ACCREDITATION – BEYOND THE PORTFOLIO

The accreditation of design practice has its supporters and its detractors, and the debate between the two looks likely to increase as a result of our current initiatives. We’ve substantially reviewed our own membership accreditation in the past decade, culminating in the development of our framework of design practice competences known as the CSD Genetic Matrix. This has underpinned the development and review of our accreditation programmes for design businesses and design courses, which have been piloted and are ready for delivery.

As the professional body for designers across all disciplines, our Royal Charter requires us to achieve a recognised profession of design for public benefit. And as a registered charity, our work must also benefit the community. Accreditation allows us to demonstrate both of these requirements.

But by far the greater benefit of accreditation is to the design sector itself.

Most designers have been regarded very differently at times by architects, solicitors and other professionals – demonstrated by unpaid pitches, unacceptable revision costs, IP exploitation and the like. The professions designers cite as acceptable models of practice – where professional fees are expected by clients – rely on their accreditation to underpin such fee structures.

Designers with a credible professional accreditation will be more readily accepted by other professionals when working together to provide the complex multi-disciplinary services clients will increasingly require.

Common arguments against accreditation are that a portfolio displays a designer’s credentials or that creativity can’t be measured. But are these notions created by the design sector, perhaps unconsciously, to act as a barrier to entry by others? The design outputs in a portfolio, on their own, provide little evidence of the design process and whether or not it was done professionally. Often further evidence is needed to qualify this, which clients or the public may not have access to or the ability to judge. And the idea of not being able to measure creativity brings into question much of the design education that has given rise to the UK's prominence in the field. Professional design study and practice is not just about creativity, it’s also about removing barriers to creativity.

Chartered Designer status (The Designer 16.12.10) will be the final piece in the accreditation jigsaw. Once approved this will reposition and ready designers for a rapidly changing profession. We feel accreditation should not be frightening to our profession, but reassuring.

We’d like to know what you think - please send your comments to The Designer

HARNESSING THE VALUE OF CREATIVITY

The assertion that ideas are free – with no value, and at the mercy of all until they’ve been commercialised – devalues professionals in the creative industries: their talents, education, years of in-practice experience, and their knowledge and know-how. This is what the founders of Creative Barcode™, a unique protection system for creative and business concepts, are trying to stop. This new system allows originators to protect their creative and business concepts and retain ownership until the work has been paid for.

Generally speaking, people and firms in the creative industries don’t want to launch new companies or competitive brands. They simply want to co-create new products, processes and content with route-to-market partners and be commercially rewarded on ethical, equitable terms for their knowledge-based ideas and experience-based know-how.

One of the features of this system is the protection of ideas at the pre-commercial stage – when making presentations, sharing ideas and know-how or submitting proposals and tenders. The philosophy behind this approach requires an acceptance by the business world that creativity does have a value, and that ideas are derived from applied creative thinking. For more details please visit www.creativebarcode.com

The Designer has negotiated a 20% members’ discount. You can access the promotional code in the members’ area of the CSD website

SOUTH BANK CENTRE TO HOST THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN

The Festival of Britain, which officially opened on 3 May 1951, was created to give Britons a feeling of recovery and progress following the Second World War, as well as to celebrate the centenary of the 1851 Great Exhibition. At the heart of the nationwide festival was the South Bank Exhibition, situated in what is now the Southbank Centre. The 1951 exhibition was an unprecedented extravaganza filled with new technology, science, art, design, and iconic constructions such as the Dome and the Skylon as well as the Royal Festival Hall. It was visited by more than eight million people and laid the foundations for the arts centre as it is today.

Inspired by 1951, the festival will come alive with pop-structures, fairground rides, lighting and outdoor dancing and eating. The site can be entered through any one of several gateways, and comprises four ‘lands’ inspired by some of the themes of the 1951 South Bank Exhibition: People of Britain, Land of Britain, Sea and Ships, and Power and Production.

Coinciding with another period of austerity, the Southbank Centre’s anniversary festival will ‘evoke the spirit of 1951 by celebrating Britain’s leading creative and cultural role and by welcoming people from around the country and beyond to take part,’ says Jude Kelly, the artistic director of the Southbank Centre.

The festival runs from 22 April to 4 September 2011. For more information please visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk

TEAM CSD

ALEC ROBERTSON MCSD

Alec Robertson MCSD joins Team CSD with a wealth of experience relating broadly to research within design practice, government research bodies and academia, along with postgraduate design teaching.

Alec has a particular interest in dissemination issues of design research and has organised several design research symposia, including the multidisciplinary event 4D Product Design for the Everyday, hosted at the Science Museum and endorsed by CSD. He was also part of the Designing for the 21st Century Initiative@ funded jointly by the research bodies AHRC and EPSRC.

He is an advocate of the designs survey style for the design researcher alongside the conventional literature survey for scientific and humanities design researchers. The research exhibition is seen as an alternative to the conventional research paper when dealing with the design research community.

Alec graduated from the RCA’s Department of Design Research under Professor L Bruce Archer, and his perspective on research bridges the design practice and academic communities. This will be useful in developing CSD strategically. His role as part of Team CSD includes helping the Society to engage the topic of research more generally, and increasing the impact of academic research on professional design practice.

Alec is keen to make contact with members who are engaged in research within professional design practice and academia. Please feel free to email him on research@csd.org.uk

BOOK REVIEW

STREET FONTS - GRAFFITI ALPHABETS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
by Claudia Walde

Claudia Walde, also known as MadC, is a graffiti artist, designer and writer. She spent over two years collecting alphabets by 154 artists from 30 countries. Each artist received the same brief: to design all 26 letters of the Latin alphabet within the limits of a single page of the book. The result is a unique typographical sourcebook featuring over 150 original alphabets exclusive to this book.

This book celebrates the beauty of graffiti writing. Graffiti artists tend to print the same letters again and again, so they seldom design complete alphabets. Their approach to the design of all 26 letters and how they selected the media with which to express their ideas was entirely up to them. The results are a fascinating insight into the creative process.

Street Fonts – Graffiti Alphabets from Around the World is published by Thames & Hudson (RRP £19.95). CSD members can buy the book for £16.95 including UK mainland delivery (overseas costs available on request) using the promotional code in the members’ area of the CSD website

NOTE THIS

RICS LAUNCHES IMAGE BANK

RICS – The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors – has launched a new website offering design companies a comprehensive library of royalty-free architectural images depicting relevant land, property, construction and built-environment areas at a fraction of the price of current high-profile image libraries. The website features architectural images that are iconic, eye-catching and affordable. RICS hopes that design companies working on architectural briefs will use the website as a one-stop shop for industry-specific images. For more details please visit www.ricsimagebank.org

The Designer has negotiated a 25% discount for members. You can access the promotional code in the members’ area of the CSD website.

A 360º OVERVIEW WITH JEREMY LINDLEY, GLOBAL DESIGN DIRECTOR, DIAGEO

Jeremy is responsible for Design across Diageo’s current brands and new products worldwide. Diageo’s portfolio includes 40 plus brands including Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Gordon’s, Baileys, Tanqueray and Bells. Jeremy’s role is to transform Diageo’s Design capability and output.

The event organised by © Creative Barcode 2011 takes place on Tuesday, 15 Feb 2011 at the University Women’s Club in London from 5:00 to 7:00pm, followed by drinks and networking opportunities.

The Designer has negotiated a 15% members’ discount. You can access the promotional code in the members’ area of the CSD website.

MEMBER PROFILE
Martyn King MCSD

Like many young people at school, Martyn was initially uncertain about what career path to take, but decided to pursue what he enjoyed most – art and design. Following a year's foundation course at Norwich School of Art, he progressed to Leeds Polytechnic for a three-year BA degree in graphic design. Having worked under Jonathan Morgan, he graduated with a good knowledge of design, designers and technical production processes. This was followed by a scholarship to Switzerland, where he had the opportunity to work with Siegfried Odermatt and visit the Muller-Brockmann studios.

Martyn set up his practice 20 years ago and provides creative services to a wide variety of clients both in Yorkshire and throughout the UK. These projects include design for print, web, PowerPoint and email, and the clients are from many different sectors, which helps keep his work fresh. Recent clients include Tarmac, Hambleton Strategic Partnership, Land Securities and The White Company, as well as new start-ups and, most recently, first-time design users.

“I joined the Chartered Society of Designers in 1982 as a way of keeping in touch with like-minded professionals. Working in Yorkshire as a design consultant is great but can feel remote, so communications through the website and LinkedIn groups help me connect with the wider design community”

In Martyn’s view, branding/identity design is often the purest focal point of an organisation’s visual presence and provides a unique conceptual challenge. This can be seen in the work shown here. The client, Gheckos, had already decided on the quirky name and spelling for their hospitality business, so the design needed to carry this playfulness through. While trying alternative fonts he suddenly noticed the sinuous tail-like quality of the lower-case g in Baskerville Old Face which he developed into a combination of image and letterform to create a unique monogram.