Anniversary: 50 Issues of Mind Design

Illustration: Pernille Brun Andersen

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Welcome to Mind Design #50. Since 2007 the webzine has been published ten times a year. With the webzine we aim to offer a systematic dissemination of new knowledge and research about design – from our own domestic research environment as well as the world around us.

In the five years since the launch, the Danish design research environment has changed. In addition to the formal research evaluation, a unique contribution to a coherent design research environment, many have also earned PhDs during this period. The four schools that were initially behind the centre were the Aarhus School of Architecture, the Kolding School of Design, The Danish Design School and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture. In 2011, the latter two and the School of Conservation merged to become the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation. As a research field, design research has also spread to additional institutions, and after the administrative restructuring that followed the general election in 2011, they all belong under the same government ministry now: the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education.

Fifty issues is a milestone. The webzine has a growing readership – regular subscribers as well as occasional visitors who reach us via Google, Facebook and Twitter. The webzine is also read on smartphones and iPads. We have readers all over Denmark, in Helsinki and St. Petersburg, Mumbai and Swinburne, California and Lancaster. All of them readers who want to stay updated on research in design in the glocal village.

Mind Design has developed over this five-year period. In 2008 the original magazine Nyhedsbrev for Designforskning (Newsletter for Design Research) became Mind Design, a webzine for design research, available in both a Danish and an English edition. The previous issues were translated, just as the rest of www.dcdr.dk is now also available in English. In the summer of 2010, the webzine was redesigned and given its own front page on www.dcdr.dk/uk/minddesign. The layout came to include print formats to let the reader open PDF versions of the articles and read them offline. The entire strategy behind the electronic publication hinges on the idea of simple file sharing and thus the possibility of a viral dissemination of the new knowledge that is produced within our field of research.

In addition to changes in layout and technology, the editorial line for Mind Design also develops continually. The editorial content includes background features, case stories from research or business and industry, reports from PhD defences and many other types of articles. On the website we have clustered some of the articles into themes, for example Strategic design and Society, innovation and environment, among others.

In this anniversary issue we take the opportunity to celebrate the five years since the launch and the considerable development we have undergone and witnessed. As a special feature we present a timeline of events over the past five years in The World According to Mind Design. In the article Danish Design Schools Have Embraced Research we look back at the development within the design schools and the design field in a talk with three former design school rectors. We also pull out the crystal ball and take a look at some of the key trends in design and innovation in the coming years in the article Placing Intuition Centre Stage.

We hope that you will enjoy Mind Design #50.

Dorthe Mejlhede
Director