Abstract
In February 2017, the Irish Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, launched the consultation paper towards a National Design Strategy ‘Ireland – The Design Island’ produced by the Design and Craft Council of Ireland. At the launch, the Minister, Mary Mitchell O’Connor T.D., stated that the consultation paper contained “a list of issues that need to be examined, from quick wins to long-term strategic goals” for developing Ireland’s design capacity. This political commitment to design is a significant milestone on the journey towards an Irish Design Strategy. A number of other significant steps have already taken place including the Year of Irish Design 2015 and the 2016 Policy Framework for Design in Irish Enterprises. Based on 14 interviews with a range of stakeholders across the Design Ecosystem, the authors have mapped the significant milestones in the process of developing policy actions for design in Ireland. Mapping the journey towards an Irish Design Strategy might provide insight for other researchers, policy-makers and stakeholders seeking to influence design policy.
Keywords
Design Policy; Design Ecosystem; Irish Design; Innovation Policy
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2017.243
Citation
Whicher, A., and Milton, A. (2018) Journey Towards an Irish Design Strategy, in Storni, C., Leahy, K., McMahon, M., Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Design as a catalyst for change - DRS International Conference 2018, 25-28 June, Limerick, Ireland. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2017.243
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Journey Towards an Irish Design Strategy
In February 2017, the Irish Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, launched the consultation paper towards a National Design Strategy ‘Ireland – The Design Island’ produced by the Design and Craft Council of Ireland. At the launch, the Minister, Mary Mitchell O’Connor T.D., stated that the consultation paper contained “a list of issues that need to be examined, from quick wins to long-term strategic goals” for developing Ireland’s design capacity. This political commitment to design is a significant milestone on the journey towards an Irish Design Strategy. A number of other significant steps have already taken place including the Year of Irish Design 2015 and the 2016 Policy Framework for Design in Irish Enterprises. Based on 14 interviews with a range of stakeholders across the Design Ecosystem, the authors have mapped the significant milestones in the process of developing policy actions for design in Ireland. Mapping the journey towards an Irish Design Strategy might provide insight for other researchers, policy-makers and stakeholders seeking to influence design policy.