Europe’s businesses are beginning to embrace design, and the European Commission wants to encourage this further
The European Commission says Europe must look beyond technology innovation and focus more energy on design to achieve its growth potential.
With 62 per cent of EU companies using design in their business the European Commission has outlined its commitment to encouraging greater adoption of design as a driver for innovation and growth within both the public and private sector – with design helping organisations compete on a global scale and provide more user driven solutions.
Speaking at the first Design for Europe annual summit in Brussels, Antti Peltomäki from the European Commission stated that while the EU’s overall level of innovation has remained stable, more investment is needed to boost its innovation performance – with continued investment in skills being vital to ensuring Europe has the highly qualified design talent it requires.
The comments come as initial findings from the European Commission’s latest Innobarometer reveal 62 per cent of EU companies use design in their business.
Furthermore, for almost one in three, design is now an integral element of their development work or even central to their company’s strategy.
Annabella Coldrick, Design for Europe programme coordinator and director of policy and research at Design Council, said: “As the results of the Innobarometer show, Europe’s businesses are beginning to embrace design.
“Design can be the catalyst for boosting innovation, economic growth and job creation. As such it is vital that we help businesses and public sector organisations better understand the important role design plays and encourage more EU members to include design in their national policy.”
The European Growth by Design Summit brought together over 220 business leaders, public sector and policy professionals and design experts to discuss how Europe can revitalise business growth through design-led innovation.
One of the biggest pieces of research to come out of the event found that companies in the US are more likely to say design is not used in their company, compared to their counterparts in the EU (49 per cent vs 38 per cent).
