How are the roles of designers changing in a world where they often no longer provide a service to one organisation, but rather collaborate in open and networked innovation consortia? What does the increasingly strategic contribution of design to innovation furthermore mean for the product-service offering of organisations?
These are a couple of the questions at the heart of two ambitious programmes in The Netherlands aimed at exploring this new role designers can play in product-service innovation. STBY have been involved in both, working with both the ‘Creative Industries Scientific Programme’ (CRISP) and ‘Innovation In Design – Service Design in practice’ at various points over the last year.
Now we’re involved with bringing the two programmes together as part of a unique symposium during Dutch Design Week. This event, to be held on October 26th in Eindhoven, is intended to be a joint review of designers’ role in product-service innovation. It’s an opportunity to critically reflect on current practice, research and training in order to explore various directions for further improvement.
Our Strategy Director, Geke van Dijk, has joined the programming board of the symposium, and is also the chair of Service Design Network Netherlands – one of several organisations that are helping make this event a reality. Also involved are the Design Academy Eindhoven, where our Creative Director, Bas Raijmakers, is currently Associate Professor of Strategic Design.
We’re really excited to be involved in such an ambitious event, and are hopeful that the symposium will help open this discussion up to a wider community of designers and innovators. Two international keynote speakers will touch on the global context of product-service innovation, and this will be followed by three parallel interactive sessions on science, industry and education.
Registration is open now at www.designasservice.nl, costing just €35 (including an informal networking lunch). Everyone interested and working in the field is welcome – we hope to see some of you there!