CSD to start consultancy membership

In what could create a clash with the Design Business Association, the Chartered Society of Designers is considering opening up its Design Association division as a membership body for consultancies.

The Design Association currently acts as the ‘business interface’ of the CSD, offering business development services to consultancies and in-house teams. Membership of the CSD is only open to individuals.

‘Our members often disappear within the consultancy sector,’ explains CSD chief executive Frank Peters. ‘It has to be on the agenda to run the Design Association as a separate member organisation.

‘It is uppermost in our minds to deliver professional skills [to members] and one of the ways [to do that] is to work with their consultancies.’