Photo: Ornella Orlandini | Torino World Design Capital

Review by Mark Vanderbeeken (Experientia) and Marcia Caines (Cluster)

The days after the American presidential election are clearly a period of reflection. Newspapers and magazines are full of thoughtful articles, and conferences seek to define the new agendas and directions for our world to move towards.

The World Economic Forum gathered about 700 global thought leaders in Dubai for a summit on some of the key issues on the global agenda.

An international conference in Turin, Italy, last week had a much narrower focus, and tried to outline what constitutes good design policy.

The event, which was organised by Torino 2008 World Design Capital in collaboration with Michael Thomson, director of Design Connect (London), comes at a time when a major discussion is emerging internationally on design policy and innovation.

Now also the European Commission is looking at design as a tool for innovation, in the hope of creating a shared European design policy, while the Italian Government is working on the same for Italy.

Shaping the Global Design Agenda brought some of the main design policy thinkers and stakeholders together in one room.

Michael Thomson
Photo: Ornella Orlandini | Torino World Design Capital

“This is the first platform [on design policy] where different nations from around the world can share their knowledge, insights and challenges and learn from each other, in order to effect better policies in their countries or trading blocks (EU),” said the cordial and gregarious Thomson during his introduction.

“By bringing together many stakeholders within this previously unacknowledged international community of practice, we hope to influence nations to build better design policies that will promote social, economic and sustainable goals, practice and behaviour, will improve societies and not least, will enable the growth of design as a common language for all.”

The presentations were aimed at sharing best practices, with presenters relaying their own approaches, both good ones and questionable practices, and with the designers making the strongest and most impactful pleas.

Torino World Design Capital organised in parallel International Design Casa, a series of exhibitions where fifteen countries showed off their design context in ten amazing venues across the city (provided free of charge by the city), and a handover to the next World Design Capital: Seoul, Korea.

The International Design Casa and the Design Policy Conference are ‘signature’ events of ICSID/IDA’s World Design Capital project and will therefore be repeated in Seoul in 2010.

This article below is not a direct conference report, but a reflection by two observers–Mark Vanderbeeken of Experientia, supported by Marcia Caines of Cluster–who care about design and policy, and are opinionated in their ideas about the matter.

Thanks also to Michael Thomson whose notes were very helpful in compiling this article.

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