Scots to lobby parliament

The Chartered Society of Designers Scotland is to produce a document aimed at every member of the recently formed Scottish Parliament.

The move is part of a bid to encourage closer ties between design groups and the wider industrial community.

At a CSD Scotland debate earlier this week – titled Design in Scotland: Bit Part or Starring Role? – designers called for the formation of a designer-manufacturer think tank to drive forward innovation.

The event was chaired by Seymour Powell director James Woudhuysen with panellists including Glasgow Development Agency chief executive Stuart Gulliver and CSD president Lin Gibbon. More than 50 senior delegates attended.

CSD Scotland secretary Adrian Searle says industrialists who attended the meeting – including Professor David Mackay of the University of Strathclyde, formerly a director of JCB Manufacturing – were wholeheartedly behind the proposal.

Searle says, “This was an important event, which generated a fascinating and high level of debate. Issues discussed will help inform CSD policy in Scotland as we seek to promote Scotland’s design industry, particularly to the new Scottish Parliament.”