Call for a National Council for Design and Creative Practice

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A new report, Between a hard rock and a soft space: design, creative practice and innovation, argues that Australian innovation can be enhanced by bringing design into the mainstream of policy and industry thinking. It calls for the formation of a National Council for Design and Creative Practice, as a body where industry, research and government can work together to contribute to innovation policy.

Professor Stuart Cunningham, President of CHASS and Director of CCI, said that internationally there is a growing convergence of technology, engineering and the applied arts, as well as the enabling inputs of science, the humanities and social sciences.

"We could be taking this broader approach in Australia," he said.

The report uses design and creative practice as examples of how the humanities, arts and social sciences can contribute to innovation. International innovation policy is increasingly concerned with design and creative practice. There is growing recognition of the contribution of creativity and the 'creative' industries to
economic prosperity, particularly in cities and regions.

Increasingly, design and creativity are used as a method for addressing complex issues, organising processes, and optimising interpersonal relations.

"This includes the design of a major airport or the Sydney rail network," Professor Cunningham said. "Design determines how well banks interact with their customers, and how we organise the spaces we live.

"It also includes consumer goods and services in burgeoning lifestyle economies where identity, communication and technology are suited out with the latest design sophistication."

Report author Dr John H Howard said that internationally, design and creative practice is a major component of industry and innovation policy.

Download Between a hard rock and a soft space: design, creative practice and innovation

Image: Mapping mass and void 10, 2008, oil on linen by Penelope Aitken