Great Design Can Change the World...

Rule number one according to Sir Michael Bichard the current director of the UK's Design Council.

The Design Council is a government organization that strives to "...helping business become more successful, public services more efficient and designers more effective." On their site they have a nice collection of case studies regarding challenging the status quo for good design.

Bichard has also helped come up with these "Five Rules of Design"

1. Great design can change the world and move people
2. If you think good design is expensive you should look at the real cost of bad design
3. Design, creativity and innovation are essential if we are to meet the global challenges of sustainable development
4. Design is not just about products and communications, it's also increasingly in the services we receive or buy
5. To consume design is a creative act - and everyone can be creative!

While I may not agree entirely with all the rules (perhaps withholding any consumption is an act of design by inaction) I find it interesting that a governmental body would create a "national strategic body for design" and am curious to delve into how that sort of agency would work in the United States. It isn't that they police design, calling out what is considered poor ideas, but instead utilize funding and agency research to further design base businesses which almost sounds akin to National Endowment of the Arts but is more business related.

Instead of being used as a reference guide or a council of decision makers per say, the Design Council instead acts as an information aggregator and business advisor which attempts to help businesses boost competitiveness through the use of good design strategies.

I thought this went pretty well with the current posts, especially Roger K. Lewis's article on design review boards

Fun Resources:
Downloaded Design Council Resources

Ganked from Core 77