Design West Michigan Activities to Date

 

The purpose of Design West Michigan is to grow the recognition of design as an economic building block for West Michigan and to brand West Michigan as Design Centric.


Since its beginning in late 2007, Design West Michigan has;

  • Formed a regional advisory group of 53 volunteer designers of diverse disciplines representing 43 companies.
  • Established an external advisory group that includes Paola Antonelli, Design Curator, MOMA, Peter Lawrence, Chair of Corporate Design Foundation, Julie Lasky, Editor-in-Chief, ID magazine, Nate Young, recent VP for Business Relationships, Art Center in LA, John Hoke, Global VP Design, Nike
  • Met four times as an advisory group to define objectives to the purpose which became;
    • Develop Design & “Design Thinking” education for non-designers
    • Advocate for design as a recognized part of a business strategy through case study examples in regional business media and web-access
    • Become a catalyst for establishing a regional design network of all disciplines
    • Define “Design Centric” for a region
    • Gain national media/visibility that builds our regional reputation of a creative community and help to attract and retain talent

Activities to date toward objectives include;

  • Gained media coverage by regional business media on our efforts
  • Met with author Daniel Pink, (who has become an ad-hoc advisor and references Design West Michigan and attributes our Design Centric definitions in his talks)
  • Held the first ever gathering of all design disciplines in West Michigan attracting over 250 designers (Hosted by Haworth June 08)
  • Launched a web-site, www.designwestmichigan.com
  • Began building case studies on design as problem solving using regional examples for web access
  • Defined “Design Centric” and gained credit for the definition by the Cooper-Hewitt and national design media
  • Piloted an Academy of Design for Non-Designers
  • Held the second gathering of all regional design disciplines attracting over 300 designers hosting editors of national publications.(Hosted by Steelcase Dec, 2008)
  • Began discussions with the Upjohn Institute for regional research that establishes a method for defining the values of design.
  • Gained financial support and alliance with Kendall College of Art and Design and supporting development of design thinking education
  • Monthly series of interviews on WGVU re regional design
  • Through Kendall’s collaborative design class, piloting the ‘Design SWAT’ team idea with Kandu Industries in Holland.

Activities in process include;

  • Second Academy of Design for Non-Designers, slated for May 14, 15.
  • Dialogues with regional professional design associations to become a central communication point for shared listing of activities and events
  • Meeting with Roger Martin, Rotman School, (Anticipated in March re input and possible speaking at a DWM event)
  • Development of a one-day Design for non-Designer experience for corporate in-house use.
  • On-going providing of positive design based business examples for regional business media
  • Development of 10 minute video case studies showing problem definition, process of meeting need and measurable results.
  • Development of a speaker series on design and economic connections where designers bring a non-designer as their guest
  • Development of a multiple page insert on DWM case study examples with either Grand Rapids Business Journal or MiBiz
  • Input and awareness meetings in NY with national media, design professionals and design associations Jan 21-23, 2009
  • Participation in March 26th symposium panel on “The Role of Design in Michigan’s future, Troy Mi.
  • Moving forward with the Upjohn Institute’s research on “The Importance of Design to Business in West Michigan” with funding from Kendall approved Jan 26th