Defining the design arena: Join the ‘design umbrella’

article source: EDTI (European Design Training Incubator)
Recently, at design innovation, we were looking for new trainers to talk about the different design domains. My first question to the candidates was, who is a designer? Only half raised their hands. To my surprise, apart from artists or art historians, the others who kept their hands down were graphic designers, fashion designers or interior architects, people we assume to be designers.

It means that designers themselves do not know they are part of the design business. I’ve heard many times designers complaining about clients who don’t know what design is. How do we expect a client to know what design is if designers themselves don’t know? How therefore can we expect someone to buy design services or expertise? This confused situation has direct economic impacts in terms of clients not using designers.

Defining design domains does not mean restricting creativity. It just helps outsiders to apprehend what design is, who to call and for what services. It helps design businesses and client satisfaction. Health-care (designers love comparing themselves to doctors) is a huge area of expertise: doctors, surgeons, paediatricians, dentists, anaesthetists, general practitioners, orthodontists and many others. We, as clients, know which door to knock at if we have a cold or a broken leg. We are aware there are different doors but we know they are all doctors. Why can it not be the same with design? All designers should know they are ‘designers’, and they should know how to position themselves on the design map. This should be communicated to clients to understand the scope of design.

While developing the EDTI surveys, we faced the question of listing design domains. It sounded easy and obvious but it ended up in lengthy debates. The question was not that easy. Nevertheless, we finally came up with a list of 7 main design domains, some 40 sub-domains and close to 200 sub-sub-domains. Is this the final list of design domains? Most likely not but it might become a standard or a foundation for a future standard. Comments on the list are invited.

All designers, design schools, design associations and design organisations could gather under a common ‘design’ umbrella and use a common language and organisational structure for design disciplines, design domains or design categories. This would be a huge step towards the development of the design and creative industries. At an individual level, it would be a huge step forward in each designer’s career development.

Thierry Van Kerm
EDTI co-ordinator

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Be proactive -- join wREGA (wakaf Reka Grafik) Malaysia, speak up and make a difference on things that matter to you as a designer.

Wonderful Market + 1st Pipiteer Gathering

1st Designer Hand-made Creative Market

03 May 2009 - SUN
11am - 8pm

Level 7, Berjaya Times Square, KL (near Theme Park entrance)

> click here to see some of the latest cool artsy designer products that will be available at the market.

Enquiries: Mike (Pipit)

Scandinavian DesignLab talk

29 April 2009 -- WED
10:00am – 12:00pm
Jesper von Wieding, strategic Creative Director and Founding partner of Scandinavian DesignLab from Denmark will be giving a lecture at Dasein Academy of Art.

FREE - all welcome.

Venue: Dasein Academy Of Art
3A-12-G, Jln Wangsa Delima 10, Desa Wangsa, Setapak, KL
For more information: email Shanli or call Mdm. Lim +603-4142 2990

Call for Entries - Work your guts out

Hong Kong Asia Design Awards 2009
Take part in this multi-disciplinary design competition for the Asia Pacific region.

Organised by the Hong Kong Designers Association (HKDA), the HKDA Awards has been a who’s who of design excellence in Hong Kong and Asia in the last 34 years. It is a comprehensive, multi- disciplinary award for professional designs in the fields of graphic, product, spatial and new media.

(click on pix to view Call for Entries Poster in full size)
The last HKDA Awards 07 received more than 1,700 entries, collected from 36 destinations in the region including Mainland China, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taipei and Hong Kong.

Submission deadline
30 MAY 2009

Submission details

Art and the marketplace

by: Victor Chin
For 20 years or more, if you were a Malaysian artist, not in the popular line-up, yet one of those lucky ones with your artwork in the National Art Gallery’s (NAG) collection, you’ll probably have a quibble with NAG because you can’t find any of your works on display in the premier art institution. Why?

There could be many reasons for this distressing situation. One was that there was simply no deliberate policy, in the past, to display a sample of ever artist, past and present, old and young, of the 3,800 artworks in their collection, for the public to get an overview and judge for themselves what sort of artistic talents we have in the country.

But thanks to the current Director General of NAG, Mohamad Najib Ahmad Dewa, many things have changed. Read all about this in Victor Chin's article in TheMalaysianInsider.com.

Victor Chin is a Kuala Lumpur-based artist and photographer.

Mad about Bamboo

Recently, Heath Nash, that brilliant designer who turns recycled plastics into lighted works of art, marveled & raved about the range, diversity & complexity of local Malaysian handicraft during his design workshop during the KL Design Week.

I had thot, oh great, another gwei-lo getting inspired by the most mundane trinkets found in our craft markets, reminding us of our rich heritage in craft & design. What does it mean - that these crafty achievements has gone unnoticed by Malaysian designers fed on a diet of foreign design superiority. So, from now on, I will also blog on Malaysian handicraft news into kakireka's radar in the hope that it will bring about more awareness & subsequent creative collaborations between designers & handicraft producers.

As a start, there is bamboo, a woody grass(!) found growing all over Malaysia. I was told that in Java, indonesia, bamboo is treasured as a resource and used so efficiently that a normal family can sustain itself economically making bamboo-derived products with just 4 clumps of bamboo growing in their backyard. From building houses & furniture to household utensils, handicraft & toys for sale. Whereas in Malaysia, bamboo is just treated like grass or at best, merely decoration in a pot or landscaping. FYI, Malaysia used to be in the forefront of bamboo "technology" & research. China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh are way ahead of us in this field where bamboo is seen as a viable, eco-friendlier alternative construction material compared to timber/wood by using latest engineering tech for reinforcement & durability. In the US alone, there are 4000+ registered patents on inventions using bamboo. (info updated from Bamboo Forum speakers).

What can you do with BAMBOO?
Find out at this event. For Architects, Product Designers, Interior Designers, Artists, Handicraft producers, etc.

MACRI Creativity & Innovation Week - Exploring New Possibilities
15 - 21 April 2009 // Pusat Sains Negara, Bukit Kiara, KL.

MACRI (Malaysian Association of Creativity & Innovation) has planned a week of programs, workshops, seminars, activities, all designed to bring out the creative and innovative spirit in us. While the overall theme of this year’s Creativity & Innovation Week is bamboo, there are many parallel events that cater to everyone. Here are some items that may interest Designers:

15 - 21April 9am - 5pm daily
Bamboo Expo – unique showcase of all kinds of products and crafts made from bamboo. Highly recommended for secondary and college students, and entrepreneurs.

18th April SAT 9am ~ 4pm
Bamboo FORUM – Material of the New Millenium // The anchor event of the entire week. Come and hear experts and speakers talk about bamboo and its vast potential. Targeted at entrepreneurs, innovators, members of government agencies, the corporate sector, and the academia. Participation fee is RM25 per person for members of the public, and RM10 per person for students (including lunch and tea breaks). Free for participants from MACRI, FRIM, PSN, MOSTI, YIM, MARA, OUM, MENSA. full programme - below.

19th April SUN 9am ~ 5pm
Bamboo Design Workshop // Led by staff and students from ALFA International College, this is a one-of-its-kind workshop that imparts creative skills through the use of bamboo. Targeted at youth from colleges and universities, and also at young entrepreneurs. Limited seats.

21st April TUE 10am ~ 12pm
Seminar: Forging a Thinking & Innovative Organization // Targeted at the representatives of any corporate organization, the seminar examines the crucial role Creativity and Innovative can play to help meet today’s many challenges. Middle and Senior Management staff will find this seminar very useful. Facilitator is none other than Dato’ Ghazi Sheikh Ramli, Malaysia’s foremost Innovation Evangelist.

Bamboo FORUM – Material of the New Millenium
09.45am -- BAMBOO – HOW MUCH DO WE KNOW by: En Abdul Razak Othman, Senior Research Officer, FRIM
10.15am -- Tea Break
10.45am -- BAMBOO FOR HEALTH, by Dr Marzalina Mansor, Director, Biotech Division, FRIM
11.15am -- ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN WITH BAMBOO by: Assoc. Prof Puan Sri Nila Inangda, Dept of Architecture, Universiti Malaya
11.45am -- BAMBOO FOR SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS by: Prof Dr Jimmy Lim, Alfa College
12.15pm -- A SHOWCASE OF THE LATEST BAMBOO PRODUCTS by: Dr Wan Tarmeze Wan Ariffin, Senior Research Officer, FRIM
12.45pm -- COMMERCIALIZATION OF BAMBOO PRODUCTS by: Assoc. Prof Dr Razak Wahab, School of Tropical Forestry, Universiti Malaysia Sabah
01.15pm -- Lunch
02.00pm -- SPECIAL BAMBOO MUSICAL RENDITION
02.30pm -- PANEL DISCUSSION – BAMBOO, MATERIAL OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM moderated by: Dato’ Ghazi Sheikh Ramli, Founder/President, MACRI
04.00pm -- End of Forum

>> More info at MACRI, or call Ramesh at 017-8828 302

Some designs using bamboo found online...

Computer Vision lecture

Study Adelaide will host a lecture on "Computer Graphics, Computer Vision and Image Processing" by: Prof. David Suter (University of Adelaide - Computer Science) who is doing cutting-edge research on computer vision. List of Publications.

18 April 2009, 3pm
Mandarin Oriental Hotel, KL.

The lecture will highlight how current trends in research and technology could change our lives.
FREE admission. Email booking or call Brian 012-2975613 to register.

Tintoy's hip-hop ghostbusting cartoon Wins 1st Prize!

12 Apr 2009 - Tintoy Chuo & Actiontintoy Studio's quirky creative east-meets-west cartoon entry "Ghoul Smashing Quarter or GSQ" took the top prize (animation category) at the MSC Malaysia IP Creators Challenge 2008 final judging event at Palace of the Golden Horses, Sri Kembangan, K. L. today carried Live on AstroRia.

The event was the culmination of an intense 8 months of creative development work while also being made subjects of a new realityTV programme by Astro. The creative pitch involved 5 different finalist teams hoping to create the next big hit animated series. Personally, I can't wait to watch the RealityTV show.

Congrats to all the winners and good luck with the follow-up negotiations for a bite of that RM850k bank of grant money! To infinity & beyond!

Next, the stakes are raised for the MSC Malaysia IP Creators Challenge 2009 which offers grants totalling RM1m.
Closing date: 02 July 2009.

So - can you do animation? write/illustrate a digital interactive comics? have ideas for a computer casual game? or mobile phone game apps? Get cracking then!
More info: MDEC website

About the competition
This is open to amateurs and professionals from the creative multimedia industry. Supplemented with a 'step-by-step' and 'how-to' workshops for the benefit of the participants. All four competitions run concurrently. RealityTV show filming only for Animation category, so far. Judges are selected from among the best in the industry. At the end of the competition, winners will receive a sum of money, a development lair at Cyberjaya, unlimited access to Creative Applications and Development Centre facilities and consultancy from experts in the field. MDeC reserves the right to showcase the product for promotion purposes while the intellectual property remains with the creator. Am told that Astro has exclusive 1st refusal rights to commercialise the final product.

BarCamp KL 2009

KL Design Week is almost over but this is no time to rest. If you're a design entrepreneur and fancy free this weekend, go check out BarCampKL at IntiCollege, Subang Jaya. It's jam-packed with workshops & talks with up to SIX parallel sessions going on simultaneously in different rooms so you must manage your own time.
SAT 04Apr - 8:00am-8:00pm (free T-shirts for earlybirds)
SUN 05Apr - 8:00am-5:00pm

Below is a sampling of some 30+ speakers and topics spread over the 2 days... Best of all, it's all FREE if you register online.

- Devigners in Action: "Ma, look! No codes" _Daqing & Kok Chiann.
- 3 Really Cool Wordpress Tricks _James Yeang.
- Travel 2.0 - Sharing travel tricks - Using blog and social networks to get free food/stay/friendship/lots of love and have fun. _Preetam Rai.
- Social Networking: Is it just a hype or for real, my journey to become a social networks & how to start a social networking site for below 1K _Edwin Wang.
- Do you have what it takes to be interviewed? Do you get tongue-tied when you face the media...or worse, suffer from verbal diarrhoea? Get the basics right if you want to be a media success _Freda Liu.
- 360° Persuasion - How To Get Anything you Want. The Psychology behind Getting People to Give You just about ANYTHING _Michael Reyes.
- Open Travel Culture: Wikitravel Press (looking for Malaysian editors!) and OpenFlights.org _Jani Patokallio.
- MAD over Mobile Apps!!! _Gerard KM Lim.
- Cradle Fund Entrepreneurs Experience _James Chen & Uncle Bugs.
- Let's Open Socially - an introduction to OpenSocial _Nazroll & Marvin Lee.
- Get Your Dream Job: Ditch School and Get a Library Card _James Lee.
- Advertising/PR, Bloggers/Integrity: Make money, thru honesty _Colin Charles.
- Your Office is everywhere - Mobile Office _Ikhwan Nazri
- Project Revitalise: Remedy to global economic downturn _Janet Tan.
- Photo mosaics with Ruby and Yahoo! BOSS _Chang Sau Sheong.
- Connect with Rural folks: Opportunity for you to get connected to rural folks in Malaysia through Internet to make $ or to spread your love by sharing your knowledge, skills, or services _Azul.
- Sex & Business - Why these Two share the same rules _Brandon Liew.
- Google Calendar for Dummies - marvelous for time management! _James Lee.
- The Art of Pitching - 60 second elevator pitch to inivestors _Michelle Chia.
- Get Lotsa Freebies here!! (Free Business Inspiration. Entrepreneur Secrets) And Tools to get you started _Joanna Tong.
- "Why and how to get your kids interested in programming" - Introducing Scratch, a visual tool by MIT to teach programming to kids _Preetam Rai.
- Building robust democracy using the internet _Khairil Zhafri.
- Art of Making Espresso: Chemistry of Creativity+Constraints _Azim Pawanchik.
- Fashion, Interactivity, Alternative Marketing: Exploring ideas of alternative marketing/management of fashion in relation to interactivity between designers/audience _Bea.
- 10 Sins of Advertising: An insightful look from the eyes of a youth advertiser from Penang _Jackson Teoh.
- The Entrepreneurs Algorithm _Daniel Cerventus.
- The Secret to start a Global Travel business with RM2500 _Alvis Loo.
- What I can do if I am Jobless...? _Michael Tan.
- Why some Mutations are Awesome for Your Company? _Jackson Teoh.
- Interactive social experiments and simulations. Learn how you are your best weapon of change or destruction _Ellynita Lamin.
- Silverlight Vs. Flex : Silverlight > Flex _TC Wu.
- Deep impact of Network Theory in Social Networks: N Level Up for Algorithmic Intelligence _Syed Talat Fakhri.
- Casual Game Development: Tips and Tricks _TC Wu.
- The Stingy Startup - grant money is great, what happens after? _Kengyew.
- Contributing to the Starbucks Economy _Aizat Faiz.
- PHP Fuzzing in Action: 20 Ways to Fuzzing PHP Source Code _Ahmad Siddiq.
- From Geek to Chic: True story of a geek saved his own social life. How to enhance your social life, and look good while you at it! _Khalid Hilaby.
- The Earth Saviours - Journey of a Crazy Social Eco-preneur _Aidan A Chew.
- You Can Start Small: Where each things in life where in business or life it is not a must that u have to start big .. it is okay for you if want to start small to reduce your risk _Fareez Shahfiqar.
- Communicate to success! _Dave J.
- Buzz Your Brand! (BYB) Insights by a youth from Penang about Buzz-ing a new brand. _Jackson Teoh.
- Corporate brands in social media: Win win for everyone? _Derrick Koh.
- Pecha Kucha
- Open Social Hackathon

Full list & details of sessions/topics.
Online registration is FREE.

BarCamp is basically a very open, participant-driven workshop event where people share knowledge and ideas and expand their social and business network. There is usually no particular theme. Those people who want to share ideas and knowledge - of any subject, in any field - could register for time and room to host their session. Then, the rest of the people could come to event for free and join any session that they are interested in. If they find that the session un-interesting, they could just leave and go to the next one.
Links: Website. Facebook Group. Facebook Event.

There has been a lot of interesting topics in the past barcamp events. Check out the topics at the first BarCamp KL, StartupCamp KL and the recent BarCamp JB.

+ + Not to be missed - PARTY + +
04Apr - SAT
4:00pm - 11:00pm
KL Design Week Gala Closing & Arty Party at Cap Square, KL.