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Preview of World Industrial Design Day 2008
Previews
By Ania Dardas
For the industrial design world, June 29 promises to an impressive day in many cities around the globe: in Budapest, Hungary, a design fair is taking place accompanied by games and activities to support public awareness of industrial design; in Japan, the design museums at the International Design Center Nagoya and the Japan Industrial Designer’s Association will have free admission, while the Taiwan Design Center is hosting a designer round-table to look at design directions within the region. The National Institute of Design in India is celebrating its alumni day on June 29 and in Canada Tupperware is hosting a culinary designers discussion.
The reason for selecting this day and not another is that June 29 has been declared the first World Industrial Design Day (WIDD). The event is seen as an occasion to explore the development and evolution of industrial design with a particular focus on its impact on quality of life.
International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) President, Professor Carlos Hinrichsen, explained that WIDD is an “initiative to involve the design community in a unified movement to promote a better understanding of industrial design and to promote the positive effects of design on everyday life.”
This aim in this inaugural year is simply to raise awareness of World Industrial Design Day, but ICSID intends that the event should grow with each year. On June 29 in particular, designers are being encouraged to explore their creativity, innovation, vision and passion in recognition of the role that industrial designers play in society and their potential to contribute positively to the economic, social, and cultural interplay and conditions of urban life.