RSA Student Design Awards

The Design Council is among the many sponsors for this years RSA Student Design Awards. The award scheme forges successful links between industry and education, and is open to colleges throughout the EU. The competition offers winning students the opportunity to travel the globe to further their design knowledge, or spend time working in industry with some of the world's top companies.

Further information is available at:
http://www.rsa-sda.net




Design in Business Week 2000

Design in Business Week is the Design Council’s annual week of activity about the effective use of design by business. It’s a major national programme, it’s growing and you can be part of it.

Stage an event as part of Design in Business Week 2000 (27 October to 3 November) and:

• Set agendas for discussion in your area
• Achieve greater exposure and profile for your organisation
• Benefit from Design Council web promotion

Better by Design

This new, six-part Channel 4 series commissioned in association with the Design Council sees the return to our screens of product designers Richard Seymour and Dick Powell, last seen trying to re-design the bra, the car and the toilet back in 1998 in the highly successful Designs on your... series which was repeated last year.

In this new longer series, Richard and Dick will once again be trying to come up with design-led solutions to the age-old problems presented by everyday objects - in this case the economy airline seat, razor, burglar alarm, shopping trolley, kitchen bin and lifejacket.

Each half-hour programme presents a fascinating insight into the way designers think and work, how they relate to manufacturers and marketers and how design can be used effectively to overcome seemingly insurmountable problems to improve our quality of life.

To accompany the series, the Design Council has developed an extensive web-based information and education resource, aimed at all levels from primary school to business school and encompassing universities and FE colleges in between. It offers simple ideas for project work and information on how to buy a video of all six programmes for just £5.99.

This resource goes live in six sections as each of the programmes is broadcast, starting on Tuesday 18 July. By the end of the series it will feature case studies on all six stories. Channel 4 offers a similar resource on their own website, linked with the Design Council site, and features an 'A to Z' of design.

Don't forget - Better by Design is on at 8.30pm on Tuesdays on Channel 4.

i

The second edition of i, our new thrice-yearly magazine on Design Council activities, has just been published. Inside are news items and features on major goings-on, including an extensive interview with Christopher Frayling, our new chairman. There's also a peek behind the scenes of the new Channel Four series Better By Design, commissioned by the Design Council, a report on how our international Millennium Products exhibition is blowing away stereotypes about the UK abroad and an introduction to our work with the Home Office aimed at moving crime busting up the design agenda.

For a copy of i, call 020 7420 5200 or e-mail i@design-council.org.uk

Living Innovation

Innovation breeds success. What makes a business innovative? How do innovative businesses turn ideas into products, manage risk and understand their markets - and what can you learn from them?

Getting answers to these questions and more is the aim behind Living Innovation, an initiative by the Design Council and the DTI to discover what makes innovative businesses tick and to share the lessons learned from their success.

Living Innovation is part of Sharing Innovation, the legacy of Millennium Products, the Design Council campaign which identified 1,012 products and services showing off Britain at its creative best. Building on hundreds of the stories behind Millennium Products, which now comprise an online learning resource, Living Innovation provides lessons based on case studies of 50 Millennium Product companies. To receive a copy of the report e-mail us at info@livinginnovation.org. You can also see the findings of Living Innovation and the full case studies at www.livinginnovation.org



CreativeNet

What should we be learning in a decade's time?

We need new skills to confront the deluge of data in our new information-led, knowledge-based society. These skills will be our survival kit in the new millennium.

Building on the research published by Demos in 'The Creative Age' last year, the Design Council and Demos are now working together on a far-reaching new project. CreativeNet, launched during Design in Education Week 2000, brings together those involved in innovative educational activities, and examines new approaches to learning that develop the creative skills needed in the knowledge-based economy. It also makes maximum use of the opportunities for information gathering and sharing provided by electronic communication.

The Thinking Comes Free

The world is changing fast, if we are to capitalise on these changes we are going to have to become faster, more flexible, more creative and more open minded. How do we achieve this? By learning what for many of us is a new skill - creativity.

This publication is aimed at decision-makers, employers and educators, helping them to recognise the urgent need for a creative workforce. Looking at what creativity is, why there is a growing need for creativity and how we can teach creativity, The Thinking Comes Free can be ordered by contacting emmaj@design-council.org.uk.

Your Creative Future

The creative industries offer some of the most interesting and rewarding careers around. Opportunities in these areas are set to increase over the coming years as the UK's creative industries go from strength to strength. Growing twice as fast as the economy as a whole, they are generating wealth and creating new jobs for the future.

Your Creative Future is a booklet that aims to tell you something about working in the different creative industries and point you in the right direction to find out more. To request a copy please email emmaj@design-council.org.uk.

Education Futures

The UK is currently awash with educational rhetoric. Aiming to get 'beyond the rhetoric', the Design Council and the RSA have produced their first-ever joint publication. Education Futures broadens the education debate, provides new and challenging viewpoints on improving all aspects of the UK's education provision - from the nursery to lifelong learning - and bases this thinking in examples of current best practice taken from around the world.

A 64 page publication, Education Futures contains an Editorial Overview from Lord Puttnam and contributions from Tom Bentley of think tank Demos, Professor Stephen Heppell of Ultralab, and Rt Rev Dr Sentamu, Bishop for Stepney, amongst others.

The first edition of this annual publication was available at selected Design in Education Week 2000 events and to RSA Fellows. On a limited basis, we also have copies available to the first 300 people to e-mail the team at the address below :

educationfutures@design-council.org.uk

Experiencing Innovation

There's a lot of talk about innovation. But what does it really mean? Who does it and how? And just how good can it be for business? The Design Council, together with the CBI, DTI and ESRC sought to answer these and other questions about innovation during a one day conference.

The event, held on 9 May at the CBI Conference Centre, brought together examples from key players within some of the most innovative companies in Britain. Amongst those trying to get under the skin of innovation were:

• Cable and Wireless
• St Lukes
• Unilever

i

i is the new three times a year publication from the Design Council. Aiming to inform and inspire influential people in business, government and education, i provides a snapshot of the full spectrum of Design Council activities. This first issue contains high profile projects such as the Spiral of Innovation at the Millennium Dome, to a round up of Design in Business Week '99 and the re-design of the National Curriculum for England and Wales. For those wishing to find out more about a project contact details are provided at the end of each section.

i stands for information, inspiration and involvement. To request a copy please call 020 7420 5200 or e-mail i@design-council.org.uk

Design in the New Economy

A report based on the findings from business workshops held during Design in Business Week '99, offering the necessary warning that no business can afford to stand still in today's fast-changing commercial environment and stressing the importance of design in staying ahead of the competitive game. The report is supported by Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers and was launched at the CBI National Conference in November 1999.

To request a copy of this report call 020 7420 5200