Designers, academics and a monk

Design heavyweights Jaime Hayon and Neville Brody will share a stage with Zen Buddhist Master Sante Poromaa in a Stockholm based event which looks at the changing role of the designer.

Organised by design knowledge sharing consultancy Design Boost in collaboration with the City of Stockholm and University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, the event, Design Boost Telefonplan will be based around the theme ‘Design Beyond Design.’

This means ‘challenging how we consume, being more conscious of how we relate to design emotionally, being more socially responsible and maximising our positive impact,’ says Design Boost co-founder David Carlson.

The new role of the designer as Carlson sees it, is to solve problems through collaboration or becoming more multi-skilled.  ‘Around 100 years ago, designers would be engineers. Now they need to wear more hats and might also be anthropologists and teachers.’

It would seem that the perspective of  Zen Budhist Master Sante Poromaa might contribute to the climate of collaboration.

Carlson tells us that Poromaa is well informed on design matters and gives a ‘very humanistic’ approach which can be applied to design, without any religious overtones he assures.

Poromaa may talk about the proliferation of messages in the 21st century and how design might consider sidestepping the bombardment of information we are exposed to across different channels.

On the first day of the conference Poromaa will also be joined by design leader from IDEO Jennifer Leonard,  and chairwoman of the Design Academy Eindhoven Anne Mieke Eggenkamp. Each of 15 speakers will have the floor for 15 minutes.

The second day will look at the changing role of media and the future role of the book through contributions from the publishing houses, art directors, designers and editors which will shape the industry’s future. This will include how digital and print books might better relate to and support each other.

Design Boost Telefonplan takes place from 10-11 February at Telefonplan in Stockholm, Sweden.