Is Government ready to take up the challenge too?

I for one was disappointed by Chris Smith’s remarks about the future of design [at a recent industry gathering in London organised by Design Week].

We all agree that intellectual property rights need addressing, that creativity needs to be nurtured within secondary schools and higher education, and we want more support both in exporting design and in other areas too.

But it all seemed like a lot of platitudes to appease a design audience. I’d hoped for more incisive thinking about design’s role in a modernised society.

In her Comment (DW 20 September), Design Week editor Lynda Relph-Knight urges our industry to act, to build a better future for design and through it, improve our quality of life.

As a consultancy passionately committed to the pursuit of effective design I couldn’t agree more; design needs a rallying cry. But then again, I’m not the one that needs to be convinced.

Smith’s comments remind us that there is still a vacuum in Government thinking about design (The Dome being a great misconceived example). Government has the opportunity to use design as a tool to improve the delivery of public services to meet its pledges.

But while we, and others in the industry, are ready to take up the challenge, I wonder what certainties we have that some of those within Government are ready to do the same.

Julian Grice

Managing director

The Team

London SE1