A good year for EIDD Design for All Europe

A good year for EIDD Design for All Europe
Finn Petrén
President, EIDD
With a significant influx of new member countries, a new website, a global
Design for All competition, two collaborations on international conferences,
and a signed partnership with Cumulus International Association of
Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media, 2008 represented some
significant progresses for EIDD Design for All Europe.
A voluntary organisation like EIDD Design for All Europe, being totally dependent on
the unpaid work of a few elected Executive members, can not be expected to move
at a constant speed. Some things take years to prepare. But now and then things
mature and fall into place almost in parallel. 2008 was such a year for EIDD.
Introduction
EIDD’s mission can be expressed in many ways. One is in terms of changing
paradigms in both social and corporate thinking and in design. We have to move
from “the average person” to human diversity as the norm for all planning and design
decisions. To fulfil this mission we have to keep on demonstrating the opportunities
offered by design and building strategic alliances. This article gives some examples
of our practical work in these directions.
New EIDD member countries
At its 15th Annual General Meeting in Stockholm on 24 May 2008, EIDD membership
received a real boost, welcoming no less than nine new Corporate Member
Organisations distributed all over the European continent:
Ornamo - the Finnish Association of Designers, the Lithuanian Design Forum, the
Norwegian Design Council, the Estonian Association of Designers, the MoholoyNagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, Hungary, Design Flanders, bNO - the
Association of Dutch Designers, the Centre for Living Upright in Novi Sad, Vojvodina,
Serbia and the Royal College of Art Helen Hamlyn Centre, London.
This new influx of significant members from the world of design for social
development means that EIDD now has an active presence in twenty European
countries (an increase of five over 2007): Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands,
Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
EIDD, the joint European platform for social planners, architects, designers and
others who believe in the potentials of their professions to play a vital role in the
necessary transformation of our societies into more cohesive, innovative and
sustainable ones, has been substantially reinforced in 2008 and its message has
attracted a steadily growing interest around the world.
A global Design for All Competition
Two years after the former EIDD President, Pete Kercher, came up with the idea,
EIDD launched in June 2008 the global Design for All communications competition
for posters, institutional videos and guerrilla marketing tools, dedicated to capturing
the differing perception of its work in the field of Design for All all over the world and
applying it for promotional purposes.
The EIDD Design for All Europe award scheme was endorsed by Icograda
(International Council of Graphic Design Associations). The organisational aspects
were the responsibility of IIDD Design for All Italy and Design Center Bologna,
headed by Carlo Branzaglia, the EIDD national director for Italy.
The deadline for entries, 21 September, was followed by intense jury work with
almost 200 entries from all over the world, including China, Japan, South Korea, New
Zealand, Iran, Israel, Mexico, the USA and of course several European countries.
On 13 October the international jury agreed on three winning entries within each
category. These and many other thought provoking entries were then exhibited at the
Accademia Albertina delle Belle Arti in Turin, Italy, among the initiatives of Torino
World Design Capital 2008, from 17 October to 17 November 2008.The winning
entries can be seen on the EIDD website www.designforalleurope.org.
The exhibition area at the Accademia Albertina delle Belle Arti in Turin
Being President of both EIDD and the competition jury, I owe Carlo Branzaglia and
Daniele Campagnoli at Design Center Bologna a huge thank you for brilliant work in
organising both the competition and the Turin exhibition. Next step might be a
publication on the best entries.
European conference on Design and Housing for All in France
In connection with its 2008 autumn board meeting, held in Saint-Etienne (France) on
21 November, in the framework of the “Biennale internationale du design”, EIDD
partnered with Cité du Design de Saint-Etienne to organise a conference on Design
for All applied to housing on the following day. The first part of the conference was
devoted to five international speakers appointed by EIDD. The event became a
golden opportunity to highlight two of EIDD’s new member organisations, the Helen
Hamlyn Centre represented by Rama Gheerawo and the Norwegian Design Council
represented by Onny Eikhaug. The other speakers were Aleksandar Bogdanovic,
EIDD director representing Serbia, Michal Ozmin, EIDD director from Ireland, Avril
Accolla, EIDD Vice-President, and Finn Petrén, EIDD President. Pete Kercher, EIDD
Ambassador, moderated the session.
EIDD speakers: Aleksandar Bogdanovic, Onny Eikhaug, Rama Gheerawo, Pete Kercher, Finn Petrén,
Michal Ozmin and Avril Accolla
The second part of the well attended conference concentated on housing schemes
and challenges in Saint-Etienne and the Loire department and contained three round
tables, with a focus on political actions, moderated by Bernard Laroche.
Collaboration agreement between EIDD and Cumulus
The collaboration agreement between EIDD and Cumulus, the International
Association of University and Colleges of Art, Design and Media, was signed after
being approved by the Cumulus Executive Board and the EIDD Board of Directors in
their meetings in Saint-Etienne on 21-22 November 2008.
This partnership has been drawn up to provide a further framework for possible joint
initiatives supporting the goals of both organisations and for enabling collaborative
actions making efficient use of the complementary strengths of both organisations.
Cumulus is a non-profit organisation of 140 universities and colleges of art, design
and media. Cumulus is the only global association to serve art and design education
and research. It is a forum for partnership and transfer of knowledge and best
practices through conferences, workshops, projects among members and with
industry, business and other partners.
.
Finn Petrén, EIDD President and Christian Guellerin, Cumulus President signing the collaboration
agreement
International conference: “Imagine iT – Design for All” in Italy
An extremely active month for EIDD ended with a really brilliant conference in
Bologna (Italy) on 28-29 November. This international conference was organised by
Carlo Branzaglia and Design Center Bologna in co-operation with Simone Angelica
Wolf at Typevents Italy, and with the patronage of EIDD Design for All Europe, which
also was given the opportunity to invite six EIDD speakers.
The EIDD speakers were Finn Petrén (keynote) talking on the theme of “Re-thinking
design”, Pete Kercher on the theme of “Peace by design: a new look at the world’s
peace agenda”, Avril Accolla on “I’m not standard, but design doesn’t note” and
Aleksandar Bogdanovic on “Conceiving playground for all”. Matthew Harrison from
the Helen Hamlyn Centre presented a two-year project called “Welcoming
workplace”, while the Finnish designer Hannu Kähönen presented “Design for All
experiences in improving urban transportation”.
Fourteen more speakers from Europe and two from the USA each added to a broad
variety of contents and applications of Design for All thinking. First outcome: an
overall success for the organisers and two wonderful days for the EIDD
representatives. Second outcome: the word is spreading…
The venue: the beautiful Aula Magna of Accademia di Belle Arti, Bologna
The conference contained many highlights. One of my favourites was architect and
graphic designer Cinzia Ferrara from Palermo, Sicily, speaking on “Design for
legality” and addressing the opportunities offered by design in combating the way
the Mafia disables local society, “Liberate the future” was one of the mottos used.
The 2006 Swedish campaign “Liberate diversity” on display again, this time in Bologna
This article has presented some highlights from a rather busy EIDD month of
November. 2008 also brought some interesting partnerships with the Baltc countries
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and some rather promising developments in our
relations with the European Commission. To conclude with: EIDD is on the move.
Conclusion: Design for social development
EIDD Design for All Europe is the only design-led organisation in Europe focusing on
using design for social development. Our long term success depends on our abilities
to inspire changing paradigms in both social thinking and design. The need for a new
paradigm applies of course also to industry. The challenges are enormous.
To succeed we need to believe. Believe that social change is possible. Believe that
design thinking and professional design can make a difference. But innovative
thinking - the core of Design for All - challenges the status quo, and challenging the
status quo invites resistance. It has been said that nothing restricts our ability to
innovate more than what we know already and therefore believe not to be possible.
This in itself is already a design challenge.
Of course it is possible. With these concluding words I take the opportunity to wish all
readers of the Design for all India Newsletter a successful New Year 2009.
Finn Petrén
President, EIDD Design for All Europe