Include Design

It’s not often you get consensus in a sector as disparate and diverse as the design industry. This week I think we may have a first.

Include Design is the new industry-led campaign, backed by the Design Council, calling for the Government to include design and the arts in the EBacc. From Apple’s Jony Ive to Ideo the agency that brought “design thinking” to the world – the most influential global design players agree that if we don’t include design in the EBacc then we risk losing generations of design industry professionals at huge cost to the UK’s creative economy.

This unanimity, though rare in our industry, is impassioned. It is clearly an issue that reaches beyond the virtual world of Twitter and hashtags. Last week I attended a packed Designer Breakfast on the theme of Bright Young Things – there was a buzz in the room, a great panel and passionate audience but if you were looking for a bun fight you weren’t going to find it here. Even the normally combative Neville Brody was in agreement with his fellow speakers – now is the time for us to unite, to ensure design and the arts are part of the EBacc and have equal status with humanities and languages.

The thing for me is that the impact of not including design in the EBacc goes beyond even the creative industries. It could be a lot worse than that. Design education and skills are not only essential to inspiring and nurturing our creative talent and supporting a strong design industry. They are also vital in ensuring we have a design literate society. This means we have innovative entrepreneurs, active citizens, critical consumers and people who are knowledgeable enough to commission design in a strategic way from within business and the public sector. Design literacy means we all have an understanding of how design approaches can be used to change the way we live for the better. If we fail to include design it won’t just be disastrous for our education system, the outlook for us all will be bleaker.

So please, make a difference and join the #includedesign campaign.