in some way. Some of these are specialised, relating to particular local conditions and focusing on specific sectors.
How is this programme different from those that already exist?
Designing Demand is the only national programme of design support offering:
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Flexible, structured processes with individual attention from expert Design Associates who have extensive business experience.
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Access to unique Design Council case studies, methods and tools.
Can anyone take part in the programme?
The programme has been developed specifically to help SMEs. However, within that sector of the economy any type of company can take part – whether they are start-ups, established businesses or enterprises focussed on commercialising new technologies.
Other services within Designing Demand are devoted to helping designers understand businesses’ needs and issues, and to helping business advisors spot design opportunities for their clients.
Is the programme the same for all businesses?
No. The services have been developed to meet the needs of businesses at different stages of development. They range from a one-day practical introduction to how design adds value to hands-on support for a strategic design project lasting up to 18 months.
Who is funding the programme?
The Design Council has developed the programme and will continue to fund its ongoing evolution. The Regional Development Agencies fund the delivery of the programme in each region. The Regional Development Agencies and the Design Council fund the central functions supporting delivery to ensure quality and consistency.
How does the programme work?
To meet the demands of these different businesses the programme consists of four services:
i) Designing Demand Workshops – fast-paced and practical workshops showing SMEs what design investment could do for them.
ii) Designing Demand Accelerate – a service to help both established businesses and start-ups get a design project moving.
iii) Designing Demand Innovate – sustained support aimed at technology businesses.
iv) Designing Demand Immerse – the most intensive service, aimed at established businesses with the appetite for strategic change.
Services will deliver a mixture of workshops and one-to-one mentoring from Design Associates experienced in managing design and tackling business issues.
Who are Design Associates?
Design Associates are a group of experienced designers and design managers who have been recruited by the Design Council.
Design Associates must have strong design management skills and specific experience in at least two of the three fields which the majority of projects will cover: product and service design, brand and communications, and technology.
In addition they have the advisory and interpersonal skills that are needed to support and influence a managing director and their management team.
What do the Design Associates do?
Design Associates fulfil a range of functions in Designing Demand. They provide mentoring to management teams, highlighting potential design opportunities and advising on how to implement them. This includes helping businesses run pitches, draw up design briefs and manage projects. They also run a range of Designing Demand workshops, from one-day introduction to design to specialised events dealing with topics such as brand and business culture.
What qualifications do the Design Associates have to help businesses in this way?
Design Associates are typically qualified designers who will have worked as design managers and led creative teams, often with formal business management training and experience of delivering business advice or consultancy.
The Design Council has a recruitment process that every potential Design Associate has to go through before being formally affiliated to the programme. As a part of this process an associate is inducted in the specific Design Council methodologies that are used in the aspects of the programme that they may deliver.
Once affiliated, the Design Council supports all Design Associates with a national continuing professional development programme of Designing Demand workshops and activity-based learning that also encourages the development of best practice through peer exchange.
What evidence is there that design makes a difference to a business’s performance?
Design Council research proves that businesses that use design as a key strategic driver are consistently more successful.
For example:
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83 per cent of companies in which design is integral have seen their market share increase, compared to the UK average of 46 per cent.
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A business that increases its investment in design is more than twice as likely to see its turnover grow as a business that does not do so.
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Shares in design-led businesses outperform key stock market indices by 200 per cent.
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Every £100 a design-led business spends on design increases turnover by £225.
Is there any proof that the Designing Demand programme actually works?
Yes. The programme has been piloted with more than 600 manufacturing and technology businesses across the UK since 2002. It has proven to be effective and feedback has been extremely positive – 97% of participants who took part in the Designing Demand workshops said they were ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ and our interventions have had a significant effect on the performance of the companies that have taken part – boosting turnover and profit and helping to attract investment.
How much will it cost businesses to take part in the programme?
This will depend on the degree of subsidy from the Regional Development Agencies, which may vary from region to region. Businesses themselves fund design work undertaken as a result of the programme, but here again subsidy is at the discretion of the Regional Development Agencies.
Why has the programme been launched now?
The launch of the programme follows a review of creativity in business commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer from the then Design Council Chairman Sir George Cox. The Cox Review, published in 2005, identified the need for urgent action if the UK is to compete with fast-emerging global economies.
The review’s recommendations were approved in full. They included a national programme of business support to help businesses get full value from design. Designing Demand is the result.
Is the programme available everywhere in the UK?
The programme is currently available in
What should businesses do if they want to take part in the programme?
They can find out more about the programme by visiting the website www.designingdemand.org.uk. For media inquiries, call the Design Council press office on 020 7420 5248.