Icsid rebrands as World Design Organisation

The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design is changing its name to better align itself with “the wider design community”.

Members of the Icsid general assembly
Members of the Icsid general assembly

The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, which organises the World Design Capital programme, is rebranding as the World Design Organisation.

The WDO says its new name better aligns it with “the wider design community” and aims to make it “a more accessible organisation”.

The new name is being launched alongside a new “blueprint” for the WDO, which commits the organisation to “recognising and promoting the power of industrial design to address some of the world’s biggest challenges”.

Representing 150,000 designers

The WDO was set up in 1957 from a group of international organisations representing industrial design. It now has around 170 member groups around the world, representing an estimated 150,000 designers.

As well as organising the World Design Capital programme, it also works on other initiatives including World Industrial Design Day and the World Design Impact Prize.

Dr Brandon Gien, who led the Renew Icsid initiative the brought about the name change, says: “As the world organisation for industrial design, we are uniquely positioned to leverage the strength of our global design network and align regional design agendas to the newly emerging solutions economy.

World Design Capital

“Designing a better world is possible if we aim to position design thinking as part of the solution and work together towards a common cause that ultimately impacts us all.”

The organisation says it will start to roll out the new name in 2016, while new president Professor Mugendi M’Rithaa promised to identify “regional issues for a global design agenda” and to “build partnerships with the younger generation of designers”.

This week, the WDO announced that Mexico City would take the title of World Design Capital in 2018.

Discover more:

• Mexico City named World Design Capital

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