Volume 4, Number 3, Summer 1993

With the U.S. as a notable exception, many nations have organizations to promote design as a corporate resource, institutions with programs that demonstrate how effectively managed design contributes to such key business goals as quality, competitiveness, and productivity. This issue reviews design policy models from England, Canada, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and the grassroots efforts being developed in San Antonio, Texas. It also includes commentary on the difficult challenge of establishing a design-promotion organization within the US, with essays that offer both short- and long-term recommendations for specific American design policy initiatives.

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A National Design Policy: Of Questionable Value and Unlikely
Don E. Kash, Hazel Chair of Public Policy, Institute of Public Policy, George Mason University
Among design professionals, there is certainly a consensus that the US should have a clearer and more aggressive design policy. Taking on the role of devil’s advocate, Don Kash explores problems inherent in such well-intended aspirations. In...

A New Era for Design Centers
Kazuo Kimura, President, Japan International Designers’ Association, Executive Director, International Design Center, Nagoya, Japan
Nagoya is situated in Japan’s premier industrial and technological district. It is also a community shaped by a post-World War II urban plan noted for its generous open spaces and landscaping. With this design heritage, it is not surprising that...

DESIGN San Antonio: A Grassroots Model
Richard S. Howe, Professor, Civil Engineering, University of Texas at San Antonio; Boone Powell, Chairman of the Board and Director of the Architectural Division, Ford, Powell & Carson, Inc.
If a critical dimension of a national design policy were to stimulate local efforts—programs that build on a region’s unique character and design assets—then the result might be something like DESIGN San Antonio. In detailing the genesis of this...

From Hewers of Wood to Creators of Value
Howard Cohen, President, Design Exchange, Canada
The formal inauguration of Canada’s Design Exchange (DX) will take place during the Spring of 1994. However, as Howard Cohen explains, when the doors are opened, this organization will already be off to a running start. DX’s mission is to promote...

Industrial Design and the Government
Randy McAusland, Former Deputy Chairman for Programs, National Endowment for the Arts
To create a national design policy in the US would require a strategy for involving US policy makers committed to its establishment. This is no easy task. Existing government agencies can be skeptical and protective of their turf, the conflicting...

Made in Taiwan: Designing a New Image
Robert Blaich, Principal, Blaich Associates; Janet Blaich, Writer
In a dramatic about-face, the world is discovering that the “Made-in-Taiwan” label is a mark of quality and innovation. This turnabout is a design transformation crafted and implemented under the aegis of Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs...

Managing Design: Directions in British Education
Rachel Davies Cooper, Research Fellow, University College Salford and the University of Salford, Head, Research Unit, Centre for Design Manufacture and Technology, University of Salford, UK
If the long-term objective is to make the management of design a routine aspect of doing business, then education initiatives have to be part of a broader design-management strategy. Rachel Cooper explains how, since the early 1980s, leadership in...

Options Regarding a US Design Policy
Thomas Walton, Ph.D., Editor; Associate Professor, The Catholic University
Introduction to Volume 4, Number 3 issue theme—Design and National Policy: Assessing Government’s Options in Design Management.

Should Government Promote Design? A Design Initiative for Economic Growth
William J. Hannon, Professor, Massachusetts College of Art, Partner, Keohan + Hannon Associates
Unlike some other major industrial powers—Japan and Germany, for instance—the US has never developed a national program for exploiting the economic potential of design excellence. After reviewing the history related to this state of affairs...

The British Design Council: A Mission Redefined
Ivor Owen, Director General, The British Design Council
The oldest organization of its kind, the British Design Council has seen its structure and programs widely emulated. What is interesting is that, under the direction of Ivor Owen, the Council’s consumer focus has been replaced by strategies that...

The Government of Canada’s Federal Identity Program
Alan Way, Senior Design and Policy Advisor, Government of Canada
It’s not a comprehensive national design policy but, as Alan Way points out, the Canadian government’s Federal Identity Program creates a clear graphic profile for government activities. This has several significant benefits, including facilitating...

The Miracle of Han River: Korean Government Policy and Design Management in the Motor Industry
Kyung Won Chung, Chairman, Department of Industrial Design, Korea Advanced Institute of Technology (KAIST)
The story of the Korean automobile industry is a fascinating example of the transformation that can occur when a long-term national policy—including the design element—has a clear and limited focus. Kyung Won Chung writes about thirty years of...