When asked to name a chief design officer, a few names likely come to mind. Sir Jony Ive at Apple, John Hoke III at Nike, or perhaps Mauro Porcini, who, after nearly 13 years as PepsiCo’s longstanding CDO, departed earlier this year – only to re-emerge days later as Samsung’s first.
But commercial businesses aren’t the only ones taking design seriously, or, as in Samsung’s case, competitively.
Governmental interest in design is gaining momentum, at a time when trust in representative institutions is at its lowest in decades. Design thinking – an iterative, human-centred approach to creative problem-solving – has long been praised for its focus on innovation through empathy.
And while authorities – and the people represented by them – seem to be growing further apart, designers are stepping in to rebuild trust and shape better, more reflective policy.
A new wave of chief design officers is bringing the voice of democracy back into design.
Design first, policy second
Not every authority will find its own Jony Ive, explains Professor Emma Hunt, chief executive of Cornwall’s creative university, Falmouth. But designers are great at clarifying complex systems, and they’re especially skilled at “extracting from non-designers exactly what the real problem is.”
Cornwall itself has a storied appreciation of design – one of the first representative authorities to appoint a chief design officer, Professor Andrea Siodmok, in 2011. That legacy still resonates in the region today, according to Hunt.
She commends the council’s early and progressive stance on bringing creatives to the table, and praises Siodmok as a catalyst. In her own words, Siodmok’s mission was to reject the legislative “business as usual” approach.
Acknowledging that 90% of design decisions are not made by designers themselves, she set out to elevate the importance of design to the elected board and its key stakeholders – championing a new approach that placed “local people’s needs at the heart of decision-making.”
Mauro Porcini, Samsung’s first chief design officer
As co-founder of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Design and Innovation, Professor Hunt is an advocate for the application of design thinking across broad societal issues of education, housing, or health – and importantly, quality of life.
For example, the county launched a five-year research programme exploring the impact of design and creativity on mental health that responds to a government report on the health inequalities facing underserved coastal communities.
Wrapping up in Falmouth next month, the project has brought together a team of psychiatrists, psychologists, and youth workers with artists, film-makers, and game-developers to re-examine the future of mental health care.
Working closely with Cornwall Council more than a decade on from Siodmok, Hunt praises the region’s Fairness Commission, which still puts design first and policy second. “When people complain about bad design, it’s usually because design hasn’t been involved,” she explains.
It’s perhaps no surprise that she often looks north, to Scandinavia, for examples of best practice.
Happy by design
Finland has just topped the UN World Happiness Report for an unprecedented eighth successive year – and close behind are Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Is design linked to happiness? Many Nordics, including Hanna Harris, Helsinki’s chief design officer, think so.
Happiness will be a focal theme for September’s Helsinki Design Week, which celebrates its 20th iteration this year. Harris cites “belonging” and “dignity” as vital to happy, healthy communities, and sees design as a tool for delivering them at scale.
And happiness, she explains, starts early.
Helsinki’s new computer-themed playground. Photo courtesy of Monstrum.
Helsinki – which often puts the wellbeing of its youngest citizens first – was recently recognised by UNICEF as a “Child Friendly City,” and just last year opened the world’s first screen-free computer playground. A major investment in the digital literacy of future generations, the project is a prime example of putting design thinking into practice.
Its brief, unconventionally, asks – What if the tools of technology could be learned through climbing and crawling?
Harris reflects on a conversation with children at a local school, who when asked to explain the value of design thinking, gave answers that centred on one word – “together.”
Whether it be ideating together, testing together, or even failing together, Harris thinks they’re right. “If we can enable this, across society at large, then there’s hope yet,” she says with a smile.
It’s an optimism that Kaarina Gould, former programme director of Helsinki’s year as 2012 World Design Capital, certainly shares.
She’s leading the development of a new Finnish Museum of Architecture and Design, scheduled to open in 2030. Its mission lies in “democratising the tools of design,” which, Gould explains, lays the groundwork for “a strategic approach to governance and civic life.”
Democratising design
The Scottish Government has been equally forward-looking and had a chief design officer in post since 2018 – the same year as the landmark opening of its first design museum, the V&A Dundee.
Just last year, Dundee, a small but ambitious creative capital, celebrated a decade since its status as the UK’s only UNESCO City of Design.
Union Street’s retail unit – a place for co-design – where the project team engaged with local community. Photo by Grant Anderson.
Dr Stacey Hunter, creative director of the Dundee Design Festival, praises the Government for embracing design, but makes it clear that there is still much work left to do.
“Design needs to become a serious priority at a strategic level,” she says, and points to projects co-designed with communities that are local success stories but still need greater investment to scale.
She references the pedestrianisation of Union Street in Dundee, which, in its early stages, based a design team out of a former retail unit on the street itself.
The shopfront formed a pivotal location for meeting local businesses and residents, and established a proximity to the community that put policymakers and the people impacted on an equal footing.
What designers working in policy do best, Hunter suggests, is ensuring that “citizens are empowered” and that local people have a voice in shaping the ways in which they live, work, and play.
In designers we trust
This year marks a quarter century since another cultural capital, Berlin, was designated a UNESCO city of design, and just this month it hosted a Design for Policy conference.
Citing declining trust in government and low levels of satisfaction with public services, the event convened policy designers of all kinds to figure out what comes next.
They certainly have a task on their hands.
Research published by the British Journal of Political Science earlier this year finds that trust in representative institutions – parliaments, governments, and political parties – has declined globally by nine per cent since 1990. Only six countries buck the trend – unsurprisingly, a handful of Nordics are amongst them.
“Designers are uniquely able to gather people in a room, away from their desks, and with their lap-tops closed,” explains David Martens, designer at the EU Policy Lab and one of the conference’s organisers.
“And they have an ability, particularly at a local level, to connect with people on the ground too, bringing evidence and insights back into policy.”
The Design for Policy Conference convened 2,000 members of government, politics, civil society, and creative industries. Photo by Anne Barth.
The designer’s role, he says, is to become an advocate and gatherer of people and ideas, both inside institutions and with the people they’re serving. Martens suggests we’re seeing more designers in policy because they’re so well placed “at the interface between government and public,” becoming the translator, the mediator, the great convener, and the able communicator.
In terms of best practice, he praises the French Government which just last year launched a Public Transformation Campus. An educational initiative that rejects traditional or formal training, it’s designed to equip public servants with the skills needed to drive meaningful change within government.
Embracing a “learning-by-doing approach,” the programme harnesses the application of design thinking to deliver better policies and services.
At the very core of this process is empathy, Martens explains. And with empathy, trust is likely to follow.
Coalition of creatives
Many leaders in the field, like Hanna Harris, agree with David Martens’ suggestion that creatives can become the “glue,” bringing disparate – and often divided – communities back together.
We live in an increasingly complex world where challenges are ever-changing, interconnected, and deeply human. But if only 30% of citizens feel they have a voice in the decisions of their government, then perhaps it’s time for change.
Designers, it turns out – as practiced unifiers and empathic problem-solvers – are well equipped to deliver that.