The Good Design Practice campaign
Good Design Practice creates a thriving industry
We’re sharing knowledge about good design practice
What our Blueprint said: Designers would like to see greater professionalism and a shared understanding of the value of professional practice in our industry.
What we’re doing: The UK Design Skills Alliance will be developing an online resource that will bring together useful tools, information and real life examples of good design practice in one place. It will also work with other partners to develop new online services where they’re needed.
This resource will include a directory that will help designers and design businesses find the training they need to develop their careers and businesses.
We’re developing the design leaders of the future
What our Blueprint said: Designers are currently well qualified, but there are specific areas where our professional skills need to be improved.
What we’re doing: The Design Council and the Cultural Leadership Programme have completed a pilot of a mentoring scheme for design leaders. It paired designers at the peak of their careers with those who were still on their way up. From this experience The Design Skills Alliance is creating a guide that will help you to find a mentor or run mentoring schemes within your own company.
The partners involved in these projects are:
With Good Design Practice, today’s students will be tomorrow’s great designers
We’re developing the design leaders of the future
What our Blueprint said: Students benefit when aspects of real life design practice are part of their further and higher education in design.
What we’re doing: We’re looking at new ways to help connect practising designers and design managers with colleges and universities. We’re working with CHEAD and ADM-HEA to pilot new models for incorporating visiting design professionals into further and higher education, which we’ll develop into a national network.
We’re bringing multi-disciplinary design educators together
What our Blueprint said: Designers are increasingly expected to work alongside other specialists, from scientists and engineers, to marketers and management consultants. There are too few postgraduate courses that bring together different elements of creativity, technology and business.
What we’re doing: Colleges and universities involved in multi-disciplinary design education currently have informal networks for sharing knowledge. Working with HEFCE and NESTA, we’re helping to grow this network so that more institutions can learn from others and develop multidisciplinary courses.
The partners involved in these projects are:
The future of design starts with Good Design Practice in schools
We’re helping more designers to work in schools
What our Blueprint said: Teachers in primary and secondary schools need to be better connected to current design practice.
What we’re doing: Our aim is to get designers to work in schools – and to work with teachers on new, collaborative projects that will help to nurture creative skills in schoolchildren.
Ultimately, we want to develop a way to match designers to schools, and integrate designers into existing schemes that bring designers and schools together, to make them even more effective. We’re currently working with Creative Partnerships piloting this project in three regions.
We’re rewarding brilliant design teachers
What our Blueprint said: We need to raise the status of design in schools.
What we’re doing: Primary and secondary schools which demonstrate excellence in teaching design can earn the Design Mark. This helps students and teachers understand the role of design and rewards schools who maintain high standards in design education.
The Design and Technology Association is leading this work. Five schools involved in an initial pilot already have the Design Mark, and further pilots are now underway.
To find out more visit http://thedesignmark.org
The partners involved in these projects are:
