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December 18, 2006
The year in design
Was 2006 the year "design" became a hot economic topic? Maybe. The International Herald Tribune summed it up very nicely in Design in 2006: A year of innovation and utility:
It wasn't a bad way to start the year. In January, design made its debut on the agenda of the World Economic Forum in Davos — and that was only one sign of its growing importance in 2006.
At a time when advances in technology are enabling designers to be more creative than ever, the rest of us are increasingly receptive to innovation. Think of the speed with which MySpace and YouTube have caught on. The developed world is embracing design as a killer weapon in the battle against low cost competition from China, which, like other developing countries, is building new design schools to fight back in the future.
A good start. I hope we can build on this momentum in 2007. There is still a lot of work to be done to help policy makers understand that "design" is the "quality" of the new competitiveness challenge. And there is a lot to be done to help all of us understand what that really means (aside for the rhetoric) and craft workable policy solutions to that challenge.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at December 18, 2006 12:55 PM
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