Dear Anne
I have been following the developments, as well as encouraging from a
distance, the movement towards the setting up of a design policy in the USA,
and the meetings organised in Washington is a significant move forward
towards this end.

I met Dori in Austin Texas at the IDSA Summit in 2006 and we did get to
discussing the role of design policies at the National level. I was back in
the USA in February 2007 for a brief meeting at the Asia Society in New York
that was set up by discussions and collaborations across continents to bring
design action to India as part of the "Design with India" initiatives that
were being promoted by a group of interested designers on the DesignIndia
discussion list as well as part of the influence on the CII-NID Design
Summit that has been taking place in India since 2001 with one National
level meet taking place each year. CII is the Confederation of Indian
Industry and the Government of India has supported this initiative through
its Department of Industrial Promotion and Projects as well as the National
Institute of Design which is the first design school in India which was set
up by the Government of India in 1961 based on a insightful report by
Charles and Ray Eames in 1958.
<Design Policy for USA: Long Ripples from
India><http://design-for-india.blogspot.com/2008/11/design-policy-for-usa-long-ripples-from.html>

This is a long story, and although the Government had set the ball rolling
in India as far back as 1958 and we have also had a significant meeting at
Ahmedabad in 1979 called the UNIDO-ICSID  conference on "Design for
Development" which resulted in a extremely well drafted Ahmedabad
Declaration of 1979, the Government of India failed to adopt the declaration
or make any forward movement on the National Design Policy all of which have
been discussed in India over and over in numerous situations with and
without official participation.

The National Design Policy has been announced in India on the 8th February
2007 when I was in New York and we were happy for this big step forward
although we are not happy with the limited scope of the Policy Initiaitive
since it is highly restricted to improving prospects of Indian Industry
through design, old hat, but fails to see design as a driver of value in all
spheres of our economy and society. Few authors have had the vision or the
conviction to argue about design at this level of reach and I do believe we
must create the platform for this through the work of design research to
make visible the deep qualities of design to bring massive change in many
sectors of our economies.

I have written about the National Design Policy in India on a number of
posts on my blog called Design for India and I have also reported about the
initiatives in the USA as well. Recently I was invited to London to debate
the question of which would be the Design City of the Future which was an
event at the Design Museum in London in mid December 2009. I argued that
Bangalore could achieve this mark not because it would produce products of
the future but for the way in which the city could muster democratic
processes and people participation in solving local opportunities that could
make life in the city a far better quality with the use of design at the
City Governance level. My arguments and my presentation got the support of
the informed London audience and it was voted as the Design City of the
future in front of Sao Paolo, Beijing and Moscow which were the other
presentations that day.

<Design Week on Bangalore: "Design City" of the
Future><http://design-for-india.blogspot.com/2009/01/design-week-on-bangalore-design-city-of.html>
<Design for Politics & Good Governance: Electoral process and Design for
India><http://design-for-india.blogspot.com/2009/01/design-for-politics-good-governance.html>
<Design Cities Debate: Bengaluru at the Design Museum,
London><http://design-for-india.blogspot.com/2008/12/design-cities-debate-bengaluru-at.html>

Drafting a policy for a Nation is indeed a daunting task but we must set the
ball rolling and it will take a long time before politicians take on the
process forward and bills do get drafted that will help nations use design
for development and social action agendas in the days ahead. Designers alone
cannot change the mindsets in government and industry about the use of
design and the role that it can play in shaping the future of our cities and
our lives. Richard Farson in his new book "The Power of Design: A Force for
Transforming Everything" has broadened the scope and reach of design
thinking and action and this is also in line with the thinking articulated
by Thomas Maldonado in his 1970 book "Design, Nature, Revolution" and it
also is in the spirit of the book "The Design Way: Intentional Change in an
Unpredictable World" by Harold Nelson and Eric Stolterman.
<http://www.advanceddesign.org/book.html>
<The Design Way: Dr Harold Nelson at NID,
Ahmedabad><http://design-for-india.blogspot.com/2008/12/design-way-dr-harold-nelson-at-nid.html>
Richard Farson papers: <http://www.wbsi.org/farson/commentary.htm>

Design at this level is indeed politics, but I think of it as politics with
a difference in the modes of action and influence. Many of our democratic
processes are resolved in the street so to speak. People who support and
those who oppose both take to the streets in India and there are heated
debates about the pros and cons of each situation. However there is rarely
any well thought through and developed alternatives that are included in
these debar=tes and it then boils down to the raw numbers game. It is here
that design thinking and design visualisation can make a huge difference in
making the various options visible to the policy makers and stakeholders
alike and in the process swing the investments and committments in favour of
the better alternative, at the local level, at the city level, at the
regional level and at the national level and if I may say at the global
level as well.

Last week we at NID were involved with the articulation and creation of five
posters that could inform and provoke discussion at the World Economic Forum
at a special session on Sustainability which would be attended by global
CEO's and political leaders. I believe this is a small beginning and I will
report the developments on this particular initiative on my blog after the
Davos event unfolds and from this I do see that design is getting fresh
attention from new quarters and this is indeed an encouragement for the
belief that some of us have been holding about the power of design far
beyond the measures of the monetised economy. I hope I am not leading too
far ahead of reality. Let us see in the days ahead. These posters will be
available for download early next month and I will post the links to these
when we are ready to disseminate these widely next month.

I joined your new list (SUSDESIGNTEACH) particularly since I believe that
Sustanability amnd Design will be getting a growing share of attention from
a variety of quarters and designers and design schools will need to equip
themselves to improve their own understanding of the subject as well as try
and bring their teaching materials and programmes to cope with the expanding
role of design as we are beginning to understand it today.

With warm regards

M P Ranjan
from my iMac at home on the NID campus
21 january 2009 at 11.05 pm IST

-------------------------------------------------------------

Prof M P Ranjan
Faculty of Design
Head, Centre for Bamboo Initiatives at NID (CFBI-NID)
Chairman, GeoVisualisation Task Group (DST, Govt. of India) (2006-2008)
National Institute of Design
Paldi
Ahmedabad 380 007 India

Tel: (off) 91 79 26623692 ext 1090
Tel: (res) 91 79 26610054
Fax: 91 79 26605242

email: [log in to unmask]
web site: http://homepage.mac.com/ranjanmp
web domain: http://www.ranjanmp.in
blog: <http://www.design-for-india.blogspot.com>
education blog: <http://www.design-concepts-and-concerns.blogspot.com>
education blog: http://www.visible-information-india.blogspot.com

------------------------------------------------------------

On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 4:03 AM, A.B.Thorpe <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> I don't know how many on this list might have heard about the US National
> Design Policy Initiative (http://designpolicy.org), which grew out of the
> National Design Summit of November 08. The summit group published a report
> containing 10 policy proposals that they have circulated in the highest
> levels of government, including Mr. O. I've looked the document over and
> find it disappointing, for the reasons mentioned in this critique,
> http://designactivism.net/archives/150
>
> I'm interested in hearing what other people think about it, perhaps
> off-list or over at designactivism.net would be the appropriate place?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ann
>
>
> Ann Thorpe
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> Dept of Design, Development, Environment & Materials
> Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, United Kingdom
>
> Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
> Wates House, 22 Gordon Street London WC1H 0QB, United Kingdom
>
> [log in to unmask]
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> new book: The Designer's Atlas of Sustainability (www.designers-atlas.net)
> & blog: http://designactivism.net
>
> ---------------------------------
> The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt
> charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).
>



--