Can DCMS critic please step forward

Two weeks ago (DW 26 February), Design Week applauded Chris Smith and the Department of Culture Media and Sport for their handling of the “first major commitment to design by Government”.

How sad then to read the Daily Mail item entitled “79 000 blob”. The “waste of taxpayers’ money” response of a tabloid newspaper was predictable; the upsetting part was a quote from a senior member of a leading design group.

The piece read: “A creative director at Woolf (sic) Olins branding consultants… criticised the design as, ‘just a group of initials’,” adding, “They need a real brand.”

What was this person thinking of? Were they so well-informed about the programme that they knew this wasn’t a real brand? Had they forgotten their own group’s trammelling by The Sun in a very similar piece?

All of us in this industry spend our lives persuading design buyers, the media, people of influence and the public that design is a good thing. How little can we afford “own goals” in such a public arena.

But perhaps I am being unfair. Were there three other paragraphs, edited out, which put the comments in context? Could the person please stand up and explain.

Deborah Richardson

London NW1