THE Design Center of the Philippines is planning a survey this year which will seek to quantify the design community’s contributions to the economy, a Trade department official said.
The Design Center, an arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), helps promote Philippine design, provide food packaging services for small businesses, and develop sustainable products.
Working with a UK-based partner, the Design Center’s study will help identify what constitutes the design sector’s value-added.
“There is still a general perception of design primarily from an aesthetic point of view, so what we really wanted to underline is service design,” Design Center Executive Director Rhea Matute said in an online interview.
Service design focuses on using design principles to plan systems across industries.
“That conversation will be easier to have when you have data behind you as well as successful case studies,” she said.
The design economy, she added, includes both businesses that directly provide design services and those that employ design-related work.
“Within a larger economy, for example… you employ designers to develop your collaterals to help you develop your website. So to a certain extent, they’re participants in the design economy because they employ designers. So (the study will seek to come to an) understanding of how designers contribute not just to direct design sectors but to the larger economy and the kind of value they provide,” Ms. Matute said.
The Design Center will be focusing on nine areas as case studies: Manila, Makati, Quezon City, Taguig, Cebu, Davao, Baguio, Pampanga, and Cagayan de Oro.
“(We’ll be) understanding in each of nine how design is contributing to the larger economy of the city or the province so we’re reaching out to Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao through these nine areas.”
The Design Center is in the data-collection stage and is hosting roundtable discussions, with plans to release a report by August. The final output, a so-called design map, will in turn help shape a national design policy by the fourth quarter.
The national design policy to develop the sector is being formulated by a design council that includes government and private sector representatives.
“We want… design in the country… to make us more competitive, to be able to develop businesses that are competitive not just in the country but globally and to be able to use that soft power of design to have a recognition of the country that would be more transformative,” Ms. Matute said. — Jenina P. Ibañez
