Sandra Macleod, Chief Executive of media evaluation agency Echo, quoted in the Dotcom. supplement in The Daily Telegraph, 15 June 2000

Negroponte's Vision

'In the next three to five years the largest community of users of the internet by far will be washing machines, dishwashers, freezers and toys. They will reach out to the internet for their intelligence and their performance will be enhanced by it.

'Barbie dolls will be intelligent, networked toys that will be able to speak any language. They will be able to educate themselves by downloading different language software from the internet using mobile internet capability that will be built into them. It could be that rather than learning French from a teacher our children will learn French from Barbie.'

Professor Nicholas Negroponte, Director of Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, speaking at a business seminar hosted by ihavemoved.com, 2 June 2000

Ministers endorse design quality as key component of value for money

'The myth that lowest cost offers good value has been well and truly rejected. Best value is achieved by good design and investment in quality. A good building needs a well-considered brief. It is then created by skilled design, fine craftsmanship and good management. Design and construction are not different worlds, but should be part of the same integrated team effort."

Lord Falconer, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, quoted in a press release regarding the newly-formed Ministerial Group on Public Sector Buildings, 18 May 2000

Enterprise Insight takes off

'Enterprise skills are life skills. Entrepreneurial capabilities and attitudes are of value in all walks of life, not just business. Creativity and innovation should be encouraged hand in hand with business skills, risk-taking and embracing change." Chris Humphries, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce and Chair of Enterprise Insight

'Without the innovation entrepreneurs bring to business, nothing we value in society works. Business must constantly develop new ideas; new products; and new ways of working, to create the jobs and the wealth to pay for our education system; our health system; and our pensions." George Cox, Director General of the Institute of Directors

Quotes taken from a press release regarding Enterprise Insight, a partnership between the British Chambers of Commerce, Confederation of British Industry and Institute of Directors aimed at young people aged from 5 to 30 designed to show that everyone is capable of having good ideas, business can be exciting and that enterprise can create opportunities for all of society. Ambassadors of this project include: Andrew Summers, Chief Executive, Design Council, and James Dyson CBE Council Member, Design Council, and Chairman, Dyson Appliances.

Style Counsel

'A website that is well-designed goes beyond the look and navigational quality; it is the result of the business planning process and framework for service delivery, of which design is a critical strategic factor. The value of design in any business should be inherent within the planning, processes, resources, people and culture. It involves the ability to think forward about how a company can achieve its ambitions using design through differentiation and improvement of products and services. The strategic use of design enables a business to communicate effectively with its customers and therefore should be inherent throughout every aspect of a business plan.'

Ellie Runcie, Development Manager - Business, Design Council

'What on-line media lacks today at least is emotion; what it offers is the ability to get things done. So make it easy to use, quick, personal, and a seamless experience from start to finish. The discipline is to religiously design around your customers' needs, not those of your business.'

Julia Groves, Launch director, Eventures

Quotes taken from an article discussing what constitutes good design on-line, e.business, May 2000

Innovative Products

'...a natty new device is on the market to take the pain out of those plastic bag handles that cut into your hands. Made from moulded polypropylene and happy to be one of the Millennium Products selected by the Design Council, the Practikal handles developed by Paul Conway Stuart are available in Safeway and Somerfield and could soon be stocked by other supermarkets.'

As reported in The Guardian, Saturday 1 April 2000.

Ford adopts open house stance

'With more and more cars being built on fewer common chassis and with fewer common engines, it is design that increasingly separates one car from the next ...'

Financial Times, Tuesday 29 February 2000

Ford's Focus on UK

Car giant Ford is to build a £20 million design studio 'think tank' in London. Ford design chief J Mays said at the Detroit Motor Show that London was recognised as the world's design capital. He added: 'London is where things happen - it's the place for youth culture in Europe.'

The US firm hopes the centre, to open next year, will attract 30 top young designers. Mr Mays said Ford wanted a mixture of traditional car designers and 'opinion makers' from outside the industry. The new Ford designers won't restrict themselves to cars - they will also produce goods like clothing and do work for Ford's posher Jaguar and Aston Martin makes. Ford are looking at several sites for a 'funky' building, incuding Battersea, Camden, Shoreditch and Wandsworth.

As reported in The Sun, Wednesday 12 January 2000

Design Sells!

"........the design world, cannot work in isolation. Design needs the full support of industry. This year's D&AD product design winners, the audi tt and Apple's imac, illustrate what can be achieved by putting design at the heart of a business. The imac has had a profound effect on Apple's bottom line and the audi tt has a waiting list. So the benefits of exemplary design are clear."

Geoff Hooker speech at the launch of the D&AD Product Book at the Design Council, 28 October 1999

Differentiate Now!

"Design is right at the core of every new product. Manufacturers used to differentiate their cars by pushing safety or reliability, but everybody's doing that. Design will be the differentiator of the future."

Gerry McGovern, director of the design studio at Land Rover and former RCA student, quoted in Daily Express, 1 August 1999.

Export or Die

"Design is now recognised by government as one of the key priority sectors. Designers have enormous potential to secure overseas contracts. Sponsorship of the Business Centre is an example of our strong commitment to exporting British design and helping British business in the international marketplace."

Sir David Wright, Chief Executive, British Trade International, announcing new sponsorship initiative, 3 August 1999

Goodbye to All That

"My challenge, our challenge for the millennium is for British people and the British media to cast off the pervasive sense of failure. We should walk tall, be proud, grasp opportunities, embrace change, praise innovation, delight in the creative and inventive talents of our people."

Michael Grade, Chairman, First Leisure, speaking at the Institute of Directors Annual Conference, 28 April 1999

The Guidebook to Success

"As we travel through a world of ever-increasing change, what we know is the best guide we can have... Business success increasingly rests on rapid innovation, enhanced quality and competitive prices. The ability to use knowledge and understand customers' needs is becoming the key to competitiveness."

Rt Hon David Blunkett MP, Secretary of State for Education and Employment, speaking to German business and education leaders in Dusseldorf, March 1999.

Move on Up

"Standing still is no longer an option. Successful companies build design and innovation into their culture, particularly during the development of a product or service, and hook this to their competitive drive. They will be the ones to prosper and develop in the next Millennium. The accolade winners behind the Millennium Products have shown how innovation and creative design really does contribute to business success. It has brought them to the forefront of industry."

Industry Minister John Battle speaking at 'What's the Big Idea?' a one-day conference hosted by the Design Council in conjunction with the magazine Marketing on how to develop and market world-beating products, 8 June 1999.

The Road Ahead?

"Twenty-five years from now, nothing I sell will be around...I do find the valuation of high technology companies surprisingly high... I don't recommend Internet stocks to friends if they don't want to take massive risks... Much more than competitive analysis, what keeps you ahead is the vision and how you execute it. When you have a high IQ culture, there's a lot debate and input..."

Bill Gates, quoted in World Link, March/April 1999

We are Sailing

"This is one of the new forward-thinking, creative products that has emerged from the UK as the new Millennium fast approaches. This combination of forward thinking, human input and a traditional view of the value of public service shows that the RNLI is well prepared to continue providing their vital role in search and rescue well into the new century."

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott presents the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) with a Millennium Products Plaque in recognition of the Severn Class lifeboat, 5 August 1999

Survival of the Fittest Design

"British companies must innovate if they are to survive in the new millennium. Producing good products will no longer be enough. They must be clever, original, well-designed and creatively marketed."

Andrew Summers, Design Council Chief Executive, speaking at the launch of the Millennium Product-based Sharing Innovation website, 12 March 1999

UK Laboratory?

"America gets more than half its economic growth from industries that barely existed a decade ago.... It is innovation - more than the application of capital and labour - that makes the world go round.... Global competition and shrinking product life-cycles are forcing companies themselves to take an ever more short-term view of their own research. Corporate laboratories that provide much of a company's seedcorn knowledge are coming under increasing pressure."

Nicholas Valéry, 'Eureka: A survey of innovation in industry', The Economist, 20 February 1999.

Up the Revolution

"It has never been a better time to be an industry revolutionary. Conversely, it has never been a more dangerous time to be complacent.....The dividing line between being a leader and being a laggard is today measured in months or a few days, and not in decades."

Gary Hamel, Chairman, Strategos, speaking at the launch of Design in Business Week '98

At the Very Centre

"Success does not happen by accident, it happens by design... Design is not incidental to industry, it is absolutely integral... Our aim is to make Britain a world centre for innovative design and design education... In the new economy, design will be more important than ever. In the old economy, success depended on raw materials, on location and on capital. In the new economy, where raw materials and capital can be bought from anywhere at any time, national economic prosperity will definitely depend on our skills, creativity and ideas."

Rt. Hon Gordon Brown MP speaking at the Design Museum 10th Anniversary party, 20 October 1999