Design in Extraordinary Times

BIDA Director Dr Stephen Green raising the profile of design at a recent event at Imperial College London

Deborah Dawton, CEO at the Design Business Association has recently been in touch with BIDA, metaphorically opening their doors to BIDA members and anyone in the design profession who might want to participate in their weekly Friday 1 pm webinars - an opportunity to share experiences and hear from people with advice on the many challenges designers and businesses are facing at the moment.

Many individuals and businesses are also volunteering time and resources in the National and Global effort to minimize the impact of Coronavirus.

These are difficult times.  But during a webinar with Tim Brown from IDEO at the RCA last week we were reminded that  designers have distinctive qualities relevant to the current situation and that the conversation we might have about the future is very different now to the one we might have had a month ago. 

Many of you may know that BIDA is already aiming to reposition as an inclusive network for designers, adopting new collaborative approaches and with a particular focus on developing a professional support network by and for younger designers.

In his webinar Tim also talked extensively about the opportunities and need to become adept at collaboration, working at a systemic level: 

'…this is what I hope: it’s possible that we’ll recognise the value of global action - and new global institutions will emerge, or existing ones will change.  We have to work at a global level. I’ve always believed that design can operate at scale. I hope you (the audience) will work at scale for the benefit of all, not just the few.’

With all these things in mind we invite anyone interested to join us in conversation in a webinar at 12:30 pm on Wednesday 22 April.

Our focus will be shaping a network to support younger designers and the future of our profession.  The event is open to anyone interested.  Please email for the Webinar link. 

Keep safe and well.