Comment: Design thinking influences everything around us

The Best Awards celebrate the best examples of design thinking every year. Photo / File

COMMENT:

How we feel. The choices we make. The goods we purchase. The charities we support. These are not decisions that we are hardwired to make ourselves. In deciding, we will be influenced by the environment we live in, what we see and often what we don't; the seemingly invisible cues that we subconsciously and immediately react to. This is the power and the beauty of design.

This Friday, at what will be the 21st annual Best Design Awards, New Zealand designers and business leaders will gather to recognise and celebrate the collective role our design industry plays in the social, economic and cultural well-being of our country.

The economic importance of design can be easily overlooked. Indeed we're quick to recognise innovation as a driver of our economy but slow to realise that design is a key component of innovation, turning great ideas into services and products that consumers want to buy and use. We outlined this point in a study we published in 2017 on the value of design. Through this study, we calculated that the contribution of the design industry to our annual GDP was over $10 billion - meaning that if design were to be treated as a stand-alone industry, its contribution would be greater than that of agriculture and on a par with retail trade.

This year, for the first time, we are formally recognising the role design plays in commercial performance with a Value of Design award. The three finalists in this category, Lewis Road Creamery, Allbirds and Z Energy have all demonstrated how design, and design thinking, is interwoven into their business model and has propelled the success of their business. To mark this new category, we will also be awarding a Value of Design Black Pin – the highest honour the Institute can give – to a company that has demonstrated enduring success through a design-centred approach.

Here in New Zealand, we have so many successes, whose design story has yet to be fully told or understood, but who have through design reinvented the category in which they work and delivered huge commercial success. I can't wait for us to help tell at least one of these stories more fully this Friday night.

But of course, good design is not just simply a vehicle for economic prosperity. It also plays a key social role. Design reflects who we are, influencing positive behaviour and reinforcing the values that underpin our culture and support the wellbeing of our communities.

It was interesting for me to hear one of our guest judges this year, from Australia, talk of how this year's graphic entries seemed more than ever to reflect a sense of place - demonstrated not only by strong cultural cues but by a lightness of touch and, often, a sense of humour. Looking beyond the irony of us having to be told by an Australian about how strong and proudly world-class our work is, it's an interesting point that who we are is so clearly reflected in the work that we produce across the products, media and structures that we interact with every day.

DINZ chief executive Cathy Veninga. Photo / Supplied

Designers will always, humbly concede that design follows society. But in an increasingly connected world, where the speed of influence has become almost unfathomably fast, we are seeing the power of design come to the fore and, through creative experimentation and collaboration, begin to set trends as well as follow them.

As a nation, design is part of our DNA. The haka, tuku tuku, Tā moko … these are all means of communication expressed through art – and our designs today, whether of brands, packaging, architecture or interactive communication reflect a modern way of telling a bigger, layered story.

Our industry is not just flourishing by acknowledging our sense of place, it is playing an increasingly influential role in our society. And in years to come, as we grapple with adapting to new social and environmental norms, positive choices will be both reflected and inspired by the work produced by our world-class design community.

Cathy Veninga is CEO of the Design Institute of New Zealand (DINZ). The 2019 DINZ Best Design Awards will be held this Friday at Spark Arena.