Design Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is starting to draw global attention for the innovative and inspiring work in design and what it’s doing with the design talent that its creating. Many of these initiatives are conceptualized and run by Sri Lanka’s dynamic design campus, AOD (www.aod.lk). This blog is initiated by its visionary founder Linda Speldewinde to lead a discussion on the groundbreaking design initiatives in Sri Lanka. The topics covered will range from the great work young designers are doing in this part of the world, how design education is contributing to industry and grass root level innovation for reinventing their product to suit the current global sphere and to new and unique opportunities for international design students to study design in South Asia.

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The Kind of Designer Industry is Looking for

I often speak of design and how it is becoming a secure, lucrative and prestigious career path in Sri Lanka. We have even discussed about amazing facts pertaining to this profession such as 100% employability success rate, great starting salaries and high levels of job satisfaction etc. Industries in Sri Lanka and the rest of the world are clearly, hungry for more design, because design means more innovation and novelty for their business/product. Even with such a great demand, will they hire just any designer? The answer is ‘no’. Even if there is a dire need for designers, business leaders are only looking to hire a certain type of designer with certain professional and personal traits. At the recently concluded REVEAL graduate design exhibition, I saw young designers get hired by businesses even before the end of the show for careers presenting great opportunities and I could see that they were in demand because they possessed certain attributes valued by businesses. What are these? What kind of designer is the industry looking for?

Before we tackle this question, let’s get a brief understanding of the current business context. With the current technology where you can buy anything from anywhere at the click of a button, Today’s businesses are in a globalised setting where their competition is not only limited to their neighbourhood, town or even country. Almost all businesses are competing with others from across the world. So, any brand or business aware of the movements of the world understands that they need to deliver an extra bit to capture their consumer from within thousands of other choices. What is this extra bit and how do they get it? This extra bit is ‘innovation’ or a sense of new value. Incorporating new material, techniques, packaging or exciting ways to use a product/service is how this sense of newness and added value is brought in. So, all businesses are constantly looking for innovation and value-addition to deliver that extra bit that will get them across to the consumer easily. So in a nut-shell, the businesses and industries today are extremely competitive within a global sense and are constantly striving to provide extra and new value.

So, what does this say about the kind of designer sought after by industries? Firstly, the kind of designer that businesses are looking for is internationally savvy. With the globalised nature of industries today, they are demanding for designers who are internationally savvy; designers who can sit here and cater to North America, Europe and even emerging markets like Russia, China and India. So, when educating designers for this demand, it’s crucial to have international exposure from lecturers, study tours abroad to design capitals like London, New York, Paris etc. Secondly, the kind of designer desired by industries is highly committed to innovation – this means that they need to be constantly updated on the latest on-goings, movements and technologies around the world and have a clear view of what is available for their dispense as a professional. This constant hunger to learn more and develop is a habit that needs to be instilled during the education of a designer. For example global resources like WGSN, a good, updated library resource are fundamental for good design education. To make the best of innovation, designers also need to be technologically savvy; this does not mean that they need to be slaves to technology unable think beyond it; but means that designers (or any professional for that matter) would be isolated if they do not understand what technology offers. So the kind of designer sought after by businesses is one who knows the advantages as well as the limitations of technology while combining it with hands-on work to achieve a unique outcome. So, it’s important to make new technology available to them during design education and to encourage them to harness its potential from an early stage. These are in general, the traits of a designer desired by businesses and industries.

As design educationalists, we have a huge responsibility to deliver these resources for students in order to harness valued professional traits within them. These qualities combined with generally appreciated traits such as punctuality, commitment to work, honesty, being a team player, being an ethical person etc. is what can deliver educated, industry relevant designers for Sri Lanka and a unique designer who can truly contribute something to the world.

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Sri Lanka’s Growing Design Landscape & the Opportunities it presents for Designers

Almost a decade ago, when talk of ‘design as a career’ started in Colombo, it was often referring to opportunities abroad, in countries where there was a diverse and thriving design landscape that offered many opportunities for design professionals. Sri Lanka, on the other hand did not have many opportunities for satisfactory employment or growth for designers. But, the past ten years has completely turned this situation around; today, Sri Lanka presents a fast-growing design landscape with ample opportunities for careers as well as opportunities to reach international media, business networking and clienteles. Why I’m discussing this changing design landscape is because it’s an important discussion that leads to the even more important realisation that design is one of the most advantageous careers available to youth today.

Let’s first look at education; youngsters now have access to world-class design degrees that can be completed in Sri Lanka. With recognised undergraduate qualifications being the standard for successful employment of designers anywhere in the world, this gives young students access to design currency valid worldwide. The SL design landscape today not only presents this education, but has also grown with platforms like Reveal Graduate Exhibition, which is just around the corner for its 2014 edition, to give young designers a direct opportunity to present their talent to top industry leaders, design employers, the business sector as well as the general public. I believe this kind of platforms complete the design education experience, by giving it the culminating boost to push young graduates into the corporate world as professionals.

Progressing from the education, now look at the basic opportunities available for design graduates in Sri Lanka today. All industries now recognise the importance of design and the value it brings into business. Therefore, almost all industries, from apparel, tourism, hospitality to various exports, rely on design talent capable of taking their business that extra mile. This has ensured almost 100% employment rate for designers with a world-class design education and qualification. So, when a designer graduates with a recognised degree, at the very least, they have the sure chance of getting professional work and/or employment. With starting salaries approximately being 35,000 and above, every design graduate now has the chance to lead a stable career with dignity and financial security. This is a major development that took place in the past decade, establishing design as a full-time career pathway and on its way into the top career choice-set in the island.

In addition to employment, Sri Lanka’s design landscape has now grown to include a favourable conditions for the establishment and growth of businesses led by designers; Design Entrepreneurs are now at a special advantage to set-up and lead their own business. With prestigious investment initiatives like ‘Venture Engine’ by the Lanka Angels’ Network openly advocating design entrepreneurship through funding and business support, along with initiatives like AOD’s ‘Centre for Creative Enterprise’ providing the essential business mentoring and initial office space, design entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka have access to a very strong support infrastructure to begin their dream business.

Taking a step further from education, employment and entrepreneurship, let’s look at opportunities there in Sri Lanka to take designers and design entrepreneurs to the next level. The annually held Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF) is a major event that gives an essential platform for selected Sri Lankan designers to reach international audiences, retailers and buyers. This has helped our designers to access new opportunities to start business outside Sri Lanka etc. Meanwhile, SLDF has also grown to become a showground that portrays Sri Lanka’s unique design sense incorporating sustainability, craft heritage and technology, to the rest of the world through the international media and spokespeople attending the event every year. With the international design consumer beginning to learn about the unique design coming from Sri Lanka and the growing design talent in the island through platforms like SLDF, the local design landscape continues to grow by leaps and bounds creating a thriving environment for those who pursue design as a career. 

What does this all mean? Sri Lanka is no longer a restricted shell for those who want to pursue design. The days when ‘design’ was cast aside as a career with no opportunities, are clearly over. Today, there is an entire foundation put in place to provide global opportunities for designers from the onset of their education, employment and even beyond that. Sri Lanka is now home to a fast-growing design landscape that has made ‘design’ into an extremely secure and sure career path for youngsters. In fact, you will be able to witness a part of this growing design landscape yourself, this coming week at the ‘Reveal Graduate Design Exhibition’. It’s truly a new world out there for designers.

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The Growing Potential of Fashion Careers in Sri Lanka

When we speak about fashion, most people imagine a catwalk, extravagant outfits, models and sometimes even hairstyling and beauty culture; as someone actively engaged in the fashion sector here in SL, I can say that the reality of fashion today is completely different to that. Fashion has evolved far beyond seamstresses making clothes for the wealthy; today it stands for the choices we make and the roles we play professionally, socially and personally. Because of this critical need for all humans, fashion has risen to become one of the most powerful industries in the world. In Sri Lanka too, it is a multi-billion dollar industry that brings in the country’s largest export revenue through apparel manufacturing and contributing nearly 10% to the national GDP by producing some of the top fashion brands in the world. It is also the single largest employer empowering over 1 million Sri Lankans with secure jobs. People who work in fashion are the force driving this massive industry; they are highly educated and qualified professionals whose careers are not only stable and financially lucrative, but also have fantastic opportunities to work with international brands and travel abroad. Sounds like a fantastic line of work right? It is really one of the most rewarding career sectors of today presenting remarkable growth opportunities for youngsters. So, let’s look closely at this powerful sector and identify the potential of the many different career paths in it.

Being a designer is obviously one of the most visible roles in the fashion industry. However, despite popular media selecting amateur designers through reality shows and fashion competitions etc. being eligible for a career as a designer in fashion is not easy. It is a very serious role that requires proper education, training and skill to research, analyse and design to markets outside Sri Lanka in order to be employable by industries like apparel where fantastic careers await. I have observed young designers getting the opportunity to design for world renowned brands like Victoria’s Secret, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Gap etc. through careers in the apparel industry. Here, a fantastic sector that designers get to specialize in, is sports and performance wear - a very technology driven sector with specialized fabrics, bonding techniques and always looking to bring in the most up-to-date research on fashion technology that assures better performance and speed. This involves designing for brands like Nike, Reebok, Speedo etc. which you may be surprised to know are designed and made in Sri Lanka quite often for Olympics and other occasions for international sports personalities . Similarly there are sectors like casualwear, lingerie design, resort and swimwear.

Outside the fashion and apparel industries, designers also have a very exciting possibility to become fashion entrepreneurs leading their own businesses; there are several great examples of educated designers leading their own successful fashion labels such as Buddhi Batiks, House of Lonali and Nithya and truly living their dream. 

An emerging fashion career with great demand from Sri Lanka’s massive apparel industry and fashion retail sector is Fashion Marketing. This is a career where design and business intersect. It is the work of Fashion Marketing professionals that you see on fashion billboards and magazine covers; basically, they promote fashion using photography, advertising, social media, shows, visual merchandizing, retail design and campaigns etc. It is a very challenging career which demands spearheading marketing strategy and promotions for some of the most valuable brands in the world.

You have probably heard of Fashion Merchandising as it is one of the most popular fashion careers coming through our apparel industry. Merchandisers track and monitor fashion trends and consumer trends and work with designers/product developers to create new fashion collections and products. It is a well-established career path where can make really decent money and get first-hand knowledge of a multitude of brands and their marketing strategies etc.

There are several more fashion career paths that hold great potential in Sri Lanka although currently, they are new and limited to a few experts. One of these is Costume design for Theatre, Film & Video Productions. Costuming is vital to the film and theatre industries and several fashion graduates have contributed to this sector creating garments for movies or theatre and working on-location. A similar sector is ‘Fashion Styling and Production’ which includes styling to meet certain looks and themes based on extensive research and trend analyses, for shows, TV, movies as well as retail. Similarly, a very independent and new sector developing in fashion is fashion journalism and public relations – this means researching, writing and curating journalistic pieces for fashion publications around the world such as magazines, blogs, webzines, books, presentations and collectibles.

All these remarkable careers today demand for designers who have a global perspective on design; a designer who can sit here and cater to North America, Europe and even emerging markets like Russia, China and India. This kind of fashion professional is only created through a fashion education that brings in international exposure from lecturers, study tours abroad to fashion capitals like New York and London along with the latest study resources which allows them to think globally. The good news is that, this kind of education is available today in Sri Lanka for our youth. It presents them the possibility to become global fashion citizens and grants them access to all the amazing career opportunities that I mentioned for qualified fashion professionals.  Fashion is no longer considered a hobby or a superficial job as it is recognised as the newest value addition for Sri Lanka’s powerful apparel sector and also provides valuable services such as uniform design to large-scale industries like tourism, hospitality, banking etc. So it is undeniably one of the most fantastic sectors that provide a vast number of stable, financially lucrative and rewarding career paths for our youth. 

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Potential of Graphic Design as a Future Career in Sri Lanka

Over the last decade of my role in building Sri Lanka’s design education, I have watched students graduate as graphic designers. I have followed their careers as they got promoted, started their own businesses, won awards and seen the potential of graphic design grow, while a real shortage for qualified graphic designers also developed. This shortage is due to the big gap between the number of professional graphic designers being produced and the number of designers the country currently needs. This shortage is also increased due to the lack of understanding what graphic design means, and confusing professional graphic designers with people just playing around with Photoshop/layouts which leads to businesses hiring unqualified people to do serious graphic design work and having their needs unresolved. On the other hand, while other design sectors such as fashion design and interior design attract more youngsters, there are comparatively less students choosing graphic design even among those who choose design, so there are less graduating as professional graphic designers. This again, is because the potential of graphic design and the amazing role you can play as a graphic designer contributing both socially and in business is unknown. So, within this context where there is a lot to be understood about graphic design, let’s first understand its role in business and why it is in such demand.

 Today, most Sri Lankan businesses need to compete globally and to do that, design becomes an absolute imperative. So, from having a brand’s corporate brand identity with a well-designed look, a memorable logo and a clear individuality, designing a powerful advertising campaign to reach the market to having impressive packaging that will appeal to international customers, design becomes essential. Whether it is a tea company exporting to Europe, clothing companies shipping to the US or a cosmetics company catering to clients in SL and abroad, design solutions are needed by all to stand out among competitors and reach the consumer. The profession that provides all these design solutions for every kind of business out there, is graphic design. So you can now begin to imagine how much demand is out there for graphic design and what a useful sector it is for businesses across the board; this paired with the previously mentioned shortage for qualified graphic designers, it is a sector that guarantees stable employment with attractive remunerations.

Despite all this, many still don’t understand what it really means; Graphic design does NOT mean some mouse-clicking, doing some Photoshop or playing around with a computer; it is really is about communicating through visuals. Graphic designers are the professionals who create visual identities for brands by designing logos, colours and letters that will suit the brand. E.g. Every time you see the Coca-Cola logo, letters or sometimes even the just colours, you identify that brand. This is because a professional graphic designer designed it that way. So every time a new brand comes about, a new hotel/restaurant opens up or a new product is launched, graphic designers are employed to design logos and brand identities. This means graphic designers are needed to think of colour psychology, what different shapes mean, what different target markets like and so on; it’s an area that requires a lot of knowledge, research and experimenting. As a whole, it is a very exciting sector with very rewarding careers for qualified designers.

Graphic designers are also hired by businesses to design packaging for products; they decide the colours and the materials that go with it, easy and interesting ways to open the package, interactive ways to give information about the product and so on. Packaging design is a very serious sector of graphic design that plays such a huge part in the product sales and the revenue of a company. Packaging design done by a professional graphic designer is valued by businesses and leads to highly financially lucrative work-projects for graphic designers.

Another exciting possibility for graphic designers is editorial design. This means designing magazine covers, layouts, webzines and newspapers, Book design for publishing houses etc. This too is a highly rewarding line of work for graphic designers where they get to design written content and work with exciting clients such as writers, magazine editors etc. In addition to this, there are many more areas that bring about new jobs for graphic designers. One of them is Typography where graphic designers are employed to design custom fonts for books, logos or even companies like Google that invest of collections of interesting font styles from different languages. For example, the unique shape of SriLankan Airlines’ logo letters was designed by a graphic designer. There are also areas like illustration and image-making that is used for posters of concerts, theatre, cinema and even media like children’s books, magazines and collectible posters.

So, what kind of education and qualifications are needed to get into a graphic design career? Today the accepted qualification for a graphic designer is an undergraduate degree meeting global standards. Currently, there is a 100% employability rate for graphic designers with this kind of education.

I think now, we all can see how graphic design is among the most exciting career choices for youth. Because of the high demand that graphic designers have, it is also a very stable and financially rewarding sector. As the competition within business increase over the next years, the demand for educated, qualified graphic designers will only increase more, creating more jobs and more opportunities for youth prepared to embrace this future. In this light, I think it’s very important for us to create this awareness on graphic design so that we all understand what this extremely important career means, and are able to seize the opportunities that it brings about

Today, most Sri Lankan businesses need to compete globally and to do that, design becomes an absolute imperative. So, from having a brand’s corporate brand identity with a well-designed look, a memorable logo and a clear individuality, designing a powerful advertising campaign to reach the market to having impressive packaging that will appeal to international customers, design becomes essential. Whether it is a tea company exporting to Europe, clothing companies shipping to the US or a cosmetics company catering to clients in SL and abroad, design solutions are needed by all to stand out among competitors and reach the consumer. The profession that provides all these design solutions for every kind of business out there, is graphic design. So you can now begin to imagine how much demand is out there for graphic design and what a useful sector it is for businesses across the board; this paired with the previously mentioned shortage for qualified graphic designers, it is a sector that guarantees stable employment with attractive remunerations.

Despite all this, many still don’t understand what it really means; Graphic design does NOT mean some mouse-clicking, doing some Photoshop or playing around with a computer; it is really is about communicating through visuals. Graphic designers are the professionals who create visual identities for brands by designing logos, colours and letters that will suit the brand. E.g. Every time you see the Coca-Cola logo, letters or sometimes even the just colours, you identify that brand. This is because a professional graphic designer designed it that way. So every time a new brand comes about, a new hotel/restaurant opens up or a new product is launched, graphic designers are employed to design logos and brand identities. This means graphic designers are needed to think of colour psychology, what different shapes mean, what different target markets like and so on; it’s an area that requires a lot of knowledge, research and experimenting. As a whole, it is a very exciting sector with very rewarding careers for qualified designers.

 Graphic designers are also hired by businesses to design packaging for products; they decide the colours and the materials that go with it, easy and interesting ways to open the package, interactive ways to give information about the product and so on. Packaging design is a very serious sector of graphic design that plays such a huge part in the product sales and the revenue of a company. Packaging design done by a professional graphic designer is valued by businesses and leads to highly financially lucrative work-projects for graphic designers.

 Another exciting possibility for graphic designers is editorial design. This means designing magazine covers, layouts, webzines and newspapers, Book design for publishing houses etc. This too is a highly rewarding line of work for graphic designers where they get to design written content and work with exciting clients such as writers, magazine editors etc. In addition to this, there are many more areas that bring about new jobs for graphic designers. One of them is Typography where graphic designers are employed to design custom fonts for books, logos or even companies like Google that invest of collections of interesting font styles from different languages. For example, the unique shape of SriLankan Airlines’ logo letters was designed by a graphic designer. There are also areas like illustration and image-making that is used for posters of concerts, theatre, cinema and even media like children’s books, magazines and collectible posters.

 So, what kind of education and qualifications are needed to get into a graphic design career? Today the accepted qualification for a graphic designer is an undergraduate degree meeting global standards. Currently, there is a 100% employability rate for graphic designers with this kind of education.

I think now, we all can see how graphic design is among the most exciting career choices for youth. Because of the high demand that graphic designers have, it is also a very stable and financially rewarding sector. As the competition within business increase over the next years, the demand for educated, qualified graphic designers will only increase more, creating more jobs and more opportunities for youth prepared to embrace this future. In this light, I think it’s very important for us to create this awareness on graphic design so that we all understand what this extremely important career means, and are able to seize the opportunities that it brings about

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Motion Graphics & Animation Design; a New Commercial Dimension in Sri Lanka

AOD's Head of Motion Graphics & Animation at work  What is your favourite animated movie? 'Finding Nemo' or 'Frozen'? You may have noticed that we see animated movies more often now. Most modern movies like Avatar and Transformers now integrate animation. Every major award ceremony from Oscars to the Emmys has an award for animated films/TV series. Have you noticed how many brands use animated characters? From Louie the fly who comes in Mortein advertisements to the McDonalds’ Ronald the clown are all animated characters used in promotion, and have helped to cement brand messages with the public- especially the younger audiences. Similarly, have you noticed how more TV channel intros, news segment intros and even public announcements are now animated? All this points to one fact – entertainment and promotion industries are no longer dominated only by still pictures and traditional film. We’re now entering the future of motion graphics and animation. What are the new opportunities here and what does it mean for Sri Lankan youth?

Before discussing its importance or opportunities, let’s check what motion graphics/animation design stands for. The basic concept of motion graphics isn’t all that new; even movies as old as the original King Kong had basic moving graphics. Today we see it in TV ads or in movies where an illustrated character comes to life in such a real way, that it’s hard to distinguish from reality. Very simply put, motion graphics/animations are moving pictures or shapes, designed to communicate a message; motion graphic designers or animators are the professionals trained to create these. If you stick around for the credits on an animated movie, you will see all the motion graphic designers’ names listed. So what can motion graphics and animation designers do? Is it just movies and TV ads?

  With motion graphics being an excellent communication medium for all sectors, correctly educated designers have a vast number of careers to choose from. In addition to careers in entertainment industry and advertising, other highly lucrative and rewarding career options include game designer, Animation director, Rotoscope Artist, Character Designer, 4D and after-effects artist, 3D sculptor, Interactive Experiential Designer and Broadcast motion graphic artist. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Now you might wonder how and what qualifies a designer for these truly rewarding careers.

  The most critical qualification would be degree standard education that covers industry demands and is internationally relevant. A comprehensive education in motion graphics/animation combines elements of creativity, basic math and technology. Developing the student’s ability to design a story in a visually appealing, interesting way are at the core of this education while software tools will be introduced as aids for the design process. It is an exciting learning process that takes a student from exercises as simple as hand drawing to those as complex as 3D animation and sound design. Currently, undergraduate education in this is available in Sri Lanka which is a valuable opportunity for aspiring animation designers.

  So, is there really a future for motion graphics and animation in Sri Lanka? Yes. Already in Sri Lanka, studios like ‘We Are Designers’ and ‘Dawn Patrol Games’ that offer motion graphics and animation design have become extremely successful. However, there is still an enormous market demand for fresh animation design talent. With starting salaries ranging from 35 to 40,000 upwards, it is among the best career paths where you can establish a niche specialization in application design, game design or advertising etc. Currently one of the biggest animation demands in Sri Lanka are for App. designing with characters or those that are more user experience design focused for retail, tourism, brands, transportation, online selling etc., There is also a growing demand for game design with product and ad placements in the game. The demand for TV and online adverts for is always present and steadily growing. But this demand for motion graphics and animation designers is not only local. Even international markets, that are now open to hiring distant design talent, pose a great demand for educated and talented designers from Sri Lanka with quality work at competitive prices.

  As cinema, TV, interactive design and advertising shift more and more towards the digital, motion graphics and animation arguably provides one of 21st century’s most effective and competitive media for marketing. With this mega sector presenting a vast number of stable, financially lucrative and extremely prestigious careers for our youth, it not only becomes a great employment creator for Sri Lanka, but poses outstanding potential to export local design talent and build a futuristic service sector in our country. The business sector, educators, parents and youth – you all need to be on board to embrace this future. 

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Design Thinkers for Business Success

Could 'Design thinking' be useful for businesses? – Can a design thinker become anything else but a designer? Perhaps a corporate CEO? An entrepreneur leading their own brand? A business manager? The answer is, ABSOLUTELY. ‘Design thinking' is no longer limited to designers and design thinkers are no longer limited to design studios. ‘Design thinking’ is now recognized as one of the most powerful skills that transforms ordinary businesses into great success stories. Companies like Apple, Air BnB and Google are examples of companies that are not 'design' companies but have record-breaking, worldwide success due to being led by design thinkers. ‘Design thinking’ is in such demand now, that reputed universities like Harvard and Stanford are now offering special courses to help business professionals become design thinkers. This week at AOD in Colombo, I saw the first group of ‘design camp’ students completing their design immersion programme that introduced them to design thinking and creative problem solving. Although these youngsters are creative and love design, they are not necessarily looking to become designers in a traditional sense; their future paths are now readjusted so that they can begin to look at important roles as business managers, CEO’s, founders of their own businesses and lead to success through design thinking. I see this as a great beginning for design thinking led commercial successes for Sri Lanka. So what is this ever-important ‘design thinking’? How is it so powerful? And what can design thinkers achieve in today’s world?

  Let’s first understand what design thinking means. Recently the Forbes magazine compared our traditional approach to ‘making business’, to that integrated with design thinking; usually businesses come up with an idea and then try to figure out how to sell it. However, with design thinking integrated business, you first analyse people, identify a true demand and a prevalent need among them and then, find a product/service giving a solution for that. This reverse method where, instead of trying to forcefully create a demand, businesses provide an interesting and creative solution for an authentic need, is ‘design thinking’ in a nutshell. It not only makes selling easier and more organic, but clients remember the brand better because they have really experienced it as a unique solution to a personal need.

Coming back to the design thinking process that I summed up earlier, we need to also understand that it is not that easy to find a unique, creative solution to a problem. This process involves several stages such as extensive research, defining the problem, forming a point-of-view about it, coming up with creative solutions, testing these out, discarding what doesn’t work and starting over or improving the ideas that work and so on. This process is what designers/design thinkers are taught during their education, and trained to perfect over the years.

  So after these design thinkers have perfected their creative thinking process, do they only become designers? Yesterday, yes, design thinkers were restricted to becoming designers and to design studios. But today and even more tomorrow, design thinkers’ job titles no longer need to carry the word ‘designer’. Design thinkers are now holding positions like CEO, Vice president, Design Manager, Head of Experience design etc. A few famous examples would be Sir Jonathan Ive- the senior vice president of Apple with a net worth of 130 million US$, Tim Brown CEO of IDEO and known as a champion of design thinkers, Margaret Stewart director of product design at Facebook and Melody Roberts Senior director of experience design innovation at McDonald’s Worldwide. What all these highly valued professionals have in common is the ‘design thinking’ mind-set that can produce better results in business. Looking at all these successes internationally, let’s look at how this becomes relevant to Sri Lanka.

Today, with the world getting smaller, our export markets and local businesses are facing intense competition from international companies and large multinationals. This is not because their products/services are any lesser, but simply because they haven’t relooked at the way they deliver to the changing needs of the markets. This is where design thinkers can deliver much for the country. As professionals trained to analyse clienteles, anticipate their needs and trends followed, design thinkers can direct businesses in the direction of the real demand and create great successes. This great future needs the support of both business and our youth. Businesses now recognize the importance of designers and I think a future shift to trust design thinkers’ decisions and innovation capability outside the design studios and within the boardrooms and decision-making power chairs, will help businesses go that extra mile. Similarly, the youth also need to start recognising the myriad opportunities that design thinkers have outside their ‘strictly design’ roles and step into design careers with bigger and brighter ambitions. If we can generate this well-needed confidence in design thinking and make good use of the growing set of design thinkers in Sri Lanka, it will indeed make a remarkable future for Sri Lankan business.

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The Potential for Interior Design in Sri Lanka

AOD's Island Craft products featured at Reefs Edge Hotel

Try to remember the most impressive room that you have been in- you might recall how there were many details that made it into the striking space that it was; all these things from the clever manipulation of space, lighting, ergonomics to the furniture were decided by a person- this person is an interior designer/interior architect. Interior designers shape our built world by managing the space that it is made of, and deciding how these spaces can best serve our daily purposes as offices, personal residences, public areas, recreation spaces and so on. Now, I think you can begin to realise how often we need interior designers and how serious their role is.

With the ongoing building boom promising to only expand further in the coming years, Sri Lanka has a real need for interior designers. In the next 20 years, the space needing to be designed in Sri Lanka will be more than one hundred million sq. meters. So, as a new industry with only a few hundred true professionals, the capacity to find your own professional niche in interior design and succeed, is enormous; let’s look closer at this fantastic opportunity and the many career possibilities in interior design.

To simplify this discussion on many possibilities within a vast sector, let’s observe it as two main categories– residential and commercial. While residential interior designers are behind creating personal living spaces, the commercial interior experts are responsible for answering the spatial design needs of all businesses, and it is here that we see the most opportunities today.

When we consider commercial interior design, ‘general office design’ is among the most frequent demands. In addition to this, there is a growing demand for designers to create functional and creative spaces for government institutions, banks, retail boutiques and service centers. There are also spaces like educational, religious and healthcare facilities that have very special requirements and therefore need the services of designers with correct education and training.

Another major focus area in commercial interior design is the tourism and hospitality industry which is estimated for record growth in the next 5-10 years. Over 150 newly approved hotel projects require rooms, restaurants, common facilities like gymnasiums, swimming pools and lounges designed. This offers many prospects for interior designers to take on big projects or even set-up specialized practices as hospitality interior designers. These specialized hospitality interior designers require more than just an imaginative mind; while thoughtful use of materials, knowing building codes are important, what is fundamental is the ability to understand the thinking of a foreign visitor and inspiring them with a truly Sri Lankan interior in sync with global design trends.

Another growing sub-sector in interior design is commercial set design where interior designers get exciting opportunities to design trade shows, film sets, fashion shows, conventions, public exhibitions to concerts and ceremonies. This requires a sound knowledge on spatial planning, special effects, lighting, sound management within space and many more stimulating areas.

There are many more interior design sub-sectors; a designer with the correct education has a wealth of knowledge that they can apply to excelling in any of these specializations. From visual merchandising for commercial spaces to designing recreational areas like cafés, pubs, restaurants, health clubs and spas, etc. as well as very new demands like ‘spatial branding’ (where interior designers help brands to use a space to convey their messages), provide ample opportunities for interior designers in today’s Sri Lanka.

In addition to meeting these local needs, Sri Lankan interior design is swiftly becoming an export industry. As the world becomes smaller, clients become more concerned about talent than the location. Now we have many young professionals cater to international clients through the internet or in partnership with foreign firms, earning comfortable foreign incomes.

To seize all these opportunities at home and abroad, interior designers have the option of joining the existing industry or starting on their own design studios. Designers now hold top positions in reputed interior/furniture companies like Alpha, Westgate, Leema, DDN that cater to clients in Colombo as well as those in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore. Meanwhile, flourishing new interior studios like Canvas, a-design studio, Chameleon Eyi are all led by qualified interior designers managing projects in many areas while sometimes earning a reputation for one specialized area. Both these options are now unfolding successful careers for interior designers.

Many people still believe that interior design is ‘decorating rooms’. But now, looking at the immense importance it holds across all industries and the many rewarding career opportunities prevalent for interior designers in Sri Lanka, we need to give the respect and recognition that this sector deserves as a critical science that affects every aspect of our professional & personal lives. The celebrated interior designers of tomorrow are only starting today- now is the time for our youngsters to join this burgeoning, rewarding sector and become part of shaping the look of this country for years to come.

[designsrilanka]

Sri Lankan Graphic Design Goes Global

                        Sri Lanka’s graphic design sector has had record development within the last few years. From being commonly misconstrued as computer software knowledge and printing, SL graphic design is now becoming increasingly important to many industries as the creative and strategic solution provider for packaging, book design, logo design, branding, campaign design and many more growing demands. Providing a memorable premier for Sri Lankan graphic design in the global design capital London at the annual Alchemy Festival, a selection of local graphic design was showcased including an impressive series of typographic research and design.

This marked one of the occasions where ‘design’ was used as a medium to portray a cross section of Sri Lanka, its issues and more importantly the creative solutions coming about to resolve them. For example, a complete set of Sinhala glyphs designed for digital use portrayed the increasing computer literacy in Sri Lanka and how more people seeking to see their native language on screen. Another example of the work featured is the hybrid alphabet that brings together Sinhala and Tamil language and creates an alphabet legible to both Sinhalese and Tamil nationals. This project attempted to provide a typographic solution to racial harmony by prompting people to focus on similarities opposed to differences.

As you can see, these projects provide honest and interesting insights into the developments of the Sri Lankan society as well as the young generation that is keen to look beyond differences. It was a refreshing portrayal of Sri Lanka to have local graphic design initiating a global dialogue and especially, a dialogue that provided an interesting and hopeful insight into Sri Lankan society.

For the local graphic design sector, this international recognition triggers a worldwide reputation that contributes to Sri Lanka’s image as a regional creative hub by crossing borders and starting an international dialogue. The presence of Sri Lankan graphic design in London is part of the beginnings of a growing interest on interesting, socially relevant design originating from Sri Lanka. Parallel to Sri Lanka being invited to take part in Alchemy by the British Council, 2014 also saw several other achievements in design like Sri Lanka’s first campus entry at Graduate Fashion Week UK, and the country’s first ISTD winner. All this, marks a wave of recognition for new Sri Lankan design and also the transformation of design into a rewarding career path with global opportunities for young, educated designers. As the world is getting smaller, opportunities are growing larger. The future will be driven by sectors like design that can adapt to meet the needs of a more interconnected world. This is why it is one of the crucial careers we need to prepare our children for.

[designsrilanka]

Design Entrepreneurs Get Funded to Set-up their own Businesses

This week was an exciting week for design. While many businesses from hospitality to product oriented entered for a spot at the coveted ‘Venture Engine’ programme that funds entrepreneurs to start their own businesses, two designers’ businesses made it among the ten final selection, Chethya- leading a beautifully designed range promoting the country’s endemic identity and Ruwandhi- taking a kids clothing brand to a new level. This is sending out an important message to us all; this is that the industry is recognizing the power of design and are willing to invest on it. 

Why is that? Venture Engine programme that only selects a handful out of hundreds of applications, have already funded 3 design led businesses and this year ‘Design’ was one of the 8 categories under which Venture Engine selected its entrepreneurs. Ten years ago, business leaders didn’t even consider design as something they needed to pay attention to; today they are encouraging it as a specific sector that they are keen to develop, support and fund. How did this change come about? ‘Design’ fuels value addition in industry; whether it is product design, packaging, corporate branding, apparel or interior design, it is one of today’s most in-demand skills. Because the industry recognizes its value today as an employable skill that can also fulfill many needs in the country, it is now paving the way to design entrepreneurship and the creation of new design-led products and businesses. Prajeeth Balasubramanium, the managing director and co-founder of Venture Engine mentioned that Design is in fact a sector they foresee developing rapidly in the near future, providing stable jobs and revenue for many and benefiting almost every other industry by providing a unique, creative value addition.

Let’s understand this better and see how the fluid, creative process of ‘design’ converts to very real, structured businesses. Design entrepreneurs are business professionals who are essentially designers. Although designers may be commonly thought of as creatives who have nothing to do with business, they are especially suited to form their own businesses because they already have with them, the built-in business edge of design value addition, which we already explained as vital for a today’s business.  So, a designer starting out his/her own business already has a unique value pushed by design, that they can easily bring in to a product or service. This, compared to an average product of the same caliber, will generate more demand and income.

The principals, process and the structure of a design entrepreneur’s businesses are similar to that of any traditional businesses. The entrepreneurs themselves are like any other business leader, required of certain skills needed to drive a business. Therefore these businesses led by design entrepreneurs have the same legal, financial structures, boards of directors, profit margins etc. They are very real, and very competitive businesses that possess an extra edge. They have great potential to succeed and this promising ‘design entrepreneurship’ is what key investors and business experts are keen to recognize, support and fund.

Design is a sector that has many unfulfilled needs and unclaimed opportunities that talented designers with the correct, formal education and talent can seize; this is why we are so keen to promote it to youngsters as a career path. Today, with programmes like venture engine, there are more and more opportunities for young design entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity and commence their own businesses with fantastic incomes leading to respected and stable careers. This is a great turn for Sri Lanka, and we must applaud the business leaders and investing experts with Venture Engine for taking the initiative to promote upcoming sectors like design that can deliver a lot for the individual and the nation.

[designsrilanka]

Sri Lanka’s place in the World of Design

We have discussed the growth of Sri Lankan design and how the new, young design talent is playing a significant role in taking it to the global community. Taking a step further along the same discussion, this week I hope to bring into your attention, the importance of finding Sri Lanka’s creative niche within the international context, that is to say our place in the world of design, and how we’re already doing this.

First, let’s understand what ‘Sri Lanka’s creative niche’ means. The creative niche, whether it is of a country, an individual designer or a company, means the creative scope that is optimally suited for that entity. What is optimally suited can be decided by looking at the available resources and knowledge. For example, if a particular designer has resources like extensive connections with tea factories and brands, is educated in graphics and packaging design, he or she can easily create niche for themselves as a tea packaging designer and make a name for it through constant engagement and increasing experience. The same way, Sri Lanka’s creative niche can be determined by looking at our available resources, knowledge base and then we can, as a nation, work towards establishing ourselves within this niche.

What is Sri Lanka’s creative niche? Let’s look at our resources for this. Among our most unique resources are our heritage and natural resources. Our heritage provides us with ample crafts and traditional production techniques that are not found anywhere else in the world. Similarly, our natural resources provide us with an array of raw materials, textures, colours and even inspiration that are more or less unique to this island. Secondly, let’s consider our knowledge base – this is where design education steps in. As international standard design education becomes available to local design aspirants, our human resource equipped with the creative language to speak to the rest of the world increases. At the same time, by streamlining creative education with the movement of our major industries like apparel, tourism and hospitality to strengthen their ethos and niches like sustainability, community engagement etc. we start building our creative niche knowledge base along paths in which we’re already rich in.

So combining these resources, where do we stand? Sri Lanka is currently (sometimes knowingly and at other times unknowingly) establishing its unique creative niche in the world. The beginning of this comes by presenting our niche creativity in global platforms –this is how we start creating a demand for the unique creativity that we can produce only from Sri Lanka. For example when the first campus entry from SL got selected to Graduate Fashion Week UK this year, it was a combination of the niche resources from Sri Lanka; high-tech apparel technology from Sri Lanka and local Batik craft inspired prints. It was an instant hit and was even selected among the top accessories at the show; here we see the beginning of appreciation for the specific creative niche which will soon turn into a ‘demand’ provided with the necessary promotions and availability. Similarly, when I attended the Copenhagen Fashion Summit in April this year, I realised that Sri Lanka was already well-known in this massive global forum for ethical fashion and eco design. Considering this is the world’s largest forum for sustainable fashion attended by the biggest personalities on the topic, doesn’t that speak for Sri Lanka developing its own creative niche?

Why do we need a creative niche? Let’s look at another example. Ceylon tea is one of our biggest foreign income earners. But did we have it 400 years ago? It was only when British planters discovered that Ceylon had ideal conditions for growing premium tea that Sri Lanka’s biggest export of the time was born. We all know how much this benefitted us all for centuries. Similarly, we have now identified that SL is capable of catering to a growing global demand in design; ethical, unique, handcrafted or combining low-tech and high-tech industries…these are all unique selling points that Sri Lanka can truly provide. With the correct promotion, exposure and access to global markets, ‘Sri Lankan design’ will convert to one of our biggest exports earning billions of dollars in income for the country. With the resources we have and looking at what we have achieved in the past decade in design, we’re looking at this dream becoming a reality in the next fifty years.

[designsrilanka]

Creating Design Ambassadors for SL

Every country in this world has an identity – we discussed how influential this is in ‘nation branding’ and how it affects us all. Today I hope to discuss the importance of creating design ambassadors from Sri Lanka, the process behind this and how it will benefit the local creative community and the entire country.

Who is a Sri Lankan design ambassador? A Sri Lankan design ambassador is essentially a creative professional who stands as a benchmark for the quality of SL design, to the rest of the world. I’m sure you understand how serious this is –it is basically a person who represents the quality of creative outcomes from an entire nation – the same way an iconic singer will speak for the musical talent of a nation, an iconic designer has the capability to stand for design from his/her country and elevate this important profile across the world.

So how do we create design ambassadors? This is a two-way process. First our designers need to get first-hand experience of the global design culture. This cannot wait until they’re professionals-this is a process that needs to begin while they’re young students. This means their curriculum should include opportunities to go on study tours to world design capitals where they can see a clear design identity, meet influential designers and expand their horizons. This is how we start cultivating a designer whose vision already includes the best the world has to offer so that it becomes a starting point to keep going further. Secondly, they need to be trained to make the best of the unique aspects from their home country. We have discussed this in detail when we spoke about how a local designer can have inimitable value when he/she is ‘locally rooted yet globally relevant’; i.e.- providing something of global standards, but with a unique local edge.

How do we present our ambassadors? As a professional in the design education sector, I understand the responsibility we have to not only create design ambassadors, but also to make sure their good work is seen by the world. Just last week, a young Sri Lankan fashion designer represented a SL campus on the prestigious Graduate Fashion Week in London for the first time. This year, a graphic designer won the first-ever global ISTD award for our country; ISTD in fact remarked that this is the first time they’re seeing SL design talent and they’re extremely impressed by it. Recently, we sent another graphic design graduate to represent SL at a prestigious typographic conference in India and he received a standing ovation. Last year, the first ever SL delegation was invited for the iconic London Fashion Week…This is how we present our design ambassadors to the world. As you can see from the incidents I mentioned above, we’re seeing a great start to establishing our design identity through young, fresh and talented designers produced through good design education.

How does this all benefit our country? Design, as I’ve mentioned many times over, is a power-industry of the future. While we’re now established as a good manufacturing nation with excellent products from apparel, tea to cinnamon the future lies in enhancing the value of these products. Whether it’s through sustainable design, packaging or successful branding design, the key to this value-addition is ‘design’. The benefits of this will not only reach the designer but our entire community through our supply chain.

[designsrilanka]

Designer & the Design Integrity

In our continuing conversation on design, I have discussed its many facets and roles. We have also discussed about creating good, responsible designers through correct education and how this will benefit the greater world. How do ‘good designers’ act? What are the professional practices in the seemingly fluid, creative sector? What is the designers’ code of conduct or ‘design integrity’?

The designers’ code of conduct is a lengthy one that slightly changes from one organization to another according to their values. What I will be discussing today are three fundamental factors to design professional and thereby an indispensable part of design education.

Original work and Authorship are two things we train designers to value at a very early stage of their education. Design is an original piece of work and even when it is ‘derived’ from the work or ideas of another it is absolutely necessary to credit the source. E.g. In South and certain East Asian countries people tend to regard copyright laws more loosely than elsewhere in the world – this has created a culture where people freely use others’ work and ideas for their own commercial benefit. Not only that this is dishonest, but also dangerous to creative industries as a whole as. This is because it can eventually lead to a generation of inactive creative minds that are only used to ‘copying’ or ‘remixing’. Good Design Education is what can fix this by helping youngsters understand the importance of protecting their creative rights and their responsibility in return to respect the creative properties of others. As Sri Lanka progresses with its growing design industry, having a generation of designers who respect Intellectual property rights will help us set ourselves apart from other regional markets like China that has sadly neglected this aspect.

Accountability is also a crucial professional trait of a designer. Designers need to be responsible to deliver creative, punctual, economical and practical solutions and they need to be accountable for these solutions.  Honest handling of fees and payments is also an important factor we train designers in; this means a professional designer does not hide back any taxes, hidden mark-ups, commissions from clients and does not accept allowances or payments in kind from contractors or suppliers. Being transparent in this aspect is a mark of a highly professional designer. Like intellectual property, transparency in money is also a practice that is rare in the South Asian region and I’m proud to say we’re building a design industry in Sri Lanka that will set us apart from India and other nations around us.

Social responsibility is a professional trait that is highly valued in a designer. Social responsibility means having concern for the communities around us; so, in design this includes being diplomatic and sensitive when tackling humane, cultural and religious topics, being careful to avoid depicting or stereotyping people in a negative or dehumanizing ways as well as aspects like careful regard of health and safety, the effect your work has on the environmental, how it impacts children and society etc. Again, these considerate natures are only brought out and encouraged in young designers through the correct design education that allows them to work from humble artisan villages as well as high-tech factories, understand sustainable design and drawing attention to social issues that they need to address through their creativity. These things automatically make designers into sensitive, caring creative professionals who can do great good for the world.

As you can see, the design integrity is a diverse and broad topic; however, it is extremely important and something we need to be aware of.  Why is it so important? It is important for both the design industry and the greater world. For the design industry, its importance lies in raising the professionalism of the sector and highlighting it as a serious, systematic business as it establishes itself as a power industry that fuels SL economy. It is crucial for the rest of the world because it is this general understanding of how a designer should serve his/her community that contributes to building a wholesome, beneficial design sector built on correct practices.

[designsrilanka]

Design has the power to be a language on its own

Last week when I travelled to Mullaitivu for a workshop conducted for schools of the area through AOD and the Embassy of Netherlands to SL and Maldives as the final outcome of a collaborative project we did (FUSE IT) in March- Methodist College Colombo were also part of our workshops in Mullaitivu. Here, many of us were faced with the barrier of language and for a moment it looked like all of us travelling from Colombo became pointless as we couldn’t communicate. But then, a design lecturer presented her visual lecture on the computer screen (basically a simple lecture made out of pictures), seeing this the confused faces lit-up and they understood what we were trying to tell them.  What a simple yet brilliant answer- and all because of the intelligent use of design for communication.

Today, I hope to discuss a simple yet, universally significant role of design; this is communication.

Good design is always good communication: Design at its core, is about communication of an idea through the shapes and details of a product (or the series of steps of a process). Let me explain with an example- If you step into a cleverly designed interior space, you won’t be puzzled as to where to go next – the reception will be the first thing you see, the stairs you need to go up will be within your sight or there will be good signage pointing you to it, its bath tub will have a handle placed conveniently near your hand when you need a grip to get up so you don’t think twice about doing it…basically, the whole building is having a conversation with you directing you to go places, take elevators, call an emergency line. Same goes for a well-designed package- it will tell you which side is up, where to tear open, how to recycle the package after use and so on. This is actually, the designer of this product having a conversation with you.

Isn’t it remarkable that you’re having a visual conversation with a person you’ve probably never met, and following their instructions so that you’re using a design exactly how it’s intended to be used? How does design communicate? While using a phone, if it makes a beep of a certain tone, we know we’ve requested for an unavailable option, when it makes the other tone we know it accepted our command. This is something that many of us take for granted, but it has been carefully designed by a clever designer through a long process of analysing the psychological responses of hundreds of humans to variously toned beeps before choosing two sounds that meant ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

Design is the creative process of simplifying questions, answers and instructions to simple elements like a picture, a sound, a vibration etc. testing it out on many people and then integrating it to a product or a process. This may sound simple enough and it could be sometimes, but also sometimes it could be as ground-breaking as condensing a large amount of important data into a small picture now we call a QR code, or signalling a child to not cross the road through a picture on a road sign; this is all design used in the role of communication.

The reason I’m discussing this is because it has a huge relevance to all of us living at the peak of information technology. The future we’re moving into is full of information, and design is starting to play a huge role by becoming the communication tool to communicate this vast amount of data with something as simple as a picture. You can see this movement in our youngsters who communicate less with words and more with emoticons, symbols and codes. If we, as a country and a community, don’t make use of our creative resources and design to move into a design-led future of easy communication, we will be sadly confined to ancient barriers like language, distance and direct human involvement.  It’s time to move forward with design-led communication.

[designsrilanka]

Design for a sustainable future

‘Sustainability’ is an imperative discussion in today’s world where environmental damage has reached unprecedented levels. I’ve started to notice how ‘Design’ can be the most effective solution provider for this inevitable crisis that we’re facing.

‘Sustainability’ may have somewhat different definitions according to each sector; but, in a general sense it means preserving and better managing resources, systems and processes  for more durability. What I hope to discuss today is how ‘design’ can be the answer to this massive, universally important problem we’re facing in trying to live more sustainably.

Californian design professor Nathan Shedroff, captured this well when he said: "Design is the problem as well as the solution". Why is that? I have explained often in this very same column, how designers are the best available problem-solvers and solution-providers for any industry. This is because they are trained to make observations, understand needs/issues and provide creative, aesthetically pleasing and out-of-the-box solutions. ‘Design’ is not a ‘beautification process’; it is the very process that determines the materials, the manufacturing method, the finish, and even the way the product finally deteriorates on to earth without harming it. Therefore, it is this process of design that can influence the products and services we use and ensure they’re sustainable.  The success of future designers will be determined by how much they can deliver such sustainable design solutions.

How do we make sure, ‘designers’ will provide the solutions that the world needs? This is where ‘design education’ comes in –which is the very reason why I’m tackling this discussion on this column. While designers are our best available resource to secure a sustainable world for ourselves and our children, it won’t just happen. It will only happen if and when we create a generation of designers with design education geared to sustainability. To understand this better, let’s take a quote from the godfather of sustainable design, Victor Papanek; "There are professions more harmful than design, but only a few". Papanek said this in 1972 at a time when design was part of a materialistic culture where designers produced more and more attractive products that could be easily replaced by even more attractive products. This generation of designers belonged to the age where the talk of sustainability was not as vital as today and therefore, had no education on sustainable design; it resulted in large amounts of unsustainable, unnecessary design. Therefore, it’s evident that although good designers are undoubtedly good problem-solvers, they will not be sustainably driven unless, they’re educated to do so.

How are designers taught to be sustainable? There are many ways. As a professional in the sector of design education, I have seen them achieve this through workshops, talks and special projects that set them the challenge of designing sustainably. But, what I see as most effective is, creating a genuine interest for sustainability by taking them to the source itself- this is to say study tours to rural areas where they will fall in love with nature and its beauty, opportunities to meet with traditional artisanal communities through whom they will get inspired to preserve these crafts for the future, collaborative projects with high-tech industries that manufacture sustainably and showing them the new possibilities for a better life though the correct use of technology.

This is the kind of education that I myself as a driver of local design education endorse, and it is what will secure a habitable home on this planet for us all and our children in the future.  So why not use the world’s most effective problem solver, ‘design’ to find solutions?

[designsrilanka]

The Crucial Role of Design in Nation branding

Nation branding , although widely discussed in financial media in SL, might still be a new term for many of our readers here. So, let’s start off by discussing what it means exactly. Nation branding is the collective act of developing and managing the international image of a country. This ‘brand’ or ‘image’ that is maintained in the international arena is extremely important as it can be successfully transferred to a country’s buying, selling and politics. The same way a person’s ‘reputation’ has a tremendous effect on his or her career and personal life, the national brand of a particular country has a remarkable influence on its exports, tourism, foreign investment attraction, political and economic influence abroad as well as its potency to attract a highly intelligent and skilled workforce from across the world.  

So how does design affect this immensely important sector? There are major contributing factors to successful nation branding identified by scholars such as Simon Anholt who are experts on the topic. Many of these factors can be directly improved through the design value addition. Let’s look at several factors and how design can add value to them.

Tourism; known as a direct contributor to nation branding, Tourism depends largely on design to enhance the experience of a visitor to Sri Lanka. From the point where they step on to the airplane the food presentation, the outfit worn by the air stewardesses to the souvenirs available, need to be looked at with a design eye in order to cleverly communicate Sri Lanka. For example, we have linked young designers who work with rural artisans to provide unique, Sri Lankan design solutions for the national airline’s inflight catalogue; their work is now part of an authentic collection of gift items that cleverly communicate the essence of SL and are immensely popular among the passengers. From there, the next crucial point of contact is the hotel and hospitality spaces; here, we have seen major hotel chains like Jetwing, Mount Lavinia, John Keells and many more, beginning to rely on Interior designers to design engaging spaces that portray the richness of SL and new designer brands like ‘Nithya’ to design uniforms for hotel employees while more design-led organizations have been commissioned to produce one-of-a-kind basketry, cutlery and crockery for them etc. Why? Because the idea is to weave a story of fantasy and island charm –the kind of story that a traveller would want to be part of; so, from interior design, to product development and uniforms, design has started playing a crucial role in successful storytelling for the tourism industry.

The next important factor where design contributes to nation branding comes in with the product sector –ie- Exports. Here, an important factor called the ‘country-of-origin effect’ comes into play. This simply means that consumers' attitudes, perceptions and purchasing decisions are influenced by products origins. I also believe that the quality of an imported product, in turn, influences a consumer’s attitude towards the country mentioned in the ‘made in…’ label. For example, our apparel industry is behind manufacturing some of the largest and best known fashion brands in the world. This has played a role in making the name ‘Made in Sri Lanka’ synonymous with high-street, designer, top end brands – a special advantage for SL in our journey towards becoming the South Asian ‘design hub’. Now, our industry is taking this a step further by establishing in-house design houses and starting to export design services too – so perhaps in the future, when we’re in a position to have the label ‘Designed & Made in Sri Lanka’, our national branding will expand to people seeing us not only as a responsible manufacturer for designer brands, but also as a true design hub. Design is not only important for apparel; other industries like contemporary craft, tea packaging, cinnamon packaging and jewellery will also benefit with the design value-addition and this will take us a long way in nation branding.

Lastly ‘Talent’ or the human resource we present to the world makes a huge impact on nation branding. Along with presenting political, scientific etc. leaders to the world from SL, we also need to present creative icons from SL. The groundwork we do in design education matters a lot for this. Recently, we sent a graphic design graduate to represent SL at a prestigious typographic conference in India and he received a standing ovation for his design project that aimed to create racial harmony. Last year, the first ever SL delegation was invited for the iconic London Fashion Week…so we’re seeing all the signs for many design superstars emerging from SL as our envoys for creativity to the world. This is unique contributor to nation branding, from design.

The reason why we’re discussing the weighty topic of nation branding in a design education column is because I firmly believe that the availability of design education and creative thinkers is one of the biggest advantages a country could have in developing and maintaining its national brand. And if we are to implement correct and effective methods of nation branding, it is of utter importance to create public awareness on what can contribute to it. This is how we as a nation can work together and prompt our governments to take the right actions that will benefit us all.

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AOD graphic design students monopolized wins at the poster competition on the Woman organized by the EU Delegation to Sri Lanka and the Swiss Embassy this month. The posters had to reflect the role of women in Sri Lanka today; their participation in public life, economic empowerment, women’s rights and gender based violence. 

Year 1 student Maanih’s quirky take on political power featuring Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world’s first woman prime minister was the winning entry. Year 2 students Aadhil and Mariyam also won consolation prizes for their entries. 

Tutors: Alain Parizeau, Pushpi Bagchi, & Chani Perera

[aod-mga-blog]

Inspired by the work of British artist, Tom Phillips, students redesigned the pages of a book. Using a range of hand crafted and digital techniques, the students extracted text and illustrated around the selection. Every page is completely unique.