Articles
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007
A Look Behind the Creativity in Design
The world is currently facing a host of challenges that can only be tackled with innovation. The demand for growth must be balanced with concerns for climate and sustainability, and globalisation has led to new conditions for the production and exchange of goods. A growing need to develop innovative solutions for complex problems makes it crucial to focus on innovation dynamics. At the conference on creativity in design, The First International Conference on Design Creativity in Kobe, Japan 30 November– 2 December 2010 one of the goals was to highlight an important driver of innovation: the creativity in and behind design.
14 December 2010
Type as Concept
A typeface is the carrier of an inherent concept or set of values. But the discussion about the relationship between typefaces and their underlying ideas needs to revitalised. That was the message from the researchers of the Danish Centre for Design Research who on 19 November 2010 welcomed 500 participants for the conference Conceptual Type – Type Led by Ideas with the British design writer Rick Poynor as one of the speakers. He emphasises the importance of using visual means to reflect on the world.
14 December 2010
Strategic Design Creates Business Value
Dr Suzan Boztepe is studying the innovation approaches of Danish design consultancy firms. Among other things, her study shows how strategic design creates new markets, new business models, and new brands for companies. She argues that it is the designers’ mindset that makes the difference for companies’ strategies for the future.
14 December 2010
Short News #34
Allocation of research funds;
Applying for research funds from the Danish Centre for Design Research;
Research Seminar 2011
14 December 2010
Digital Innovative Design
PH.D.-DEFENCE By means of experimental design research Flemming Tvede Hansen has investigated possibilities and limitations in the encounter between the ceramic material and digital 3D form-giving. His Ph.D. project includes research in the use of digital 3D techniques in ceramic form-giving as well as the possibility of transferring designers’ hands-on experience with the material to the field of digital form-giving. According to Flemming Tvede Hansen, the interactive approach offers a wide range of possibilities, but he also points out that off-the-shelf 3D software may limit designers’ expression.
17 November 2010
Good Basis for Development
The design research at Denmark’s two schools of architecture has been evaluated by an international panel of design researchers. The schools, which have applied individual strategies for their design research in recent years, both intend to use the recommendations in the evaluation reports as a basis for future initiatives.
17 November 2010
Danish Design Research Has Reached ‘Good International Standard’
EDITORIAL In the spring of 2010, the Danish Ministry of Culture launched a comprehensive evaluation of the design research under the ministry. In the overarching report the evaluation panel concludes that the design research has ‘mainly been of very good, and in some areas excellent, quality’. Dorthe Mejlhede, director of the Danish Centre for Design Research, highlights some of the main points from the evaluation report, emphasising the capacity of design research to promote Danish innovation.
17 November 2010
Short News #33
Merger of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture and The Danish Design School;
Ph.D. scholarship and assistant/associate professor’s position at The Danish Design School
17 November 2010
Designed in China
China is no longer merely a sub-contractor. Design and innovation are at the top of the big companies’ agenda, and China is progressing in such leaps and bounds that it now threatens Danish companies’ position in the field of developing and designing new products and services. This warning call comes from the directors of two Danish design firms that have had branches in the Far East for the past ten years. Still, they also point to the factors that might secure the future position of Danish product development and design.
19 October 2010
“Denmark should pursue the new forms of design”
Danish designers must get even better, as companies in the Far East are moving away from merely being manufacturers to developing their own designs and creating their own brands, says Professor Tore Kristensen of the Copenhagen Business School. Danish designers should pursue the new forms of design and focus more on design thinking and the design of strategies and processes, he says.
19 October 2010
Online Data for All
Proponents of Open Access argue that scientific results should be accessible to all. Now, the creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, wants to take it one step further and make all the data in the world accessible online. The Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has already launched an initiative aimed at data sharing. Design researcher, Ph.D. scholar Pia Pedersen from the Kolding School of Design points out that increased data sharing can be facilitated by data visualisation.
19 October 2010
Designing Means Executing Power
In practice, design is closely interwoven with the regulation of behaviour and thus with the execution of power. Trine Brun Petersen makes this point in her Ph.D. dissertation about design as an ideological and behaviour-regulating phenomenon. She argues that design can be used proactively and strategically for the benefit of society. But this requires that designers have interdisciplinary insight.
19 October 2010
Transfer of Design Knowledge
Cross-aesthetic studies at the University of Copenhagen with an internship at MoMA in New York, a job as a museum curator at the Danish art museum Trapholt, and a Ph.D. from the Kolding School of Design. These are the corner stones in Trine Brun Petersen’s career. Next, from her position at University College Sealand, she will be transferring knowledge from the design discipline to the field of education.
19 October 2010
Short News #32
Ph.D. Defence by Flemming Tvede Hansen at The Danish Design School;
Conference: Conceptual Type – Type led by ideas;
Evaluation of Design Research Under the Danish Ministry of Culture
19 October 2010
Research at Design Schools Bears Fruit
Design research at The Danish Design School and the Kolding School of Design has received a positive evaluation as part of an extensive evaluation of design research in Denmark. The two schools have pursued different strategies and have both achieved good results in a brief amount of time. However, in the assessment of the international evaluation panel, there are still challenges and room for improvement.
15 September 2010
Play and Learning Are Closely Interrelated
Digital educational elements and more play in learning can facilitate speech training for children with a hearing loss who have a cochlear implant, a sophisticated hearing aid. That is the conclusion in Louise Aagaard’s Ph.D. dissertation Leg og lær aktiviteter til børn med cochlear implant (Play-and-learn activities for children with a cochlear implant), which she defended successfully on 16 June 2010 at the Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark.
15 September 2010
Future Design Knowledge
In the future, networks between design researchers and design practitioners will play a crucial role in the production of both knowledge and concrete, innovative solutions. For design agencies, working with researchers opens new perspectives, and similarly, research-based knowledge production is enhanced through the productive dialogue and experiments that take place in the practice field. Those are some of the experiences that design agencies and researchers from The Danish Design School take home from a collaboration that springs from the research project DAIM.
15 September 2010
Recycling Should Be Fun
The home design store Kop & Kande in Herlev helps translate knowledge from design research into concrete solutions. Based on insight from the research project DAIM, Kop & Kande is seeking new paths to encourage customers to drop discarded batteries off for recycling. The store has set up a special box, which rewards the customers with a merry fanfare every time they drop a battery into the box. In addition, Kop & Kande offers a store discount to customers who drop off batteries.
15 September 2010
Short News #31
Evaluation of Design Research under the Danish Ministry of Culture;
Ph.D. defence at Kolding School of Design in Kolding, Denmark;
Two Ph.D. Scholarships in the Field of Co-Design;
Allocation of research funds
15 September 2010
Are Trends Becoming Obsolete?
Fashion- Ph.D. Dissertation on Trend Mechanisms in Fashion.
Trends are not going out of fashion in the 21st century, although they have been pronounced dead repeatedly as a result of the growing turnover rate in fashion trends – they mutate and emerge in a chaotic root system of meanings and functions. In a Ph.D. dissertation from The Danish Design School, Maria Mackinney-Valentin studies how and why fashion trends change, and whether there have been any changes in trend mechanisms in the 21st century. The Ph.D. dissertation helps consolidate and develop trend studies as an independent field of research and contributes to our understanding of trends in our society.
15 June 2010
Type and Legibility
- Typeface design as a research topic.
Few would disagree that legibility is crucial on traffic signs. But how can we know which typefaces are most legible, and how quickly do readers get used to unfamiliar typefaces? These and other questions related to typeface design were the topic of the seminar 'The Legible Typeface' at The Danish Design School on 11 May 2010, which explored both practical and scientific perspectives. The seminar was organised by Assistant Research Professor Sofie Beier, who is doing research to determine which letter characteristics affect legibility.
15 June 2010
On the Threshold to a New Design Perception
- Conference on the Challenges of the Future.
How can design offer a productive answer to the challenges of the future? What new understanding of design will be required? These issues formed the basis for the conference Borderlines – Pushing Design Over the Limit, which was held in Genk in Belgium on 26-29 May 2010 under the framework of the Cumulus network, which involves universities and colleges with education and research in the fields of art, design and media.
15 June 2010
Encountering the Unknown
- Interactions Between People and Digital Products
Telephones that are also computers and robots that take blood samples – products with integrated digital technology often offer new types of functions that we are not prepared for. In a new Ph.D. dissertation from Designskolen Kolding, Thomas Markussen describes new approaches to understanding what happens in our encounter with interactive design products.
18 May 2010
We Want to Generate Innovation in Society
Society, Innovation and environment– Interview with Poul Rind Christensen, Kolding School of Design, Denmark
Until 2014, the research strategy for Kolding School of Design is focused on the interaction between research and practice. By means of so-called learning circles that connect research projects, development projects and private or government-funded organisations, the design school aims to generate interactive understanding that is enriching to everyone involved. According to Head of Research, Professor Poul Rind Christensen at Kolding School of Design, this gives research a real potential for contributing to the dynamics of an innovative society.
18 May 2010
Open Access Will Strengthen Design Research
Free, electronic access to research findings will probably soon be introduced in Denmark. Troels Degn Johansson, head of research at The Danish Design School, believes that open access will improve the possibility of exploring knowledge across traditional research disciplines. He is convinced that it will benefit design research, whose methods and theories are rooted in many different disciplines.
18 May 2010
Design Research Strengthens Innovation at Deutsche Telekom
Design Research in CompaniesAt Deutsche Telekom Laboratories in Berlin, design research is an integrated part of the development activities. It is anchored in the Design Research Lab, which under Professor Dr. Gesche Joost’s leadership offers new input to innovation in the company. Among other achievements, design research helped speed up the development process in the design of a new telephone, and it helps secure the future innovation at Deutsche Telekom.
20 April 2010
Open Access – the Future for Research?
Over the past ten years, free and open online access to research findings has spread from the natural sciences to the social sciences and the humanities. According to Steven Shaviro, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, USA, this development benefits both research and society at large, although it also poses challenges for publishers and research environments. In Denmark, the Copenhagen Business School has been one of the first universities to implement open access.
20 April 2010
Designers as Interpreters in Co-Creation Processes
Design Research in CompaniesCo-creation – creating value together with the users – will become a key driver of innovation in the future. In co-creation processes, design is essential because designers act as interpreters in the process, says Eskild Hansen, head of Cisco Consumer Products’ European Design Center and a member of the board for the Danish Design Council. This developments places new demands on designers’ competences, and it is crucial to integrate research, education and business if we are to realise the innovation potential inherent in design, says Jørgen Rasmussen, associate professor and head of the Department of Design at the Aarhus School of Architecture.
20 April 2010
Textile Researchers Develop Patent
FashionA key factor in product development at the textile company Kvadrat is research-based knowledge about light and materials that the company among other things acquires by participating in the Textile Consortium at the Kolding School of Design. For example, Kvadrat has taken out a patent for a new type of light screening that the researchers have developed through experiments with various materials. The goal is to use daylight better and create solutions that combine functional and aesthetic factors to improve hospital environments and thus make a positive contribution to patients’ well-being.
16 March 2010
Global Luxury Fashion Sets the Agenda
FashionDesign researcher Erik Hansen-Hansen studies global luxury fashion and is interested in the impact of the global luxury brands on the Danish fashion scene. He believes that they are setting the agenda for much of the world’s fashion industry – thus also affecting Denmark’s. And that it is crucial for Danish fashion companies to understand the international networks of the fashion industry. In February 2010, Erik Hansen-Hansen took part in the Copenhagen Fashion Week to observe how the global luxury brands affect the Danish fashion industry.
16 March 2010
Art and Courage In Future Furniture Design
FurnitureSince 2008, the furniture consortium at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture has actively sought to promote innovation in furniture design. The consortium maintains a close dialogue with private businesses and others with the purpose of generating new knowledge of value to both research and businesses. Among other things, a recent project demonstrates the crucial importance of artistic quality and courage in future furniture design.
16 March 2010
Consortiums Open Doors
Design Research in CompaniesFour consortiums in the fields of textile, fashion, furniture and strategic design form the setting for a collaboration of design researchers, research institutions and companies. The consortiums generate synergy and valuable networks and promote the exchange of knowledge and ideas with the business sector. For example, the Textile Consortium has opened new doors for Vibeke Riisberg, associate professor at Designskolen Kolding. She sees the consortium setup as a helpful framework for the exchange of knowledge and the communication of Danish and international textile research to industry, designers and the educational institutions. A common feature for all four consortiums is that they are helping to upgrade their field and generate innovation.
17 February 2010
Design Creates the Future
Design is a change-oriented discipline. Based on knowledge from design research about the way in which culture and individuals adopt change, designers can create the future-oriented solutions that society needs. In this interview Peter Gall Krogh, recently appointed design professor at the Aarhus School of Architecture, talks about the role of design research for the potential of the design discipline to affirm as well as transform values.
17 February 2010
Anchoring Innovation
Strategic DesignStrategic design can be used to enhance a company’s focus on its innovation processes. New research shows that it is worthwhile to examine how the development process begins, and how it is anchored strategically in the company’s organisation. Interview with designer Brett Patching about his ongoing Ph.D. project at the Aarhus School of Architecture.
17 February 2010
Editorial: Design Research - a Catalyst for Innovation
In the first issue of Mind Design in 2010, Director Dorthe Mejlhede takes stock of the activities in the Danish Centre for Design Research in 2009 and of the platform that the centre has created for current and future design research. Design research can act as a catalyst for innovation and as a source of value creation for companies and for society at large. That is why it is so important to continue to expand and support the design research environment, Dorthe Mejlhede points out.
19 January 2010
Is Design Philosophical?
Design and philosophy are not as far apart as one might think. Both disciplines address what is actual and what is possible, albeit in different ways. Philosophy is reflective, while design pursues a practical expression of possibility. Thus, there is considerable potential in bringing design and philosophy into a productive mutual dialogue, which is precisely the purpose of CEPHAD, Centre for Philosophy and Design, which is holding an international conference at The Danish Design School on 26-29 January 2010.
19 January 2010
Using Creativity to Enhance Consumer Awareness
Design Research in CompaniesWith the aid of two Ph.D. projects, the Danish savings bank Middelfart Sparekasse has undergone an organisational development process focused on human values and staff self-management. Now, the bank’s third Industrial Ph.D. scholar, Kirsten Bonde Sørensen from Kolding School of Design, wants to introduce self-management and the exploration of values to the field of customer relations. The goal is to develop a new type of consumer communication to help individual customers clarify their values through creativity and reflection.
19 January 2010
A Look Behind the Creativity in Design
The world is currently facing a host of challenges that can only be tackled with innovation. The demand for growth must be balanced with concerns for climate and sustainability, and globalisation has led to new conditions for the production and exchange of goods. A growing need to develop innovative solutions for complex problems makes it crucial to focus on innovation dynamics. At the conference on creativity in design, The First International Conference on Design Creativity in Kobe, Japan 30 November– 2 December 2010 one of the goals was to highlight an important driver of innovation: the creativity in and behind design.
14 December 2010
Type as Concept
A typeface is the carrier of an inherent concept or set of values. But the discussion about the relationship between typefaces and their underlying ideas needs to revitalised. That was the message from the researchers of the Danish Centre for Design Research who on 19 November 2010 welcomed 500 participants for the conference Conceptual Type – Type Led by Ideas with the British design writer Rick Poynor as one of the speakers. He emphasises the importance of using visual means to reflect on the world.
14 December 2010
Strategic Design Creates Business Value
Dr Suzan Boztepe is studying the innovation approaches of Danish design consultancy firms. Among other things, her study shows how strategic design creates new markets, new business models, and new brands for companies. She argues that it is the designers’ mindset that makes the difference for companies’ strategies for the future.
14 December 2010
Short News #34
Allocation of research funds;
Applying for research funds from the Danish Centre for Design Research;
Research Seminar 2011
14 December 2010
Digital Innovative Design
PH.D.-DEFENCE By means of experimental design research Flemming Tvede Hansen has investigated possibilities and limitations in the encounter between the ceramic material and digital 3D form-giving. His Ph.D. project includes research in the use of digital 3D techniques in ceramic form-giving as well as the possibility of transferring designers’ hands-on experience with the material to the field of digital form-giving. According to Flemming Tvede Hansen, the interactive approach offers a wide range of possibilities, but he also points out that off-the-shelf 3D software may limit designers’ expression.
17 November 2010
Good Basis for Development
The design research at Denmark’s two schools of architecture has been evaluated by an international panel of design researchers. The schools, which have applied individual strategies for their design research in recent years, both intend to use the recommendations in the evaluation reports as a basis for future initiatives.
17 November 2010
Danish Design Research Has Reached ‘Good International Standard’
EDITORIAL In the spring of 2010, the Danish Ministry of Culture launched a comprehensive evaluation of the design research under the ministry. In the overarching report the evaluation panel concludes that the design research has ‘mainly been of very good, and in some areas excellent, quality’. Dorthe Mejlhede, director of the Danish Centre for Design Research, highlights some of the main points from the evaluation report, emphasising the capacity of design research to promote Danish innovation.
17 November 2010
Short News #33
Merger of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture and The Danish Design School;
Ph.D. scholarship and assistant/associate professor’s position at The Danish Design School
17 November 2010
Designed in China
China is no longer merely a sub-contractor. Design and innovation are at the top of the big companies’ agenda, and China is progressing in such leaps and bounds that it now threatens Danish companies’ position in the field of developing and designing new products and services. This warning call comes from the directors of two Danish design firms that have had branches in the Far East for the past ten years. Still, they also point to the factors that might secure the future position of Danish product development and design.
19 October 2010
“Denmark should pursue the new forms of design”
Danish designers must get even better, as companies in the Far East are moving away from merely being manufacturers to developing their own designs and creating their own brands, says Professor Tore Kristensen of the Copenhagen Business School. Danish designers should pursue the new forms of design and focus more on design thinking and the design of strategies and processes, he says.
19 October 2010
Online Data for All
Proponents of Open Access argue that scientific results should be accessible to all. Now, the creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, wants to take it one step further and make all the data in the world accessible online. The Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has already launched an initiative aimed at data sharing. Design researcher, Ph.D. scholar Pia Pedersen from the Kolding School of Design points out that increased data sharing can be facilitated by data visualisation.
19 October 2010
Designing Means Executing Power
In practice, design is closely interwoven with the regulation of behaviour and thus with the execution of power. Trine Brun Petersen makes this point in her Ph.D. dissertation about design as an ideological and behaviour-regulating phenomenon. She argues that design can be used proactively and strategically for the benefit of society. But this requires that designers have interdisciplinary insight.
19 October 2010
Transfer of Design Knowledge
Cross-aesthetic studies at the University of Copenhagen with an internship at MoMA in New York, a job as a museum curator at the Danish art museum Trapholt, and a Ph.D. from the Kolding School of Design. These are the corner stones in Trine Brun Petersen’s career. Next, from her position at University College Sealand, she will be transferring knowledge from the design discipline to the field of education.
19 October 2010
Short News #32
Ph.D. Defence by Flemming Tvede Hansen at The Danish Design School;
Conference: Conceptual Type – Type led by ideas;
Evaluation of Design Research Under the Danish Ministry of Culture
19 October 2010
Research at Design Schools Bears Fruit
Design research at The Danish Design School and the Kolding School of Design has received a positive evaluation as part of an extensive evaluation of design research in Denmark. The two schools have pursued different strategies and have both achieved good results in a brief amount of time. However, in the assessment of the international evaluation panel, there are still challenges and room for improvement.
15 September 2010
Play and Learning Are Closely Interrelated
Digital educational elements and more play in learning can facilitate speech training for children with a hearing loss who have a cochlear implant, a sophisticated hearing aid. That is the conclusion in Louise Aagaard’s Ph.D. dissertation Leg og lær aktiviteter til børn med cochlear implant (Play-and-learn activities for children with a cochlear implant), which she defended successfully on 16 June 2010 at the Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark.
15 September 2010
Future Design Knowledge
In the future, networks between design researchers and design practitioners will play a crucial role in the production of both knowledge and concrete, innovative solutions. For design agencies, working with researchers opens new perspectives, and similarly, research-based knowledge production is enhanced through the productive dialogue and experiments that take place in the practice field. Those are some of the experiences that design agencies and researchers from The Danish Design School take home from a collaboration that springs from the research project DAIM.
15 September 2010
Recycling Should Be Fun
The home design store Kop & Kande in Herlev helps translate knowledge from design research into concrete solutions. Based on insight from the research project DAIM, Kop & Kande is seeking new paths to encourage customers to drop discarded batteries off for recycling. The store has set up a special box, which rewards the customers with a merry fanfare every time they drop a battery into the box. In addition, Kop & Kande offers a store discount to customers who drop off batteries.
15 September 2010
Short News #31
Evaluation of Design Research under the Danish Ministry of Culture;
Ph.D. defence at Kolding School of Design in Kolding, Denmark;
Two Ph.D. Scholarships in the Field of Co-Design;
Allocation of research funds
15 September 2010
Are Trends Becoming Obsolete?
Fashion- Ph.D. Dissertation on Trend Mechanisms in Fashion.
Trends are not going out of fashion in the 21st century, although they have been pronounced dead repeatedly as a result of the growing turnover rate in fashion trends – they mutate and emerge in a chaotic root system of meanings and functions. In a Ph.D. dissertation from The Danish Design School, Maria Mackinney-Valentin studies how and why fashion trends change, and whether there have been any changes in trend mechanisms in the 21st century. The Ph.D. dissertation helps consolidate and develop trend studies as an independent field of research and contributes to our understanding of trends in our society.
15 June 2010
Type and Legibility
- Typeface design as a research topic.
Few would disagree that legibility is crucial on traffic signs. But how can we know which typefaces are most legible, and how quickly do readers get used to unfamiliar typefaces? These and other questions related to typeface design were the topic of the seminar 'The Legible Typeface' at The Danish Design School on 11 May 2010, which explored both practical and scientific perspectives. The seminar was organised by Assistant Research Professor Sofie Beier, who is doing research to determine which letter characteristics affect legibility.
15 June 2010
On the Threshold to a New Design Perception
- Conference on the Challenges of the Future.
How can design offer a productive answer to the challenges of the future? What new understanding of design will be required? These issues formed the basis for the conference Borderlines – Pushing Design Over the Limit, which was held in Genk in Belgium on 26-29 May 2010 under the framework of the Cumulus network, which involves universities and colleges with education and research in the fields of art, design and media.
15 June 2010
Encountering the Unknown
- Interactions Between People and Digital Products
Telephones that are also computers and robots that take blood samples – products with integrated digital technology often offer new types of functions that we are not prepared for. In a new Ph.D. dissertation from Designskolen Kolding, Thomas Markussen describes new approaches to understanding what happens in our encounter with interactive design products.
18 May 2010
We Want to Generate Innovation in Society
Society, Innovation and environment– Interview with Poul Rind Christensen, Kolding School of Design, Denmark
Until 2014, the research strategy for Kolding School of Design is focused on the interaction between research and practice. By means of so-called learning circles that connect research projects, development projects and private or government-funded organisations, the design school aims to generate interactive understanding that is enriching to everyone involved. According to Head of Research, Professor Poul Rind Christensen at Kolding School of Design, this gives research a real potential for contributing to the dynamics of an innovative society.
18 May 2010
Open Access Will Strengthen Design Research
Free, electronic access to research findings will probably soon be introduced in Denmark. Troels Degn Johansson, head of research at The Danish Design School, believes that open access will improve the possibility of exploring knowledge across traditional research disciplines. He is convinced that it will benefit design research, whose methods and theories are rooted in many different disciplines.
18 May 2010
Design Research Strengthens Innovation at Deutsche Telekom
Design Research in CompaniesAt Deutsche Telekom Laboratories in Berlin, design research is an integrated part of the development activities. It is anchored in the Design Research Lab, which under Professor Dr. Gesche Joost’s leadership offers new input to innovation in the company. Among other achievements, design research helped speed up the development process in the design of a new telephone, and it helps secure the future innovation at Deutsche Telekom.
20 April 2010
Open Access – the Future for Research?
Over the past ten years, free and open online access to research findings has spread from the natural sciences to the social sciences and the humanities. According to Steven Shaviro, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, USA, this development benefits both research and society at large, although it also poses challenges for publishers and research environments. In Denmark, the Copenhagen Business School has been one of the first universities to implement open access.
20 April 2010
Designers as Interpreters in Co-Creation Processes
Design Research in CompaniesCo-creation – creating value together with the users – will become a key driver of innovation in the future. In co-creation processes, design is essential because designers act as interpreters in the process, says Eskild Hansen, head of Cisco Consumer Products’ European Design Center and a member of the board for the Danish Design Council. This developments places new demands on designers’ competences, and it is crucial to integrate research, education and business if we are to realise the innovation potential inherent in design, says Jørgen Rasmussen, associate professor and head of the Department of Design at the Aarhus School of Architecture.
20 April 2010
Textile Researchers Develop Patent
FashionA key factor in product development at the textile company Kvadrat is research-based knowledge about light and materials that the company among other things acquires by participating in the Textile Consortium at the Kolding School of Design. For example, Kvadrat has taken out a patent for a new type of light screening that the researchers have developed through experiments with various materials. The goal is to use daylight better and create solutions that combine functional and aesthetic factors to improve hospital environments and thus make a positive contribution to patients’ well-being.
16 March 2010
Global Luxury Fashion Sets the Agenda
FashionDesign researcher Erik Hansen-Hansen studies global luxury fashion and is interested in the impact of the global luxury brands on the Danish fashion scene. He believes that they are setting the agenda for much of the world’s fashion industry – thus also affecting Denmark’s. And that it is crucial for Danish fashion companies to understand the international networks of the fashion industry. In February 2010, Erik Hansen-Hansen took part in the Copenhagen Fashion Week to observe how the global luxury brands affect the Danish fashion industry.
16 March 2010
Art and Courage In Future Furniture Design
FurnitureSince 2008, the furniture consortium at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture has actively sought to promote innovation in furniture design. The consortium maintains a close dialogue with private businesses and others with the purpose of generating new knowledge of value to both research and businesses. Among other things, a recent project demonstrates the crucial importance of artistic quality and courage in future furniture design.
16 March 2010
Consortiums Open Doors
Design Research in CompaniesFour consortiums in the fields of textile, fashion, furniture and strategic design form the setting for a collaboration of design researchers, research institutions and companies. The consortiums generate synergy and valuable networks and promote the exchange of knowledge and ideas with the business sector. For example, the Textile Consortium has opened new doors for Vibeke Riisberg, associate professor at Designskolen Kolding. She sees the consortium setup as a helpful framework for the exchange of knowledge and the communication of Danish and international textile research to industry, designers and the educational institutions. A common feature for all four consortiums is that they are helping to upgrade their field and generate innovation.
17 February 2010
Design Creates the Future
Design is a change-oriented discipline. Based on knowledge from design research about the way in which culture and individuals adopt change, designers can create the future-oriented solutions that society needs. In this interview Peter Gall Krogh, recently appointed design professor at the Aarhus School of Architecture, talks about the role of design research for the potential of the design discipline to affirm as well as transform values.
17 February 2010
Anchoring Innovation
Strategic DesignStrategic design can be used to enhance a company’s focus on its innovation processes. New research shows that it is worthwhile to examine how the development process begins, and how it is anchored strategically in the company’s organisation. Interview with designer Brett Patching about his ongoing Ph.D. project at the Aarhus School of Architecture.
17 February 2010
Editorial: Design Research - a Catalyst for Innovation
In the first issue of Mind Design in 2010, Director Dorthe Mejlhede takes stock of the activities in the Danish Centre for Design Research in 2009 and of the platform that the centre has created for current and future design research. Design research can act as a catalyst for innovation and as a source of value creation for companies and for society at large. That is why it is so important to continue to expand and support the design research environment, Dorthe Mejlhede points out.
19 January 2010
Is Design Philosophical?
Design and philosophy are not as far apart as one might think. Both disciplines address what is actual and what is possible, albeit in different ways. Philosophy is reflective, while design pursues a practical expression of possibility. Thus, there is considerable potential in bringing design and philosophy into a productive mutual dialogue, which is precisely the purpose of CEPHAD, Centre for Philosophy and Design, which is holding an international conference at The Danish Design School on 26-29 January 2010.
19 January 2010
Using Creativity to Enhance Consumer Awareness
Design Research in CompaniesWith the aid of two Ph.D. projects, the Danish savings bank Middelfart Sparekasse has undergone an organisational development process focused on human values and staff self-management. Now, the bank’s third Industrial Ph.D. scholar, Kirsten Bonde Sørensen from Kolding School of Design, wants to introduce self-management and the exploration of values to the field of customer relations. The goal is to develop a new type of consumer communication to help individual customers clarify their values through creativity and reflection.
19 January 2010
Talking Textiles
Anne Louise Bang successfully defended her Industrial Ph.D. dissertation on 12 May 2011 at the Kolding School of Design, Denmark. Among other elements, her project involved the development of a game to help the many different participants in a design process develop a shared language and a shared understanding of textiles and their properties.
15 June 2011
Bio-Composites
Bio-composites are incredibly diverse and have great aesthetic potential as well as a variety of eco-friendly qualities. Bio-composites are materials composed of biological fibres and a bio-degradable type of plastic: PLA. Bio-composites are not a new invention, but their design potential is expanding as they are being used for new purposes and in new contexts. A project at the Kolding School of Design examined the feasibility of using bio-composites for wall and ceiling panels in the “super hospitals” that are currently on the drawing board around the country.
15 March 2011
Themes
Edited and published by the Danish Centre for Design Research
Reproduction allowed and encouraged with indication of source
Reproduction allowed and encouraged with indication of source
